LQR Control Scheme for Active Vehicle Suspension Systems Based on

Modal Decomposition
Xinjiang Wei, Junsheng Li, Xiaohua Liu
School of Mathematics and Information, Ludong University, Yantai, 264025
E-mail: weixinjiang@163.com

Abstract:
A new control scheme combining the classical LQR control with modal decomposition method is presented for an active
vehicle suspension system. Modal decomposition is proposed to optimize the weighted modal matrix, which gives each
modal decomposition components with different weights according to their different importance. The LQR control
scheme based on modal decomposition method is designed to improve anti-disturbance performance for the vehicle
suspension system. Finally, simulations for a two-degree-of-freedom quarter-car model with an active suspension are
given to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach compared with the passive suspension.

Key Words: LQR control; modal decomposition; robust control; active vehicle suspension system

1 INTRODUCTION intensively discussed in the context of robustness and dis-

turbance attenuation [19,20,21]. In [19], neural network
Vehicle suspensions have been a hot research topic for
based robust control system is designed to control vibra-
many years due to its important role in ride comfort, ve-
tion of vehicles suspensions for full suspension system. In
hicle safety, road damage minimization and the overall
bib20, it highlight the practical viability of a new and novel
vehicle performance. Many types of suspension system-
hybrid control technique applied to a vehicle active sus-
s have been presented ranging from passive suspensions
pension system of a quarter car model using skyhook and
[1,2], semi-active suspensions [3,4] to active suspension-
adaptive neuro active force control (SANAFC).
s [5,6]. The active suspension systems have been consid-
The linear quadratic regulator (LQR) has been used as
ered by Karnopp which have the capability of adapting to
one of the main control techniques for dealing with ac-
changing road conditions by the use of an actuator and a
tive suspension design [22,23]. In [22], a novel active sus-
great potential to meet the tight performance requirements
pension control configuration for high speed tilting railway
[7]. In recent years, more and more attention has been de-
vehicles which integrates tilt with active lateral secondary
voted to the development of active suspensions. And var-
suspension was presented. Compared with the commer-
ious approaches have been proposed to design a suitable
cial solutions for tilt control, the proposed integration strat-
control law for these active suspension systems [8-15]. In
egy can improve the tilting control performance both on
bib8, the theoretical and practical aspects of active vehi-
curved and straight track as illustrated by simulation test-
cles suspension design have been summarized respective-
s and control assessments based on given track profiles.
ly. Different optimal control techniques like linear quadrat-
In [23], a new optimal control method genetic algorithm
ic regulator (LQR)[10], linear quadratic gaussian (LQG)
linear quadratic regulators(GALQR) was presented. The
[11], fuzzy logic [12] and neural network methods [13]
method used GA to optimize the weight matrices of LQR
have been used in the area of active suspensions. In recent
and adopted divisional removing searching mechanism to
years, many control techniques of active suspensions have
insure getting the global optimal results. The method was
been combined. Wang propose an active suspension sys-
applied to design the control method of active suspension
tem with preview control and use Wiener filter technique
system. However, because the state feedback controller is
to find the optimal control law for half car vehicle model-
only determined by weight matrix, then different select-
s [14,15]. Zapateiro present an active suspension system
ing methods of weight matrix will receive different opti-
with neural network control and backstepping techniques
mal controller. The selection of the weighting matrix is
to find the optimal control law [16]. Wang propose an ac-
mainly based on the designer’s experience from repeated
tive suspension system with fuzzy logic and neural network
trial and error. Majority of current methods did not fully
control [17,18]. In particular, active suspensions have been
consider requirements in the frequency domain of the ve-
Correspondence to: Xinjiang Wei, Email: weixinjiang@163.com. hicle suspension. And high-frequency noise on the system
The work is supported by National Science Foundation of China can not be well controlled. In the past few years, many
61004063, 61174097; Shandong Provincial Natural Science Foundation,
China ZR2011FM016; The Project of Shandong Province Higher Educa-
scholars make lots of research on selection of weight ma-
tional Science and Technology Program J09LG27; Postdoctoral founda- trix [24-28]. Stuckman propose a global search method
tion of Jiangsu Province 0902011C. to define linear or nonlinear function which can describe

