Abstract:
All over the world, the number of people killed in road traffic accidents each year is increas ing. And vehicle suspension system defect is one of the factors from a multiple factors that
contributed for the incidence of road traffic accidents. In addition to road traffic accidents,
suspension system defects cause discomfort for a passengers. Most of the vehicles in the
world are using a traditional passive suspension system, which is not to be able to simultane ously improve both ride comfort and road holding (related to safety) performances along road
disturbances. However, active suspension systems are rarely found; which offer somewhat
opportunities to overcome the gap of the trade-off between ride comfort and road holding per formances. Control strategy design is the core of an active suspension system, which makes
an interesting research area in automotive technology.
In this study, a dynamics model for half car model active suspension system was derived
using Newtons Second Law of motion. Then, a fuzzy logic controller was designed to control
an active suspension system for a passenger car. Finally, passenger ride comfort and road
holding performances were compared to simulations for a passive suspension system half car
model using MATLAB/Simulink toolbox. All simulations were performed using the same
speed breaker road profile with two different constant forward velocities of a car. The sim ulation results show that an active suspension system improved both ride comfort and road
holding performances in a passenger car
