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Due to the high level of competition in automotive industry, demand for safety and comfort is
increasing while development time and costs need to be reduced. This introduces real
challenge for Motor Companies and especially for PD engineers.
Safety in road vehicles is an important aspect and therefore many automobile industries are
interested in developing vehicle safety systems such as ABS, TCS, ESP etc... However,
performance is also an important actor next to safety issues.
In Ford Otosan Chassis Engineering Department, we have started a project to adopt a semi-
active suspension system to our light comercial vehicle.
This project is about the development of an active body control (TABC) system for the Ford
Transit Connect using semi active suspensions. The control objective is to improve the
ride comfort and road holding together with achieving roll and pitch stability using
four semi active suspension dampers.
All study was completed by Otosan PD engineers and ITU team. The aim of the project is
to build know-how about new technologies in Otosan PD department, improve
technical capabilities of PD engineers and build a prototype light commercial vehicle
with its unique controllers.
Semi - Active Suspension
There are sensors that give the necessary feedback about the vehicle’s
states and along with actuators and control units on the vehicle.
Vehicle Body
Skyhook
Groundhook Lower Level Control:
Hybrid Individual control of
each shock absorber.
Lower level
Upper Level Control:
Controller
Control of whole body
motions like pitch and
roll.
Upper Level
Controller
Hardware Infrastructure and Prototype Vehicle
Sensors
Sensors
Used for
validation of
accelerometers. Measure the
Measure the
Measure the general states of
vertical
relative vehicle such as
acceleration of
displacement. yaw rate, roll rate.
body and
wheels.
Actuators
Control Hardware
controller
hardware is used in
the semi active
suspension system.
Controller hardware
consists of;
1. Microautobox
2. RapidPro control
Unit
3. Rapid Pro Power
Unit
Implementation
Simulation & Tests
Validation of controller
algorithms and models.
Input from
test bench
Output from
accelerometers
Experimental Results
Examples
from Road
Tests
Project Outputs
Technical Papers:
"Stability Enhancement of a Light Commercial Vehicle Using Active Steering", SAE Paper,
March 2006.
"Compliant Control of Electric Power Assisted Steering Systems", SAE Paper, November
2005.
''Semi Active Suspension Control System Development For A Light Commercial Vehicle'‘
Mechatronics 2006 - 4th IFAC-Symposium on Mechatronic Systems Heidelberg,
Germany, September 2006
''Robust Velocity Scheduled Yaw Stability Control of a Light Commercial Vehicle'', IEEE
Intelligent Vehicle Symposium Tokyo, Japan, June, 2006
''Robust Yaw Stability Controller Design for a Light Commercial Vehicle Using a Hardware in
the Loop Steering Test Rig'‘, The 2007 IEEE Intelligent Vehicles Symposium
''Observer Based Semi-Active Suspension Control Applied to a Light Commercial Vehicle'‘,
2007 IEEE/ASME International Conference on Advanced Intelligent Mechatronics
''Steer-by-Wire Control of a Light Commercial Vehicle Using a Hardware-in-the-Loop Test
Setup'' SAE Paper 2007-01-4198, SAE 2007 Commercial Vehicle Engineering Congress &
Exhibition
''Transient Active Body Control of a Ford Transit Connect using Semi-active Suspensions'‘ SAE
Paper 2007-01-4268, SAE 2007 Commercial Vehicle Engineering Congress & Exhibition
''Nonlinear Suspension Spring and Damper Characteristic Optimization for Vehicle Ride and
Handling Improvement'‘, SAE 2008 Commercial Vehicle Engineering Congress &
Exhibition
Project Outputs
Other Publications:
''Ford Otosan: Active Chassis Control'‘ dSpace News
3 Msc. Thessis.
1 Phd. Thessis.
2 Patent applications.
Conclusion