Application of Udwadia–Kalaba approach to semi-active suspension control of a heavy-duty truck

Abstract

As an important component of the chassis system, the vehicle suspension plays a significant role in vehicle comfort, stability, and safety. In dynamic modeling of a semi-active suspension, traditional method is a complicated process, the actuator force is difficult to solve. In the process of model simplification, the influence of the vehicle-axle and balanced shift quality on the vehicle dynamics is not considered. For this reason, applying the Udwadia–Kalaba approach to dynamic modeling and control for a three-axle semi-active truck suspension can establish a simple and accurate equivalent discrete system. By fixing the displacement and acceleration of the body, the simulation is conducted with real excitations between the road and six wheels, and the actuator control forces of the semi-active suspension are obtained under the constraint by applying the Udwadia–Kalaba approach. The contrast in the analysis results from the Udwadia–Kalaba approach and the traditional Lagrange multiplier method indicate that the Udwadia–Kalaba equation can obtain the semi-active suspension actuator forces without introducing additional Lagrange multipliers and that the actuator forces acquired with the Udwadia–Kalaba approach are equal to those of the traditional Lagrange multiplier method.