International Journal of Automation and Computing 7(4), November 2010, 419-427

DOI: 10.1007/s11633-010-0523-7
Robust Active Suspension Design Subject to
Vehicle Inertial Parameter Variations
Hai-Ping Du
1
Nong Zhang
2
1
School of Electrical, Computer and Telecommunications Engineering, University of Wollongong, Wollongong NSW 2522, Australia
2
Mechatronics and Intelligent Systems, Faculty of Engineering, University of Technology, Broadway NSW 2007, Australia
Abstract: This paper presents an approach in designing a robust controller for vehicle suspensions considering changes in vehicle
inertial properties. A four-degree-of-freedom half-car model with active suspension is studied in this paper, and three main performance
requirements are considered. Among these requirements, the ride comfort performance is optimized by minimizing the H

norm of the
transfer function from the road disturbance to the sprung mass acceleration, while the road holding performance and the suspension
deection limitation are guaranteed by constraining the generalized H
2
(GH
2
) norms of the transfer functions from the road disturbance
to the dynamic tyre load and the suspension deection to be less than their hard limits, respectively. At the same time, the controller
saturation problem is considered by constraining its peak response output to be less than a given limit using the GH
2
norm as well.
By solving the nite number of linear matrix inequalities (LMIs) with the minimization optimization procedure, the controller gains,
which are dependent on the time-varying inertial parameters, can be obtained. Numerical simulations on both frequency and bump
responses show that the designed parameter-dependent controller can achieve better active suspension performance compared with the
passive suspension in spite of the variations of inertial parameters.
Keywords: Active suspension, half-car suspension model, parameter-dependent control, linear matrix inequalities (LMIs).
1 Introduction
The use of active suspensions has been considered for
many years and various approaches have been proposed to
improve the active suspension performance
[13]
. There are
many dierent performance requirements being considered
by automotive makers for an advanced vehicle suspension
system. These requirements include ride comfort, handling
or road holding capability, and suspension deection lim-
itation, etc. To meet these conicting demands, multiob-
jective functional control of vehicle suspensions
[49]
has at-
tracted much attention recently because it can reduce the
conservativeness of the approach that minimizes dierent
performance requirements with one single objective func-
tional. In the multiobjective active suspensions, the H
2
or H

norm of the transfer function from the road dis-

turbance to the sprung mass acceleration can be used to
specify the ride comfort performance, while the generalized
H
2
(GH
2
) norm can be used to constrain the suspension
deection and the H

norm can be used to specify the

road holding performance, etc. The combination of the op-
timization procedure can emerge as, for example, minimiz-
ing
1
H
2
+
2
GH
2
subject to H

< , where
1
and
2
are positive weighting coecients, > 0 is a performance
index
[5]
; minimizing H

or H
2
subject to hard constrains
(e.g., suspension deection, tyre deection, actuator satu-
ration, etc.)
[79]
; minimizing H
2
subject to H

<
[6]
, etc.
On the other hand, it has been widely documented that
changes in vehicle inertial properties can have a direct ef-
fect on vehicle comfort, handling, and braking performance.
Changes in inertial properties are most pronounced in ve-
hicles where ratio of passengers/cargo to the vehicle sprung
Manuscript received August 29, 2008; revised September 8, 2009
This work was supported by the Australian Research Council
(No. ARC LP0560077) and the University of Technology, Sydney,
Australia.
mass can have a large variation. Vehicles that fall into
this category are sport utility vehicles (SUVs), military
and commercial vehicles, and also small and light vehicles
where a load of four passengers represents a large percent-
age change. To achieve more stringent levels of safety, com-
fort and fuel eciency, the accurate estimates of the in-
ertial properties are necessary. Hence, both on-line and
o-line estimation methods have been developed to identify
the inertial parameters, e.g., vehicle mass, vehicle centre of
gravity, and vehicle pitch, roll, and yaw moments of iner-
tia about the vehicle centre of gravity, based on the mea-
surement available signals
[1013]
. In fact, with the develop-
ment of on-line estimation of the inertial parameters
[13]
, the
parameter-dependent control technique
[14]
can be applied
to realize robust control of the vehicle suspension despite
the changes of vehicle inertial parameters.
In this paper, the parameter-dependent control strategy
is applied to design a robust vehicle suspension consider-
ing vehicle inertial parameter variations. A four-degree-of-
freedom half-car model is used to study the performance
of a vehicle suspension system in terms of the heave and
pitch motions, the suspension deection, and the tyre de-
ection performance features. Three main performance re-
quirements (ride comfort, road holding capability, and sus-
pension deection limitation) and the changes in inertial
properties are considered by constructing an appropriate
parameter-dependent state feedback controller to provide
the trade-o between these requirements. Among the con-
icting requirements, the ride comfort performance is opti-
mized by minimizing the H

