Study on a novel configuration switchable hydraulically interconnected suspension system under nonlinear model predictive control
Tong Chen, Minyi Zheng, Nong Zhang, Liang Luo, Pengfei Liu, Weimin Zhong
Abstract
This paper is a study on a novel configuration switchable hydraulically interconnected suspension (CSHIS) system based on nonlinear model predictive control (NMPC). The proposed CSHIS system has significant improvements in stability and performance than the existing CSHIS systems. The CSHIS system uses a direction valve for configuration switching, and improves the overall vehicle dynamic performances. The developed NMPC algorithm enhances system stability and the actuator control process by predicting system states, and consequently improves dynamic performances and power consumption of the vehicle. A nonlinear CSHIS model is firstly established and discretised to predict system states which are used in the NMPC algorithm. Next, the NMPC-based controller is designed to optimise the actuator control process via two weighting factors which are related to dynamic performance and power consumption, respectively. Finally, numerical simulation and experiments on test bench are conducted to validate the proposed CSHIS system. The simulation results show that the proposed CSHIS system simultaneously improves anti-pitch and anti-roll properties compared with a conventional suspension system by 39.5% and 17.81%, respectively. The experiment results illustrate that the CSHIS system remains stable during and after the configuration switching and optimises the actuator control process by the weighting factors.