Abstract:

The dynamic behavior of a non-linear 8 degrees of freedom vehicle model having active suspensions and a PID controlled passenger seat is examined. The non-linearity occurs due to dry friction on the dampers. The suspensions are considered as McPherson strut-type independent suspensions. Three cases of control strategies are taken into account. In the first case, only the passenger seat is controlled. In the second case, only the vehicle body is controlled. In the third case, both the vehicle body and the passenger seat are controlled at the same time. Since the PID control method can be applied easily and is well known, it has an important place in control applications. The time responses of the non-linear vehicle model due to road disturbance and the frequency responses of the harmonically linearised non-linear vehicle model are obtained for each control strategy. At the end, the performances of these strategies are compared and discussed.

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