norm of the transfer function

from the road disturbance to the sprung mass accelerations
(both the heave and pitch), while the road holding perfor-
mance and the suspension deection limitation are guaran-
teed by constraining the generalized H
2
(GH
2
) norms of
the transfer functions from the road disturbance to the dy-
420 International Journal of Automation and Computing 7(4), November 2010
namic tyre load and the suspension deection to be less
than their hard limits, respectively. At the same time, the
actuator saturation problem is considered by constraining
the peak values of the output control forces to be less than
given limits. The feasible solution for such a controller is
obtained by solving the nite number of linear matrix in-
equalities (LMIs). Numerical simulations on both frequency
and bump responses show that the designed parameter-
dependent controller can achieve good active suspension
performance in spite of the variations of inertial parame-
ters.
The rest of this paper is organized as follows. Section 2
presents the problem formulation for the robust active
H

/GH
2
control for a half-car active suspension model.
The design approach for the parameter-dependent con-
troller based on the solvability of LMIs is presented in
Section 3. Section 4 presents the design result and per-
formance evaluation. Finally, we conclude our ndings in
Section 5.
Notation: R
n
denotes the n-dimensional Euclidean space
and R
nm
the set of all n m real matrices. For a real
symmetric matrix W, the notation of W > 0 (W < 0) is
used to denote its positive- (negative-) deniteness.
refers to either the Euclidean vector norm or the matrix
spectral norm. Also, I is used to denote the identity matrix
of appropriate dimensions. To simplify notation, is used
to represent a block matrix which is readily inferred by
symmetry.
2 Problem formulation for robust ac-
tive suspension control
This paper takes the general half-car suspension model,
which is shown in Fig. 1, as an example. The half-car sus-
pension model is represented by a linear four degree-of-
freedom (DOF) system. It consists of a single sprung mass
(car body) connected to two unsprung masses (front and
rear wheels) at each end. The sprung mass is free to heave
and pitch, while the unsprung masses are free to bounce
vertically with respect to the sprung mass. The passive
suspensions between the sprung mass and unsprung masses
are modeled as linear viscous dampers and spring elements,
while the tyres are modeled as simple springs without damp-
ing components. In parallel with the passive suspensions,
two hydraulic actuators are installed between the sprung
mass and unsprung masses to provide active forces. Re-
gardless of actuator dynamics, we consider active forces as
control inputs.
In Fig. 1, m
s
is the mass of the car body, m
uf
and m
ur
are the unsprung masses on the front and rear wheels, re-
spectively. I

is the pitch moment of inertia about the cen-

tre of mass, is pitch angle. z
c
is the displacement of the
centre of mass. z
sf
is the front body displacement and z
sr
is the rear body displacement. z
uf
and z
ur
are the front
and rear unsprung mass displacements, respectively. z
rf
and z
rr
are the front and rear terrain height displacements,
respectively. l
1
is the distance between the front axle and
the centre of mass, and l
2
is the distance between the rear
axle and the centre of mass. k
sf
, k
sr
, and c
sf
, c
sr
denote
the stiness and damping coecient of passive suspension
elements for the front and rear wheels. Similarly, k
tf
and
k
tr
denote the front and rear tyre stiness, and u
f
and u
r
represent the front and rear actuator force inputs.
Fig. 1 Four POF half-car suspension model
By applying Newton

