Preview control of random response of a half-car vehicle model traversing rough road

The semi-active control of response of a four degree-of-freedom (dof) half-car model traversing at constant velocity a random road with look ahead preview is considered. The suspension spring is assumed to be hysteretic nonlinear and modelled by the Bouc-Wen model. The statistical linearization technique is used to derive an equivalent linear model. The response of the vehicle is optimized with respect to suspension stroke, road holding and control force. The rms values of the suspension stroke, road holding and control forces are computed using the spectral decomposition method. The results for the equivalent linear model obtained by the spectral decomposition method are verified using Monte Carlo simulation. It is shown that the preview control results in a better vehicle performance. © 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.