978-1-4673-5534-6/13/$31.00 2013
c IEEE 3296
a controlled system with ideal performance index. And the and
global search algorithm is used to determine the optimal ⎡ ⎤
0 0 0 1
weight matrix [25]. In [27], multi-objective genetic algo-
⎢ 0 0 1 −1 ⎥
rithm has been improved, in which NSGA-II algorithm is 𝐴=⎢ ⎣ 𝐾𝑠 𝐶𝑠 𝐶𝑠 ⎥
⎦;
0 −𝑚 − 𝑚𝑏 − 𝑚𝑏
used to design the weighting factors. In [28], optimization 𝐾𝑡 𝐾𝑠
𝑏
𝐶𝑠 𝐶𝑠
methods based on the degree of parameters satisfaction is − 𝑚𝑤 𝑚𝑤 𝑚𝑤 − 𝑚𝑤
⎡ 𝐾𝑠 𝐶𝑠 𝐶𝑠
⎤
proposed, which can reflect the relationship between per- 0−𝑚 𝑏
−𝑚 𝑏 𝑚𝑏
formance and energy. Moreover, the modal decomposition 𝐶 = ⎣0 1 0 0 ⎦
method is based on the coordinate transformation theory. 1 0 0 0
The original coupled differential equations can be became
𝐵 = [0 0 1/𝑚𝑏 −1/𝑚𝑤 ]𝑇 ;
into independent differential equations based on coordinate
[ ]𝑇 [ ]𝑇
transformation, which will simplify the calculation prob- 𝐸 = −1 0 0 0 ; 𝐷 = 𝑚1𝑏 0 0 (5)
lem of multi-degree of freedom system into series calcula-
tions of single degree of freedom system . By optimizing Where 𝜈(𝑡) is the road input 𝑥˙ 𝑔 , 𝑈 (𝑡) = 𝑈𝑎 (𝑡) is active
the weighting matrix, the vehicle suspension system can suspension force.
obtain linear quadratic optimal performance. 2.2 The LQR controller
Motivated by the above discussion, a LQR control
method based on modal decomposition is proposed for ac- As for system (3), define the quadratic performance
tive vehicle suspension system in this paper. In order to op- functional as follows
∫ ∞
timize the weighting matrix, modal decomposition method
gives each modal component of different weights based on 𝐽 = 1/2 ¨𝑏 (𝑡) + 𝑞2 (𝑥𝑏 (𝑡) − 𝑥𝑤 (𝑡))2
[𝑞1 𝑥 (6)
0
the importance. This method can not only give full consid- +𝑞3 (𝑥𝑤 (𝑡) − 𝑥𝑟 (𝑡))2 ]𝑑𝑡
eration to the requirements of the system in the frequency
domain, but also improve the anti-disturbance performance where 𝑞1 , 𝑞2 and 𝑞3 are body vertical acceleration, sus-
for the vehicle suspension system.. pension moving disturbance and tire deflection, respective-
2 Active suspension and LQR controller ly. Based on equation (1) and (3), the above quadratic per-
formance index can be further transformed to give