s second law of motion and using

the static equilibrium position as the origin for both the
displacement of the centre of mass and the angular displace-
ment of the car body, the motion equations for the half-car
suspension model can be formulated (since these equations
can be derived straightforwardly, they are omitted here for
simplicity). By dening the state variables of the half-car
model as
x
1
(t) = z
sf
(t) z
uf
(t): Front suspension deection
x
2
(t) = z
sf
(t) : Front body vertical velocity
x
3
(t) = z
sr
(t) z
ur
(t): Rear suspension deection
x
4
(t) = z
sr
(t) : Rear body vertical velocity
x
5
(t) = z
uf
(t) z
rf
(t) : Front tyre deection
x
6
(t) = z
uf
(t) : Front wheel vertical velocity
x
7
(t) = z
ur
(t) z
rr
(t) : Rear tyre deection
x
8
(t) = z
ur
(t) : Rear wheel vertical velocity. (1)
and dening x(t) = [x
1
(t) x
2
(t) x
3
(t) x
4
(t) x
5
(t) x
6
(t)
x
7
(t) x
8
(t)]
T
the motion equations can be further expressed
as
x(t) = Ax(t) +B
1
w(t) +B
2
u(t) (2)
where
A =
_

_
0 1 0 0
k
sf
a
1
c
sf
a
1
k
sr
a
2
c
sr
a
2
0 0 0 1
k
sf
a
2
c
sf
a
2
k
sr
a
3
c
sr
a
3
0 0 0 0
k
sf
m
uf
c
sf
m
uf
0 0
0 0 0 0
0 0
k
sr
m
ur
c
sr
m
ur
H. P. Du and N. Zhang / Robust Active Suspension Design Subject to Vehicle Inertial Parameter Variations 421
0 1 0 0
0 c
sf
a
1
0 c
sr
a
2
0 0 0 1
0 c
sf
a
2
0 c
sr
a
3
0 1 0 0

k
tf
m
uf

c
sf
m
uf
0 0
0 0 0 1
0 0
k
tr
m
ur

c
sr
m
ur
_

_
B
1
=
_
0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0
0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0
_
T
B
2
=
_

_
0 a
1
0 a
2
0
1
m
uf
0 0
0 a
2
0 a
3
0 0 0
1
m
ur
_

_
T
u(t) =
_
u
f
(t)
u
r
(t)
_
, w(t) =
_
z
rf
(t)
z
rr
(t)
_
a
1
=
1
m
s
+
l
2
1
I

a
2
=
1
m
s

l
1
l
2
I

a
3
=
1
m
s
+
l
2
2
I

.
In this paper, the following performance aspects of a half-
car suspension system are taken into account:
1) Ride comfort
Ride comfort can be quantied by the body acceleration.
In this paper, both the heave and pitch accelerations are
chosen as the control output, i.e.,
z
1
(t) =
_
q
1
z
c
(t)
q
2
(t)
_
(3)
where q
1
and q
2
are weights, and normally, q
1
is chosen as
1 and q
2
= q
1

l
1
l
2
[1]
. z
c
(t) is derived from (2) as
z
c
(t) =
1
m
s
{k
sf
[z
sf
(t) z
uf
(t)]
c
sf
[ z
sf
(t) z
uf
(t)] k
sr
[z
sr
(t) z
ur
(t)]
c
sr
[ z
sr
(t) z
ur
(t)] +u
f
(t) +u
r
(t)} (4)
and (t) can be obtained from motion equations. In or-
der to design an active suspension to perform adequately
in a wide range of shock and vibration environments, the
H

norm is chosen as the performance measure since H

norm of a linear time-invariant (LTI) system is equal to the

energy-to-energy gain and its value actually gives an up-
per bound on the root-mean-square (RMS) gain. Hence,
our goal is to minimize the H

norm of the transfer func-

tion T
z
1
w
from the disturbance w(t) to the control output
z
1
(t) (optimal control), where the H

norm of the transfer

function T
z
1
w
is dened as
T
z
1
w

= sup
Re(s)>0
T
z
1
w
(s) (5)
to improve the ride comfort performance.
2) Suspension deection limitation
In order to avoid damaging vehicle components and gen-
erating more passenger discomfort, the active suspension
controllers must be capable of preventing the suspension
from hitting its travel limits. Therefore, we need to guar-
antee the suspension deection
|z
sf
(t) z
uf
(t)| z
f max
|z
sr
(t) z
ur
(t)| z
r max
(6)
where z
f max
and z
r max
are the maximum suspension de-
ection hard limits, under any road disturbance input and
vehicle running conditions. The suspension travel space
does not need to be minimal but its peak value need to be
constrained. Since the L

