A Versatile Semiactive Electrically Interconnected Suspension With Heave-Roll Vibration Decoupling Control

This article develops a versatile electrically interconnected suspension (EIS) system with variable inertance and variable damping (VIVD) in the heave direction and variable stiffness (VS) in the roll direction for vehicles to improve ride comfort. The conventional hydraulically interconnected suspensions have been utilized to improve ride comfort and prevent rollover, whereas such a hydraulic system results in more design complexity, maintenance, and cost. The EIS can achieve the suspension interconnection electrically and offer more design flexibility, energy efficiency, and faster system response. The proposed EIS comprises two electromagnetic dampers (EMDs), which are interconnected by an electrical network with controllable resistors, capacitors, and inductors, enabling the suspension to generate VIVD and VS characteristics in heave and roll, respectively. The system only requires energy for controlling electronic switches, which is low and efficient. Then, a decoupling semiactive control strategy based on ${\mathbf{H}}_\infty $ controller is proposed to mitigate the heave and roll vibration. Moreover, a half-car test rig is developed to evaluate the vibration control performance of the proposed EIS system by conducting a series of comprehensive tests. As a result, the EIS has a significant improvement in performance than a passive suspension. The versatile EIS has reduced the resonance by 13.0% compared to nonversatile EIS. The proposed versatile EIS system has great potential in practical application.