Switched control strategy based on Preview-based MPC for active suspension of heavy-duty vehicle to improve ride comfort and roll stability

Abstract This paper proposes a switched control strategy for heavy-duty vehicles, aiming to improve ride comfort and roll safety in unstructured road conditions. The realization of the comprehensive control target depends on the active suspension system: on the one hand, it can suppress the vibration caused by road excitation; on the other hand, it can dynamically adjust the output vertical force of the actuator to achieve the purpose of anti-roll. Focusing on the important influence of complex road conditions with road curvature and inclination on stability of heavy-duty vehicles, a vertical-lateral coupling nine-degree-of-freedom model is established. Then, a preview-based Model Predictive Control switching controller is designed to make full use of road information, which allows the controller to be solved in advance, thereby improving the real-time performance. In addition, variable weight coefficients are used to realize the switched control of ride comfort and roll safety based on the preview road information. Finally, the simulation results givened by Matlab/Simulink show that over the one without control, the proposed controller improves the ride comfort by about 53.2% and the roll safety by about 45.2%.