norm of a mathematical func-

tion in time-domain actually denes the peak value of the
function
[15, 16]
, i.e.,
z

sup
t
_
z
T
(t)z(t) (7)
we will optimize the L

norm of the suspension deection

output under the energy-bounded road disturbance input,
that is,
w
2

_

0
w
T
(t)w(t)dt < (8)
i.e., w L
2
[0, ) , to realize the hard requirement for the
suspension deection. This is the generalized H
2
(GH
2
) or
energy-to-peak optimization problem
[15]
.
3) Road holding ability
In order to ensure a rm uninterrupted contact of wheels
to road, the dynamic tyre load should not exceed the static
ones for both the front and rear tyres
[17]
, i.e.,
k
tf
(z
uf
(t) z
rf
(t)) < F
f
, k
tr
(z
ur
(t) z
rr
(t)) < F
r
(9)
where F
f
and F
r
are static tyre loads which can be calcu-
lated by
F
f
+F
r
= (m
s
+m
uf
+m
ur
)g
F
r
(l
1
+l
2
) = m
s
gl
1
+m
ur
g(l
1
+l
2
). (10)
This is also a peak value optimization problem which can
be dealt with by the same way used on the suspension de-
ection.
4) Actuator saturation eect
In terms of the limited power provided by the actuator,
the active force for the suspension system should be con-
ned to a certain range, i.e.,
|u
f
(t)| u
f max
, |u
r
(t)| u
r max
. (11)
This peak value optimization problem can be dealt with
by the same way as mentioned above.
Hence, we dene the hard constraints on the suspension
deections, tyre loads, and active forces as control output
z
2
(t) =
_

_
z
sf
(t) z
uf
(t)
z
f max
z
sr
(t) z
ur
(t)
z
r max
k
tf
(z
uf
(t) z
rf
(t))
F
f
k
tr
(z
uf
(t) z
rr
(t))
F
r
u
f
(t)
u
f max
u
r
(t)
u
r max
_

_
. (12)
422 International Journal of Automation and Computing 7(4), November 2010
In summary, the suspension system is described as
x(t) = Ax(t) +B
1
w(t) +B
2
u(t)
z
1
(t) = C
1
x(t) +D
12
u(t)
z
2
(t) = C
2
x(t) +D
22
u(t) (13)
where x(t), w(t), A, B
1
, and B
2
are dened as in (2); u(t)
is the control input; z
1
(t) and z
2
(t) are the control outputs;
and
C
1
=
_
q
1
0
0 q
2
_
_

k
sf
m
s

c
sf
m
s

k
sr
m
s

c
sr
m
s
l
1
k
sf
I

l
1
c
sf
I

l
2
k
sr
I

l
2
c
sr
I

0
c
sf
m
s
0
c
sr
m
s
0
l
1
c
sf
I

0
l
2
c
sr
I

_
D
12
=
_
q
1
0
0 q
2
_
_

_
1
m
s
1
m
s

l
1
I

l
2
I

_
C
2
=
_

_
1
z
f max
0 0 0 0 0 0 0
0 0
1
z
r max
0 0 0 0 0
0 0 0 0
k
tf
F
f
0 0 0
0 0 0 0 0 0
k
tr
F
r
0
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
_

_
D
22
=
_

_
0 0
0 0
0 0
0 0
1
u
f max
0
0
1
u
r max
_

_
.
In practice, the inertial properties of vehicles, such as
vehicle sprung mass and pitch moment inertia, are often
altered due to the load variations. When the time-varying
parameters are considered in the model (13), the vehicle
model becomes a parameter-varying model and this model
is expressed as
x(t) = A((t))x(t) +B
1
((t))w(t) +B
2
((t))u(t)
z
1
(t) = C
1
((t))x(t) +D
12
((t))u(t)
z
2
(t) = C
2
((t))x(t) +D
22
((t))u(t) (14)
where the matrices A((t)), B
1
((t)), B
2
((t)), C
1
((t)),
C
2
((t)), D
12
((t)), and D
22
((t)) are continuous func-
tions of (t) which is the time-varying parameter vector
and can be measured or estimated in real-time. Assume
matrices A((t)), B
1
((t)), B
2
((t)), C
1
((t)), C
2
((t)),
D
12
((t)), and D
22
((t)) are constrained to the polytope
P given by
P =
_

