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Modelling and Control of MacPherson Active

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Feedback under Chassis...

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Modelling and Control of MacPherson Active Suspension
System Using Composite Nonlinear Feedback under
Chassis Twisted Road Condition

M.Fahezal. Ismail1, Yahaya.Md. Sam2, S.Sudin2, K.Peng3, M. Khairi. Aripin4

1
Industrial Automation Section,
Universiti Kuala Lumpur Malaysia France Institute, Section 14 Jalan Teras Jernang,
43650 Bandar Baru Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia
fahezal@unikl.edu.my
2
Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia,
81310 UTM,Skudai, Johor Malaysia
yahaya@fke.utm.my, shahdan@fke.utm.my
3
Temasek Laboratories, National University of Singapore, 5A, Engineering Drive 1,
Singapore 117411, Singapore
kmpeng@nus.edu.sg
4
Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka, Hang Tuah Jaya,
76100 Durian Tunggal, Melaka, Malaysia
khairiaripin@utem.edu.my

Abstract. A ride quality test for active suspension system is real significant in
modern automotive suspension control performance validation for ride comfort
evaluation. The Composite Nonlinear Feedback (CNF) controller is proposed as
a control strategy to reduce the high overshoot on the transient response and fast
settling time. The mathematical modeling of a MacPherson quarter car suspen-
sion is utilized in this paper. A chassis twists road procedure in ride quality test
has been applied. The multi-body dynamics system software so-called CarSim
is used for validation. The strength of the proposed control scheme is shown by
numerical experiment results and numerical simulation results.

Keywords: ride quality test; composite nonlinear feedback; chassis twist road;
active suspension system; ride comfort; mathematical modeling

1 Introduction

A MacPherson active suspension system is the common suspension design in the

modern automotive suspension system. K.S.Hong et al has formulated the mathemati-
cal modeling for MacPherson active suspension system. The model is based on a
quarter car suspension model [11]. M.S. Fallah et al have proposed new modeling on
the MacPherson for ride control application [10]. H. Troubles et al discussed about
the effectiveness of an interval computational approach to the dynamic simulation of
a MacPherson active suspension system [7]. C.Sandu et al developed a multi-body
dynamics model of a quarter car test rig equipped with a McPherson strut suspension
and applied a system identification technique [8]. K.Chen et al modelled a two degree
of freedom of spatial mechanism for a MacPherson active suspension system. Accu-
rate numeric estimation results are achieved and a set of base dynamic parameters in
symbolic expressions is also inferred from the numeric results utilizing the concepts
of mass transfer and moments of inertia transfer.
A Composite Nonlinear Feedback (CNF) tracking control law based on a nominal
linear controller has been proposed by Z.Lin et al [1]. The design is based on nonline-
ar feedback laws that capable to increase the speed of the closed-loop system response
to the command input and reduce the overshoot simultaneouly. D.Y. Lin et al investi-
gated the Composite Nonlinear Feedback (CNF) control technique for linear singular
systems with input saturation. A linear feedback gain is designed to make the closed-
loop system stable and impulse free [2]. C. Guowei et al discussed on the modeling
and flight control system design for the yaw channel of an unmanned aerial-vehicle
(UAV) helicopter using CNF control technique. The authors claim that the CNF is
utilized to design an efficient control law and given excellent overall control perfor-
mance [3]. G.Y. Cheng et al developed Composite Nonlinear Feedback (CNF) control
method to track general target references for systems with input saturation. The simu-
lation and experimental results on an XY -table showed that the proposed technique
gives a very satisfactory performance [4]. G.Y. Cheng et al discussed on the Matlab
toolkit with a user friendly graphical interface for Composite Nonlinear Feedback
control system design. The CNF toolkit is used for general SISO systems with actua-
tor and other nonlinearities, external disturbances, and high-frequency resonance [5].
Another control algorithm or strategy has been designed for active suspension sys-
tem. Yahaya Md.Sam et al was proposed Proportional Integral Sliding Mode Control
in a linear half-car model active suspension system. Simulation results are executed to
test the strength and robustness of the mastery approach and performance [6]. M.F.
Ismail et al proposed Composite Nonlinear Feedback (CNF) for linear quarter car
model active suspension system. The control performance is compared Linear Quad-
ratic Regulator (LQR) and passive system. The simulation results indicated that the
CNF is the best controller compared to others [7]. M.S. Fallah et al proposed H-
Infiniti control to the semi-active MacPherson suspension system using new kinemat-
ics and dynamics model. The authors claim that a new dynamic model of the Mac-
pherson suspension system has been applied to design H-Infiniti robust control for
ride quality and stability condition enhancement using new states within the system
[13]. B. C. Chen et al is proposed Sliding Mode Controller for semi-active suspen-
sions to achieve ride comfort and handling performance simultaneously. The authors
claim that the proposed SMC can reduce the sprung mass acceleration without in-
creasing the tyre deflection and overcome the parameters' uncertainties [14]. D. A.
Crolla et al proposed Linear Quadratic Gaussian (LQG) for an active suspension. The
LQG controller, incorporating a weighting controller, state observer and parameter
estimator, was successful in adjusting to road input conditions and also to vehicle
parameters [15].
This paper presents a ride quality test of quarter car suspension system under a
chassis twist condition. The significant of this testing is to evaluate the control per-
formance in Matlab-Simulink, Matlab-CarSim and passive system.
 This paper is organized as follows: Section2: system modeling of a nonlinear quar-
ter car active suspension system, Section 3 the controller design, including linear
part and nonlinear part of the CNF based on a MacPherson active suspensions and
ride quality analysis for the vertical acceleration of car body (sprung mass), Section 4:
results and discussion based on the performance comparison between control strategy
applied to a nonlinear active suspension system, and conclusions will be drawn in
Section 5.

