Active and adaptive suspensions

Our team has developed the first suspension capable of independently adjusting stiffness and ride-height in a vehicle. This new system can adjust the stiffness of a suspension according to the road condition. It can also enhance ride comfort on off-roads and improve vehicle handling on roads. The new suspension is very effective especially in mining and construction trucks, military vehicles and vehicles with large load variations.

Air suspension system with stiffness and ride height tuning

Dynamic testing of the new suspension for class 8 trucks

The Mechatronic Vehicle Systems Lab is also heavily involved in the design and control of adaptive and active suspension systems. We have developed new controllers to adaptively tune dampers based on the road conditions. We have also developed coordinated suspension control for localized ride comfort applications. In this method, all suspensions are used to improve the ride comfort of a desired coordinate of a vehicle.

Active seat suspension testing 

Experimental results and comparisons