_
(A, B
1
, B
2
, C
1
, C
2
, D
12
, D
22
) ((t)) :
(A, B
1
, B
2
, C
1
, C
2
, D
12
, D
22
) ((t) =
N

i=1

i
(t) (A, B
1
, B
2
, C
1
, C
2
, D
12
, D
22
)
i
,
N

i=1

i
(t) = 1,
i
(t) 0, i = 1, , N.
_

_
(15)
where (t) does not necessarily represent the actual time-
varying parameter (t) of the dynamical system, but there
exists a linear relationship between (t) and (t) that can
be easily determined from the physical model whenever (t)
aects anely the linear system. It is clear that the knowl-
edge of the value of (t) denes a precisely known system
inside the polytope P described by the convex combination
of its N vertices. Throughout the paper, the vertices of the
polytope P are referred as A
i
, B
1i
, B
2i
, C
1i
, C
2i
, D
12i
, D
22i
,
i = 1, , N. Also, it is assumed that the parameter (t)
can vary arbitrarily fast, that is, there is no bound on (t).
This is truly suitable to the case when the passengers/cargo
get in or get o the vehicle.
In this paper, the aim of the robust active suspension de-
sign is to nd a parameter-dependent state feedback control
law
u(t) = K((t))x(t) =
N

i=1

i
(t)K
i
x(t)
N

i=1

i
(t) = 1,
i
(t) 0, i = 1, , N (16)
such that the closed-loop system given by
x(t) = A((t))x(t) +B
1
((t))w(t) +
B
2
((t))K((t))x(t)
z
1
(t) = C
1
((t))x(t) +D
12
((t))K((t))x(t)
z
2
(t) = C
2
((t))x(t) +D
22
((t))K((t))x(t)
(17)
has the following properties: 1) the closed-loop system is
quadratically stable; 2) performance T
z
1
w

<

is
minimized subject to z
2

<
2
w
2
for all nonzero
w L
2
[0, ) and the prescribed constant
2
> 0, where
T
z
1
w
denotes the closed-loop transfer function from the road
disturbance w(t) to the control output z
1
(t).
3 Parameter-dependent controller de-
sign
By referring to [18], the quadratic stability of closed-loop
system (17) with T
z
1
w

<

and z
2

<
2
w
2
is
equivalent to the existence of a symmetric matrix P > 0
such that
_

_
PA((t))
T
+A((t))P+
W((t))
T
B
2
((t))
T
+B
2
((t))W((t))
B
1
((t))
I

H. P. Du and N. Zhang / Robust Active Suspension Design Subject to Vehicle Inertial Parameter Variations 423
PC
1
((t))
T
+W((t))
T
D
12
((t))
T
0

I
_

_ < 0 (18)
and
_
P PC
2
((t))
T
+W((t))
T
D
22
((t))
T

2
2
I
_
> 0 (19)
are feasible, where W((t)) = K((t))P =

N
i=1

i
(t)W
i
,

N
i=1

i
(t) = 1,
i
(t) 0, i = 1, , N.
Since

N
i=1

i
(t) = 1, the entry PA((t))
T
+A((t))P +
W((t))
T
B
2
((t))
T
+ B
2
((t))W((t)) in (18) can be re-
written as
PA((t))
T
+A((t))P +
W((t))
T
B
2
((t))
T
+B
2
((t))W((t)) =
P
N

i=1

i
(t)A
T
i
+
N

i=1

i
(t)A
i
P +
_
N

i=1

i
(t)W
T
i
__
N

i=1

i
(t)B
T
2i
_
+
_
N

i=1

i
(t)B
2i
__
N

i=1

i
(t)W
i
_
=
N

i=1

2
i
(t)Q
i
+
N1

i=1
N

j=i+1

i
(t)
j
(t)Q
ij
where Q
i
= PA
T
i
+A
i
P +W
T
i
B
T
2i
+B
2i
W
i
, Q
ij
= P(A
i
+
A
j
)
T
+(A
i
+A
j
)P +W
T
i
B
T
2j
+B
2j
W
i
+W
T
j
B
T
2i
+B
2i
W
j
.
Similarly, the other entries in (18) can be re-written in the
same way, and thus, the left hand of inequality (18) can be
expressed as
_