2 System modelling

The MacPherson suspension type is widely used in a current commercial car. A

nonlinear active suspension system of MacPherson strut can be determined based on
the motion equation. The free body diagram as a MacPherson strut model is shown in
Fig1.

( ) ( ) ( ) ( ( (
)) ( ) ) (1)
( )
( ) ( )(
( ( ))

( ( ) ( )) ) ( )[ ]
( ( ) )
(2)

where ( )
( )

fb

zs

A ms

Y
fa cp ks
a X
O

mu
C B q q0

kt

zr

Fig. 1. A free body diagram of a quarter car MacPherson strut model

The state variables are presented as [ ] [ ]

( )
{ (3)

( )

where is vertical displacement of sprung mass, is vertical velocity of sprung

mass, is angular displacement of control arm, and angular velocity of control arm.

The state equation of a nonlinear active suspension is

( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) (4)

where for system matrix, for active force, for road profile and for load
applied to the car chassis.

then,

[ ]

( )
( )

( )
[ ( )]

( )
( )

( )
[ ( )]

( )

( )
[ ( )]

and
 ( )
( )
and

( )

{[ ( )( ( ))
( ( ))

( ( )) ( ) ( ( ) ( )] [
( )

( )] ( ) ( )( )}
( ( ))

( )

( )

{[ ( ) ( )( ( ))
( ( ))

( ) ( ) ( )] [
( )

( )] ( ) ( ) ( )(

)}
( ( ))
( )
( )

2.1 Subsystem of a MacPherson quarter car model

The system of (4) can be divided hierarchically into two subsystems based on the
structural properties, Then, the system of (4) become:

(
) ( )
{ (5)
( )

and

(
) ( )
{ (6)
( )

where

( ) ( )
[ ] ( ) (7)

[ ], [ ], [ ]

[ ]

These two subsystems will be used to design the CNF controller.

3 Conventional Composite Nonlinear Feedback (CCNF)

controller design

The CCNF consists of linear control law and nonlinear control law. The state equa-
tion in (4) can be divided into two subsystems.

3.1 Linear control law part

The design of the linear control law in CCNF as follows to track the control varia-
ble .as follow:

( ) (8)

where
[ ]
( )
( )
with frequency of = 10 Hz and = 0.55 for quickly tracking. It can be checked
that ( ) is asymptotically stable.