2.1 Active suspension system model
∫
1 ∞[ 𝑇
The dynamic equations are described by [30] 𝐽 = 𝑋 (𝑡)𝑄𝑋(𝑡) + 𝑈 𝑇 (𝑡)𝑅𝑈 (𝑡)
2 0
𝑚𝑏 𝑥
¨𝑏 (𝑡) = 𝑈𝑎 (𝑡) − 𝐾𝑠 (𝑥𝑏 (𝑡) − 𝑥𝑤 (𝑡)) ]
+𝑋 𝑇 (𝑡)𝑁 𝑈 (𝑡) + 𝑈 𝑇 (𝑡)𝑁 𝑋(𝑡) 𝑑𝑡 (7)
−𝐶𝑠 (𝑥˙ 𝑏 (𝑡) − 𝑥˙ 𝑤 (𝑡))
𝑚𝑤 𝑥
¨𝑤 (𝑡) = −𝑈𝑎 (𝑡) + 𝐾𝑠 (𝑥𝑏 (𝑡) − 𝑥𝑤 (𝑡)) where 𝑄 = 𝐶 𝑇 𝑄𝑝 𝐶, 𝑅 = 𝐷 𝑇 𝑄𝑝 𝐷,, 𝑁 = 𝐶 𝑇 𝑄𝑝 𝐷,
𝑄𝑝 = 𝑑𝑖𝑎𝑔 (𝑞1 , 𝑞2 , 𝑞3 )
−𝐾𝑡 (𝑥𝑤 (𝑡) − 𝑥𝑔 (𝑡)) + 𝐶𝑠 (𝑥˙ 𝑏 (𝑡) − 𝑥˙ 𝑤 (𝑡)) (1)
The optimal control is mathematically described as
where 𝑚𝑏 is the sprung mass, 𝑚𝑤 is unsprung mass, }
𝑈𝑎 is active suspension force, 𝐾𝑠 and 𝐶𝑠 are stiffness and 𝑈 (𝑡) (𝑡0 ≤ 𝑡 < ∞)
(8)
damping of the uncontrolled suspension, respectively. 𝐾𝑡 min 𝐽
is tire stiffness, 𝑥𝑔 is the road displacement input, 𝑥𝑏 (𝑡) and Then the optimal control problem described in equation
𝑥𝑤 (𝑡) are the displacements of the sprung and unsprung (8) converts into an unconditional functional extreme value
mass, respectively. problem , it is shown that
As can be seen from Fig. 1, the disturbance input of the }
system is the road displacement 𝑥𝑔 , which can be repre- 𝑈 (𝑡) (𝑡0 ≤ 𝑡 < ∞)
(9)
sented by [31] min 𝐿
√
𝑥˙ 𝑔 (𝑡) = −2𝜋𝑓0 𝑥𝑔 (𝑡) + 2𝜋 𝐺0 𝑣𝜈(𝑡) (2) Suppose that system (3) is controllable, then the struc-
ture of the optimal controller is formulated as
Where 𝐺0 represents the road roughness coefficient, 𝑓0
[ ]
is the reference spatial frequency, 𝑣 is the vehicle forward 𝑈 (𝑡) = −𝑅−1 𝐵 𝑇 𝑃 (𝑡) + 𝑁 𝑇 𝑋 (𝑡) (10)
velocity, 𝜈(𝑡) is zero-mean white noise with identity power
spectral density. Where matrix 𝑃 (𝑡) is the solution of the following mod-
Based on (1) and (2), then system (1) can be rewritten as ified Riccati matrix equation
˙
𝑋(𝑡) = 𝐴𝑋(𝑡) + 𝐵𝑈 (𝑡) + 𝐸𝜔(𝑡) 𝑃˙ (𝑡) + 𝑃 (𝑡) 𝐴 + 𝐴𝑇 𝑃 (𝑡) + 𝑄
[ ]
𝑌 (𝑡) = 𝐶𝑋(𝑡) + 𝐷𝑈 (𝑡) (3) − [𝑃 (𝑡) 𝐵 + 𝑁 ] 𝑅−1 𝐵 𝑇 𝑃 (𝑡) + 𝑁 𝑇 = 0 (11)
Where the state variables 𝑋 and system output 𝑌 are as And it is shown that when it happens that 𝑡 → ∞ , the
follows system state converge to the equilibrium point. The bound-
𝑇 ary condition can be further transformed to give
𝑋(𝑡) = [ 𝑥𝑤 (𝑡) − 𝑥𝑔 (𝑡) 𝑥𝑏 (𝑡) − 𝑥𝑤(𝑡) 𝑥˙ 𝑏 (𝑡) 𝑥˙ 𝑤 (𝑡) ] ;
𝑇
¨𝑏 (𝑡) 𝑥𝑏 (𝑡) − 𝑥𝑤 (𝑡) 𝑥𝑏 − 𝑥𝑔 (𝑡) ]
𝑌 (𝑡) = [ 𝑥 (4) 𝑃˙ (𝑡) ∣𝑡→∞ = 0 (12)