_
PA((t))
T
+A((t))P+
W((t))
T
B
2
((t))
T
+
B
2
((t))W((t))
B
1
((t))
I

PC
1
((t))
T
+W((t))
T
D
12
((t))
T
0

I
_

_ =
N

i=1

2
i
(t)R
i
+
N1

i=1
N

j=i+1

i
(t)
j
(t)R
ij
(20)
where
R
i
=
_

_
PA
T
i
+A
i
P +W
T
i
B
T
2i
+B
2i
W
i

B
1i
PC
T
1i
+W
T
i
D
T
12i
I 0

2

I
_

_ (21)
and
R
ij
=
_

_
P(A
i
+A
j
)
T
+ (A
i
+A
j
)P+
W
T
j
B
T
2i
+B
2i
W
j
+W
T
i
B
T
2j
+B
2j
W
i

B
1i
+B
1j
P(C
1i
+C
1j
)+
W
T
i
D
T
12j
+W
T
j
D
T
12i
2I 0
2
2

I
_

_
. (22)
To ensure (18), it is equivalent to simultaneously guar-
anteeing R
i
< 0 for i = 1, , N, and R
ij
< 0 for
i = 1, , N 1, and j = i + 1, , N. Similarly, to guar-
antee (19), it is equivalent to ensuring
_
P PC
T
2
i
+W
T
i
D
T
22
i

2
2
I
_
> 0, i = 1, , N (23)
and
_
2P P(C
2
i
+C
2
j
)
T
+W
T
i
D
T
22j
+W
T
j
D
T
22
i
2
2
2
I
_
> 0
i = 1, , N 1, j = i + 1, , N. (24)
In summary, if there exist matrix P > 0, matrices W
i
,
i = 1, , N, and scalars

> 0,
2
> 0 such that LMIs
(21), (22), (23), and (24) are satised simultaneously, then
the parameter-dependent state feedback control gain K =

N
i=1

i
(t)K
i
, with K
i
= W
i
P
1
,

N
i=1

i
(t) = 1,
i
(t) 0,
i = 1, , N, results in the stable closed-loop system with
the performance T
z
1
w

<

and z
2

<
2
w
2
.
If the H

performance

is minimized, the optimal con-

troller can be found.
4 Design example
In this section, we will apply the proposed approach to
design the parameter-dependent state feedback controller
for the half-car suspension model described in Section 3.
The parameters of the half-car suspension model selected
for this study are listed in Table 1.
Table 1 System parameter values used in the half-car
suspension model
Parameters Values
m
s
575 kg
m
uf
60 kg
k
sf
16 812 N/m
k
tf
190 000 N/m
c
sf
1 000 Ns/m
l
1
1.38 m
I

769 kgm
2
m
ur
60 kg
k
sr
16 812 kN/m
k
tr
190 000 N/m
c
sr
1 000 Ns/m
l
2
1.36 m
424 International Journal of Automation and Computing 7(4), November 2010
The design constraints and the design constants for our
controllers are listed in Table 2.
Table 2 The values of design constants chosen in the
controller design procedure
Parameters Values
z
f max
0.08 m
z
r max
0.08 m
F
f
4014.5 N
F
r
3580.5 N
u
f max
1 500 N
u
r max
1 500 N
q
1
1
q
2
1

2
24
Here, we assume only the vehicle sprung mass m
s
and
the pitch moment of inertia I

are varied due to the vehicle

load variation and both m
s
and I

can uctuate around

their nominal values by 30 %. To express the parameter
variations in linear form, we dene the time-varying pa-
rameters as

