Enhancing energy recovery in automotive suspension systems by utilizing time-delay

This study introduces time-delay active control technology to with the aim of enhancing the system's energy harvesting potential and ride smoothness. The time-delay active suspension represents a nonlinear, multivariable system, and stability analysis in this context is intricate. The mainly challenge lies in effectively leveraging time delay to augment the system's energy collection potential while harmonizing the vehicle's ride comfort and energy efficiency. Addressing this issue, our study proposes enhancing the suspension's energy recovery capability through time-delay control. Initially, the impact of time-delay control parameters on energy collection ability under various operational conditions was analyzed, establishing that appropriate time-delay parameters can enhance energy harvesting capacity. Subsequently, to balance the relationship between vehicle comfort and energy efficiency, the research introduces a method for constructing an optimized objective function based on linear equivalent excitation, thereby quantifying the relationship between system time-domain vibrational response, time-delay control parameters, and external excitations. This approach enables the comprehensive optimization of the suspension system's comfort, safety, and energy efficiency. The control system's stability was analyzed using cluster treatment of characteristic roots method. Finally, simulations and experiments were conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of time-delay active across different scenarios, confirming the efficacy of the proposed control methodology.