2013 25th Chinese Control and Decision Conference (CCDC) 3297

 [ ]𝑇
According to Rumge-Kutta method, equation (11) can Where 𝑋(𝑡) = 𝑥1 (𝑡) 𝑥2 (𝑡) ⋅ ⋅ ⋅ 𝑥𝑛 (𝑡) is geometric co-
be formulated as [ ]𝑇
ordinate, 𝑞 = 𝑞1 𝑞2[⋅ ⋅ ⋅ 𝑞𝑛 is generalized
] coordinates of
𝑃 𝐴 + 𝐴𝑇 𝑃 − (𝑃 𝐵 + 𝑁 )𝑅−1 (𝐵 𝑇 𝑃 + 𝑁 𝑇 ) + 𝑄 = 0 (13) the particle, 𝜑 = 𝜑1 𝜑2 ⋅ ⋅ ⋅ 𝜑𝑛 is the transition matrix
between the two coordinates which is called modal matrix.
And the optimal controller can be designed as Considering damping is small, free vibration frequency and
damping vibration frequency is very close. By solving the
𝑈 = −𝐾𝑋 (𝑡) (14)
( ) free vibration equation, free vibration frequency and modal
𝐾 = 𝑅−1 𝐵 𝑇 𝑃 + 𝑁 𝑇 (15) matrix are obtained, which can replace the actual vibration
Where, 𝐾 is optimal control gain. Substituting equa- frequency. Then free vibration equation of multi-degree of
tions (13), (14), (15) into (3), it can be verified that freedom system can be formulated as
{ [ ( )] ¨
𝑀 𝑋(𝑡) + 𝑇 𝑋(𝑡) = 0
𝑋˙ (𝑡) = 𝐴 − 𝐵𝑅−1 𝐵 𝑇 𝑃 + 𝑁 𝑇 𝑋 (𝑡) + 𝐷𝜔 (𝑡) (19)
𝑋 (𝑡0 ) = 𝑋0 Suppose that above equation has a solution, it is shown
(16) that
If the vehicle parameters and the weighting factors are giv- 𝑋(𝑡) = 𝜒 sin(𝜔𝑡 + 𝜙) (20)
en, the CARE function of MATLAB can be applied to solve
Riccati equation. Where 𝜒 is the vibration vector. Substituting equation
(20) into (19), we have
[𝑃, 𝐿, 𝐾] = 𝐶𝐴𝑅𝐸(𝐴, 𝐵, 𝑄, 𝑅, 𝑁 ) (17)
(𝑇 − 𝜔 2 𝑀 )𝑋(𝑡) = 0 (21)
Where, 𝑃 is the solution of algebraic Riccati equations, 𝐿
is closed-loop eigenvalues, matrix 𝐾 is the optimal control Because 𝜒 ∕= 0 , it can be obtained that
 
feedback gain. 𝑇 − 𝜔 2 𝑀  = 0 (22)
By solving the above Riccati equation(13), we can get
the matrix 𝑃 . If matrix 𝑃 is positive definite, the system Equation (23)is pre-multiplied 𝑀 −1 , further be trans-
(16) is stable. As can be seen from (6) - (17), the design formed to give
of optimal control depends on the selection of weighting (𝐿 − 𝜔 2 𝐼)Ξ = 0 (23)
coefficients. In the previous schemes, the weighting co- Where 𝐿 = 𝑀 −1 𝑇 . It’s obvious that equation (23)
efficients is often obtained from the designer’s experience is characteristic equation of matrix 𝐿, and 𝜔𝑖2 (𝑗 =
based on repeated trial and error. However, previous design 1, 2, ⋅ ⋅ ⋅ , 𝑛) is the eigenvalues of matrix 𝐿. By substitut-
has strong conservation, and it is difficult for system to ob- ing 𝜔𝑖2 back into equation (23), Ξ𝑖 which are correspond-
tain global optimal solution. To solve this problem, a new ing eigenvector of 𝜔𝑖2 can be obtained. They are also the
optimal controller based on modal decomposition method 𝑖𝑡ℎ modal. So the question of free vibration frequency and
for vehicle suspension systems is proposed in this paper, modal will be transformed into the question of the eigen-
which can reduce the impact of the high-frequency noise. values and corresponding eigenvector. furthermore, char-
3 LQR control based on modal decomposition acteristic matrix Ξ is modal matrix 𝜑.
method 3.2 The optimization of weighting matrix
3.1 Modal Decomposition Method For the vehicle suspension system, the relationship be-
The modal decomposition method can transform the o- tween the generalized coordinates of displacement and ve-
riginal coupled differential equations into independent d- locity response can be formulated as
ifferential equations based on the coordinate transforma-
tion theory, which will simplify dynamics calculation of the 𝑋(𝑡) = 𝜑𝐺(𝑡) (24)
multi-degree of freedom system into that of many single- Where matrix 𝜑 is the modal matrix of the system, 𝑋(𝑡)
degree of freedom systems [29]. Using coordinate geom- and 𝐺(𝑡) are the generalized coordinates of displacement
etry, equation of motion shown by displacement vector is and velocity response, respectively.
coupled. The basis transformation can be used to make the Define linear quadratic performance index of the system
equation into a non-coupled. Particle displacement in the as
system can be seen as weighted sum of various inherent ∫
1 ∞
modes. The actual particle displacement will be decom- 𝐽 (𝑡) = (𝑋 𝑇 (𝑡)𝑄𝑋(𝑡) + 𝑈 𝑇 (𝑡)𝑅𝑈 (𝑡))𝑑𝑡 (25)
posed in accordance with the mode. 2 0
When the modal is basis, the coefficients 𝑞1 , 𝑞2 , ⋅ ⋅ ⋅ , 𝑞𝑛 Substituting (24) into (25), we have
are the coordinates of displacement vector under this ba- ∫ ∞
sis, which is called generalized coordinates. Through the 𝐽 (𝑡) = 1/2 [(𝜑𝐺(𝑡))𝑇 𝑄(𝜑𝐺(𝑡))
basis transformation, the original coordinate 𝑦1 , 𝑦2 , ⋅ ⋅ ⋅ , 𝑦𝑛 0
under geometry basis is transformed into the generalized +𝑈 𝑇 (𝑡)𝑅𝑈 (𝑡)]𝑑𝑡
coordinate 𝑞1 , 𝑞2 , ⋅ ⋅ ⋅ , 𝑞𝑛 under modal basis. The general- ∫ ∞
𝑇
ized coordinate transformation can be expressed as follow = 1/2 [𝑍𝑤 (𝑡)(𝜑−1 )𝑇 𝑊 −1 𝜑𝑇 𝑄𝜑𝑊 −1 𝜑−1 𝑍𝑤
0
𝑋(𝑡) = 𝜑𝑞 (18) +𝑈 𝑇 𝑅𝑈 ]𝑑𝑡 (26)