1
(t) =
1
m
s
(t)
,
2
(t) =
1
I

(t)
(25)
and dene the four vertices of the polytope P as
[
1 min

2 min
] , [
1 max

2 min
] ,
[
1 min

2 max
] , [
1 max

2 max
] . (26)
Accordingly, the convex coordinates
i
(t), i = 1, 2, 3, 4, are
dened as

1
(t) = (t)(t)

2
(t) = (1 (t))(t)

3
(t) = (t)(1 (t))

4
(t) = (1 (t))(1 (t)) (27)
where (t)(
1 max

1
(t))/(
1 max

1 min
), (t) =
(
2
(t)
2 min
)/(
2 max

2 min
).
If the changes in more inertial properties are considered,
for example, the location of vehicle centre of gravity l
1
,
we could dene more time-varying parameters as
3
(t) =
l
1
(t)/I

(t),
4
(t) = l
2
1
(t)/I

(t). For brevity, these contents

are not further discussed in this paper.
With the above dened parameter-varying model, the
parameter-dependent controller gain can be obtained by
solving the LMIs (21), (22), (23), and (24) for matrices
P > 0 and W
i
, i = 1, 2, 3, 4, with the minimization proce-
dure for

. Then, the performance of the designed con-

troller is evaluated in the following sections.
4.1 Frequency response
When the sprung mass and pitch moment of inertia are
not varied, i.e., the nominal case, the frequency responses of
heave and pitch accelerations from the ground disturbance
for the designed active suspensions are shown in Fig. 2. As a
comparison, the frequency response for the passive suspen-
sion is plotted as well. The frequency responses of suspen-
sion deection and tyre deection of the front wheel from
the ground disturbance are also plotted in Fig. 2. For clar-
ity, the frequency responses of suspension deection and
tyre deection of the rear wheel from the ground distur-
bance, which are similar to the front wheel, are not plotted
in the gure. Generally speaking, a vehicle

s ride comfort is
always conicted with its road holding capability and sus-
pension deection. In the proposed approach, the trade-o
between dierent performances can be achieved by tuning
the value of parameter
2
. To show this clearly in the g-
ure, when the value of
2
is varied from 6 to 36, we plot
the frequency response of the active suspension in Fig. 2,
where
2
is used as 6, 12, 20, 28, and 36, respectively. Since
the human body is more sensitive to vibrations of 48 Hz in
the vertical direction and of 12 Hz in the horizontal direc-
tion according to ISO 2361, the ride comfort is frequency
sensitive. It can be seen from this gure that when
2
is in-
creased, the better ride comfort is obtained, where a signif-
icant improvement on ride comfort in the frequency range
between 1 Hz and 8 Hz is achieved, while the suspension
deections and the tyre deections around the wheel hop
frequency are worsened. Hence, we can choose an appropri-
ate
2
to manage the conicting requirements. According
to the analysis from Fig. 2, we choose
2
= 24 in our design
process as given in Table 2.
(a) Heave acceleration
(b) Pitch acceleration
H. P. Du and N. Zhang / Robust Active Suspension Design Subject to Vehicle Inertial Parameter Variations 425
(c) Suspension deection (front)
(d) Tyre deection (front)
Fig. 2 Frequency responses of suspensions with nominal inertial
parameters for dierent
2
, where dot line is used for passive
suspension, and solid line is used for active suspension
When the sprung mass and pitch moment of inertia are
altered, we plot the frequency responses of heave and pitch
accelerations, suspension deection, and tyre deection of
the front wheel, from the ground disturbance in Fig. 3. For
clarity, only the nominal case and two other vertex cases,
where Case 1 corresponds to increasing both sprung mass
and pitch moment of inertia by 30 % of their nominal values,
and Case 2 corresponds to decreasing both sprung mass and
pitch moment of inertia by 30 % of their nominal values, are
plotted in the gure. It can be seen from this gure that
no matter the variations of inertial properties, the active
suspension always shows better frequency responses than
the passive suspension.
4.2 Bump response
Consider the case of an isolated bump in an otherwise
smooth road surface, the corresponding ground displace-
ment for the front wheel is given by
[7]
z
rf
(t) =
_