( )
For equation (6), the linear control law is designed as follows:
 ( ) (9)

where the item of is ignored in the linear control law as the reference .
[ ]
with frequency of Hz, the natural frequency of (6), and to
reduce the disturbance with the small control signal. It can be checked that (
) is asymptotically stable.

3.2 Nonlinear control law part

For equation (5) the nonlinear part can be designed as follows:

( ) [( ) ] (10)

where
[ ] | |
( )
( )

is to be designed. in which is a solution of the Lyapunov

equation given by
( ) ( )

[ ( ) ]
( )
As is a non-step reference, is generated by a signal generator as follows

(11)

For equation (6) the nonlinear feedback part as follows:

( ) ( ) (12)

where as the reference .

| |
[ ]
is designed to remove the overshoot and in which is a solu-
tion of the Lyapunov equation given by
( ) ( ) [ ]
The complete CNF control law for equation (5) as follows,

( ) ( ) [( ) ] (13)
 and for equation (6) as follows,

( ( ) )( ) (14)

4 Simulation and Results

As remarked in the abstract, the ride quality test is based along the pattern of road
profile. The chassis twisted road had been taken for road profile. In Figure 2, the
chassis twisted road is used on the numerical experiment (Matlab-CarSim) and nu-
merical simulation (Matlab-Simulink).

Fig. 2. Chassis twisted road in 3D perspective.

Table 1 shows the parameters employed in the numerical experiment and mathe-
matical simulation.

Table 1. Physical parameters used by K.S.Hong et.al [12]

Parameter Value
Sprung mass, 455 kg
Unsprung mass, 71 kg
Stiffness of spring, 17,659 N/m
Stiffness of car tire, 183,888 N/m
Damper coefficient, 1950 Ns/m
Distance from point 0 to A 0.37 m
Distance from point 0 to B 0.64 m
Distance from point 0 to C 0.66 m
In Fig. 3(a), the transient response of displacement of sprung mass showed that the
CNF achieved the best response. There is a small different between Matlab-CarSim
and Matlab-Simulink. For angular displacement of the control arm, the CNF gave a
good transient response compared to the passive scheme. From Figure 3(a), we can
conclude that CNF controller gave the best control performance in ride quality test. In
Figure 3 (b), the velocity of sprung mass using the CNF controller in MatlabCarSim
and Matlab-Simulink gives fast response compared to the passive scheme. For angu-
lar velocity of control arm, it seemed that Matlab-Simulink is better than Matlab Car-
Sim. Nevertheless, the CNF response in Matlab-CarSim is better because the envi-
ronment is similar to the real sedan car application. In Figure 4 shown the results in an
acceleration of sprung mass and angular acceleration of the control arm. The results
again prove the CNF controller give the best transient response either in Matlab-
CarSim or Matlab-Simulink environment. Figure 5 shows the effect of animation on
the passive system in class D sedan car. Figure 6 shows the effect of animation on the
CNF controller.

(a) (b)
Fig. 3. (a) A displacement of sprung mass and angular displacment of control arm (b) A veloci-
ty of sprung mass and angular velcoity of control arm.

Table 2. Average value of control performance on the four state variable

Passive CNF:Matlab- CNF:Matlab-

system CarSim Simulink
Displacment of sprung 2.532 0.1809 0.0554
mass (m)
Velocity of sprung 31.18 0.7207 0.2827
mass (m/s)
Angular displacement 0.0996 0.02985 0.005719
of control arm (deg)
Angular velocity of 1.888 0.05109 0.6012
control arm (deg/s)
Fig. 4. Acceleration of sprung mass and angular acceleration of control arm

Fig. 5. Animation on Passive system.

Fig. 6. Animation on CNF.

5 Conclusion

Overall results on the numerical experiment (Matlab-CarSim) and the numerical

simulation (Matlab-Simulink) had shown that the CNF controller gave the effective-
ness in control performance as in Table 2, especially on the reduced of overshoot and
fast response under ride quality test. For future work, it recommends that CNF control
can be optimized on the nonlinear feedback control law under different case of ride
quality test.

6 Acknowledgement

Special thanks to Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) for the Research Universi-
ty Grant Vote 05H02, Ministry of Education (MOE) and Universiti Kuala Lumpur
(UniKL) for their support of this research works.

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