Acceleration-driven-damper (ADD): An optimal control algorithm for comfort-oriented semiactive suspensions

The problem considered in this paper is the design and analysis of control strategies for semiactive suspensions in road vehicles. The most commonly used control framework is the well-known Sky-Hook (SH) damping. Two-state or linear approximation of the SH concept are typically implemented. The goal of this paper is to analyze the optimality of SH-based control algorithms, and to propose an innovative control strategy, named Acceleration-Driven-Damper (ADD) control. It is shown that ADD is optimal in the sense that it minimizes the vertical body acceleration (comfort objective) when no road-preview is available. This control strategy is extremely simple; it requires the same sensors of the SH algorithms, and a simple two-state controllable damper. In order to assess and to compare the closed-loop performance of the SH and ADD control strategies, both a theoretical and a numerical analysis of performance are proposed.