3298 2013 25th Chinese Control and Decision Conference (CCDC)

 Where 𝑊 is diagonal modal weight matrix, 𝐺𝑤 (𝑡) = and 𝑋 (𝑡) , transformation matrix 𝑃 (𝑡) should be solved.
𝑊 𝐺(𝑡) is the state generalized coordinates with weight, Define
and 𝑍𝑤 (𝑡) = 𝜑𝐺𝑤 (𝑡). Defining 𝜆 (𝑡) = 𝑃 (𝑡) 𝑋 (𝑡) (36)
( )𝑇 Where 𝑃 (𝑡) is a real symmetric positive definite matrix.
𝑄𝑤 = 𝜑−1 𝑊 −1 𝜑𝑇 𝑄𝜑𝑊 −1 𝜑−1 (27) Substituting (36) into (32) yields
[ ]
Substituting equation (27) into equation (26), it is shown 𝑢 (𝑡) = −𝑅−1 𝐵 𝑇 𝑃 (𝑡) + 𝑁 𝑇 𝑋 (𝑡) (37)
that
∫ it can be verified that
1 ∞ 𝑇
𝐽 (𝑡) = (𝑍𝑤 (𝑡)𝑄𝑤 𝑍𝑤 (𝑡) + 𝑈 𝑇 (𝑡)𝑅𝑈 (𝑡))𝑑𝑡 (28)
2 0
[ ]
𝑃˙ (𝑡) = [𝑃 (𝑡) 𝐵 + 𝑁 ] 𝑅−1 𝐵 𝑇 𝑃 (𝑡) + 𝑁 𝑇
As can be seen from (28), different modal weights based
on different importance can be obtained by adjusting (27). − 𝑄 − 𝑃 (𝑡) 𝐴 − 𝐴𝑇 𝑃 (𝑡) (38)
Thus impact of the high-frequency noise on the control
Moreover, according to optimal control theory [33], as time
can be restrained.
tends to infinity, 𝑃 (𝑡) will tend to be constant in the condi-
tion of system being controlled, that is
Theorem 1 For the vehicle suspension system (3), by de-
signing the LQR controller (14), (15) based on modal de- 𝑃 (𝑡) ∣𝑡→∞ = 𝑃 (39)
composition method (27), the closed-loop system (16) is
𝑃˙ (𝑡) ∣𝑡→∞ = 0 (40)
robustly asymptotically stable under the condition 𝜔(𝑡) =
0, and and satisfies linear quadratic performance index Thus, when 𝑡 → ∞ , equation (39) become respectively
(28). ( )
Proof: the quadratic performance functional can be ex- 𝑢 (𝑡) = −𝑅−1 𝐵 𝑇 𝑃 + 𝑁 𝑇 𝑋 (𝑡) (41)
pressed as 𝑃 𝐴 + 𝐴𝑇 𝑃 − (𝑃 𝐵 + 𝑁 )𝑅−1 (𝐵 𝑇 𝑃 + 𝑁 𝑇 )
∫
1 ∞ +𝑄 = 0 (42)
𝐽 = (𝑋 𝑇 (𝑡)𝑄𝑋(𝑡) + 𝑢𝑇 (𝑡)𝑅𝑢(𝑡)
2 0
Thus, if the system (3) can be controlled, the optimal
+𝑋 𝑇 (𝑡)𝑁 𝑢(𝑡) + 𝑢𝑇 (𝑡)𝑁 𝑋(𝑡))𝑑𝑡 (29) controller exists, and
( )
Where, 𝑄 and 𝑅 are real symmetric positive definite ma- 𝑈 (𝑡) = −𝑅−1 𝐵 𝑇 𝑃 + 𝑁 𝑇 𝑋 (𝑡) (43)
