Development of Virtual Reference-Based Preview Semi-Active Suspension System

This paper presents a virtual reference-based preview semi-active suspension system using a Magneto-Rheological (MR) damper to improve ride comfort when traversing bumps. The algorithm is designed to track the virtual reference profile of the vehicle’s corner by introducing a Model Predictive Control (MPC) method while considering the passivity of the MR damper. The proposed MPC is formulated to rely solely on estimable variables from an Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) and vertical accelerometer. To support implementation on an Electronic Control Unit (ECU), the suspension state estimator employs a simple band-limited filtering structure. The proposed method is evaluated in simulation and achieves performance comparable to a controller that has accurate prior knowledge of the road profile. In addition, simulation results demonstrate that the proposed approach exhibits low sensitivity to sensor noise and bump perception uncertainty, making it well suited for real-world vehicle applications.