_
a
2
(1 cos(
2v
0
l
t)), if 0 t
l
v
0
0, if t >
l
v
0
(28)
where a and l are the height and the length of the bump.
We choose a = 0.1 m, l = 5 m and the vehicle forward ve-
locity as v
0
= 45 km/h. In this paper, the road condition
for the rear wheel z
rr
(t) is assumed to be the same with the
front wheel but with a time delay of (l
1
+l
2
)/v
0
. The cor-
responding ground velocities for the front and rear wheels
are plotted in Fig. 4.
The bump responses of the passive suspension and the
active suspension are compared in Fig. 5, where bump re-
sponses of the heave acceleration, pitch acceleration, sus-
pension deections, tyre loads, and active forces are plotted
(a) Heave acceleration
(b) Pitch acceleration
(c) Suspension deection (front)
426 International Journal of Automation and Computing 7(4), November 2010
(d) Tyre deection (front)
Fig. 3 Frequency responses for suspensions with varied inertial
parameters, where dot line is used for passive suspension, and
solid line is used for active suspension
Fig. 4 Ground velocity
Fig. 5 Bump responses for suspensions with nominal inertial pa-
rameters and varied inertial parameters: passive suspension (dot
line); active suspension (solid line); bounds (ne dot line)
for the nominal and the above mentioned two vertex cases.
It can be seen from Fig. 5 that the lower bump response
quantities of the heave and pitch accelerations for active
suspension compared with the passive suspension system
are obtained. Compared with the passive suspension, the
suspension deections (front and rear) and the dynamic tyre
loads (front and rear) of active suspension are all guaranteed
to be less than their hard limits in spite of the large bump
energy. On the contrary, the passive suspension bump re-
sponses violate these limits. Similarly, the active forces are
within the saturation limits as well for active suspension. It
is conrmed that the designed robust active suspension can
realize the good suspension performance when driving over
a pronounced bump road in spite of the inertial parameter
variations.
5 Conclusions
This paper presents a parameter-dependent controller de-
sign approach for vehicle suspension with the consideration
of changes in vehicle inertial parameters. The control ob-
jective is expressed as minimizing the ride comfort perfor-
mance (H

norm) subject to the tyre load (GH

2
norm), the
suspension deection (GH
2
norm), and the actuator force
(GH
2
norm) being constrained to given limitations in spite
of the variations of inertial parameters. The designed sus-
pension is applied to a half-car suspension model with large
changes in sprung mass and pitch moment of inertia. Nu-
merical simulation validates that the vehicle suspension per-
formance is improved with the designed controller in spite
of the inertial parameter variations.
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Hai-Ping Du received the Ph. D. de-
gree in mechanical design and theory from
Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai,
PRC in 2002. He was awarded the excellent
Ph. D. Thesis Prize by Shanghai Provincial
Government in 2004. He is currently a lec-
turer in the School of Electrical, Computer
and Telecommunications Engineering, Fac-
ulty of Informatics, University of Wollon-
gong, Australia. Previously, he worked as a
research fellow in the Faculty of Engineering, University of Tech-
nology, Sydney from 2006 to 2008, as a post-doctoral research
associate in the University of Hong Kong and Imperial College
London from 2002 to 2003 and 2004 to 2005, respectively.
His research interests include robust control theory and engi-
neering applications, soft computing, dynamic system modelling,
model and controller reduction, and smart materials and struc-
tures.
E-mail: hdu@uow.edu.au (Corresponding author)
Nong Zhang received the Ph. D. degree
in 1989 from the University of Tokyo,
Japan. In the same year, as a research as-
sistant professor, he joined the Faculty of
Engineering of the University. In 1992, as
a research fellow, he joined the Engineer-
ing Faculty of the University of Melbourne,
Australia. In 1995, he joined the Faculty
of Engineering of the University of Tech-
nology, Sydney, Australia. He is a member
of ASME and a fellow of the Society of Automotive Engineers,
Australasia.
His research interests include experimental modal analysis,
rotor dynamics, vehicle powertrain dynamics, and recently hy-
draulically interconnected suspension and vehicle dynamics.
E-mail: nong.zhang@uts.edu.au