trix. Suppose that 𝜔(𝑡) = 0 in equation (3), according to
the principle of minimum, Hamiltonian function is struc- Substituting (43) into (3), the closed-loop system can be
tured as expressed as
[ ( )]
1[ 𝑇 𝑇
]
𝑋˙ (𝑡) = 𝐴 − 𝐵𝑅−1 𝐵 𝑇 𝑃 + 𝑁 𝑇 𝑋 (𝑡)
𝐻 (𝑋, 𝑢, 𝜆, 𝑡) = 𝑋(𝑡) 𝑄𝑋 (𝑡) + 𝑢(𝑡) 𝑅𝑢 (𝑡)
2 + 𝐷𝜔 (𝑡) (44)
𝑇
+ 𝜆(𝑡) [𝐴𝑋 (𝑡) + 𝐵𝑢 (𝑡)] (30)
In order to testify that the closed-loop system (16) is ro-
By differentiating 𝐻(𝑡) with respect to 𝑢(𝑡), it is ob- bustly asymptotically stable under the condition 𝜔(𝑡) = 0,
tained that and and satisfies linear quadratic performance index (28).
Consider the following Lyapunov function
∂𝐻
= 𝑅𝑢 + 𝑁 𝑇 𝑋 + 𝐵 𝑇 𝜆 (𝑡) = 0 (31)
∂𝑢 𝑉 (𝑥) = 𝑋 𝑇 𝑃 𝑋 (45)
Considering 𝑅 is positive definite, it is shown that
Along with system (16) under the condition 𝜔(𝑡) = 0, it
[ ] can be verified that
𝑢 (𝑡) = −𝑅−1 𝐵 𝑇 𝜆 (𝑡) + 𝑁 𝑇 𝑋 (32)
𝑉˙ (𝑥) = 𝑋˙ 𝑇 𝑃 𝑋 + 𝑋 𝑇 𝑃 𝑋˙ (46)
Therefore, the relationship between 𝑋 and 𝜆 can be
solved as Substituting (43) into (46), then it is shown that
∂𝐻 [ ]
𝜆˙ (𝑡) = − = −𝐴𝑇 𝜆 (𝑡) − 𝑄𝑋 (𝑡) − 𝑁 𝑢 (33) 𝑉˙ (𝑥) = −𝑋 𝑇 𝑄 + 𝑃 𝐵𝑅−1 𝐵 𝑇 𝑃 𝑋 (47)
∂𝑋
∂𝐻 Because 𝑄 and 𝑅 are positive definite matrix, 𝑉˙ (𝑥) is
𝑋˙ (𝑡) = − = 𝐴𝑋 (𝑡) + 𝐵𝑢 (𝑡) (34)
∂𝜆 negative definite. Thus the closed-loop system (17) is ro-
Substituting (32) into equation (34), we have bustly asymptotically stable under the condition 𝜔(𝑡) = 0,
and and satisfies linear quadratic performance index (28).
[ ]
𝑋˙ (𝑡) = 𝐴𝑋 (𝑡) − 𝐵𝑅−1 𝐵 𝑇 𝜆 (𝑡) + 𝑁 𝑇 𝑋 (35) Remark 1: The new control scheme proposed in this paper
is LQR control based on modal decomposition method for
From equation (32) , we can see 𝑢 (𝑡) is a linear func- active vehicle suspension system, which can be abbreviated
tion of 𝜆 (𝑡). In order to get the relationship between 𝑢 (𝑡) as LQRCBMD.

2013 25th Chinese Control and Decision Conference (CCDC) 3299

4 Vehicle suspension system simulation

To show the efficiency of the proposed scheme, a two-

degree-of-freedom quarter-car model with an active sus-
pension can be described as equation (1)

𝑚𝑏 𝑥
¨𝑏 = 𝑈𝑎 − 𝐾𝑠 (𝑥𝑏 − 𝑥𝑤 ) − 𝐶𝑠 (𝑥˙ 𝑏 − 𝑥˙ 𝑤 )
𝑚𝑤 𝑥¨𝑤 = −𝑈𝑎 + 𝐾𝑠 (𝑥𝑏 − 𝑥𝑤 ) − 𝐾𝑡 (𝑥𝑤 − 𝑥𝑔 )
+𝐶𝑠 (𝑥˙ 𝑏 − 𝑥˙ 𝑤 ) (48)

Where 𝑥𝑏 (𝑡) and 𝑥𝑤 (𝑡) are the displacements of the sprung

and unsprung mass, respectively. 𝑈𝑎 is active suspension
force. 𝑥𝑔 is the road displacement input, which can be ex- Figure 1: the comparison of body vertical acceleration be-
pressed as follows base on equation (2). tween passive suspension and active suspension with LQR-
CBMD schemes
√
𝑥˙ 𝑔 (𝑡) = −2𝜋𝑓0 𝑥𝑔 (𝑡) + 2𝜋 𝐺0 𝑣𝜈(𝑡) (49)

1/4 body mass 𝑚𝑏 is 350kg, wheel mass𝑚𝑤 is 36kg,

suspension stiffness𝐶𝑠 is 21000N/m, tire stiffness 𝐾𝑠
is 200000N/m, suspension damping coefficient(𝐶𝑠 )is
1317 Ns/m, pavement roughness coefficient 𝐺0 is 5e-6
𝑚2 /𝑚−1 , vehicle speed 𝑣0 is 20m/s, reference spatial
frequency 𝑓0 is 0.1Hz, body vertical acceleration 𝑞1 is
1𝑚/𝑠2 .

According to theorem 3.1, based on (17),(28), it can be

solved that
⎡ ⎤
0.8774 0.7312 0.0029 −0.0002
⎢ 0.7312 1.5148 0.0115 −0.0033 ⎥ Figure 2: the comparison of suspension moving distur-
𝑃 = 𝑒 + 007 ∗ ⎣ ;
0.0029 0.0115 0.0013 0.0001 ⎦ bance between passive suspension and active suspension
−0.0002 −0.0033 0.0001 0.0001 with LQRCBMD schemes
𝐾 = [127440 931680 13170 − 6230] ; (50)

Figure 2 demonstrates the comparison of body vertical

acceleration between passive suspension and active suspen-
sion with LQRCBMD schemes proposed in this paper. Fig-
ure 3 shows the comparison of suspension moving distur-
bance between passive suspension and active suspension
with LQRCBMD schemes. Figure 4 illustrates the com-
parison of tire deflection between passive suspension and
active suspension with LQRCBMD schemes.
The effectiveness of the proposed LQRCBMD scheme
can be seen in Figure 2. The simulation results show that
the LQRCBMD scheme has a significant reduction in the
body vertical acceleration compared with the passive sus-
pension. That is to say, the ride comfort and stability of ve-
hicle suspension system have been further improved. The Figure 3: the comparison of tire deflection between pas-
simulation results shown in Figure 3 illustrate that the sus- sive suspension and active suspension with LQRCBMD
pension moving disturbance of the active suspension are schemes
lower than in the passive suspension. the LQRCBMD
scheme has further improved the smoothness of vehicle 5 Conclusions
suspension system. Figure 4 illustrates that the disturbance
rejection performance of tire is improved compared to the A quarter-car model with an active suspension is used
passive suspension. The satisfactory system responses can for suspension analysis and simulation in this paper. The
be achieved by the proposed LQRCBMD scheme. new control scheme combining the classical LQR control

3300 2013 25th Chinese Control and Decision Conference (CCDC)

with modal decomposition method, which can be abbre-
viated as LQRCBMD, is presented to improve the perfor-
mance of the vehicle suspension. Finally, simulations for
a two-degree-of-freedom quarter-car model with an active
suspension are given to demonstrate the correctness and ef-
fectiveness of the approach and compare the proposed re-
sults with the passive suspension.
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