applied

sciences
Article
Nonlinear Control Design of a Half-Car Model Using
Feedback Linearization and an LQR Controller
Muhammad Aseer Khan 1 , Muhammad Abid 2 , Nisar Ahmed 3 , Abdul Wadood 1 and
Herie Park 4, *
1 Department of Electrical Engineering, Air University Islamabad Kamra Campus, Kamra 43570, Pakistan;
[email protected] (M.A.K.); [email protected] (A.W.)
2 Department of Electrical Engineering, PIEAS, Islamabad 45650, Pakistan; [email protected]
3 Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute of Engineering Sciences and Technology,
Topi 23640, Pakistan; [email protected]
4 Division of Electrical and Biomedical Engineering, Hanyang University, Seoul 04753, Korea
* Correspondence: [email protected]




Received: 4 March 2020; Accepted: 17 April 2020; Published: 28 April 2020


Abstract: Effective control of ride quality and handling performance are challenges for active
vehicle suspension systems, particularly for off-road applications. The nonlinearities tend to
degrade the performance of active suspension systems; these introduce harshness to the ride quality
and reduce off-road mobility. Typical control strategies rely on linear models of the suspension
dynamics. While these models are convenient, nominally accurate, and controllable due to
the abundance of linear control techniques, they neglect the nonlinearities present in real suspension
systems. The techniques already implemented and methods used to cope with problem of Half-Car
model were studied. Every method and technique had some drawbacks in terms of complexity,
cost-effectiveness, and ease of real time implementation. In this paper, an improved control method
for Half-Car model was proposed. First, input/output feedback linearization was performed to
convert the nonlinear system of Half-Car model into an equivalent linear system. This was followed
by a Linear Quadratic Regulator (LQR) controller. This controller had minimized the effects of road
disturbances by designing a gain matrix with optimal robustness properties. The proposed control
technique was applied in the presence of the deterministic road disturbance. The results were verified
using the Matlab/Simulink toolbox.

Keywords: feedback linearization; Half-Car model; Linear-Quadratic-Regulator; multiple input

multiple output; nonlinear system

1. Introduction
The suspension of a vehicle forms a very imperative system for an automobile, and one which
assists in providing sustenance to the engine, body of vehicle, passengers and on the other hand it
grips the tremors arising due to irregularity of the road surface. A suspension system is a combination
of springs, dampers, and linkages that is responsible for connection between a vehicle body and its
wheels. The springs and dampers that connect the axle to the chassis of the body play a significant role
in minimizing the shocks and custody the chassis exaggerated to a minimum level. There are basically
three types of vehicle suspension system, namely Passive suspension system (PSS), Semi-active
suspension system (SASS), and Active suspension system (ASS). PSS is comprised of a conventional
suspension that is springs and dampers, etc. In SASS, energy is only dissipated, it varies the firmness
of shock absorbers to add energy to a limited extent. ASS comprises of an actuator that is responsible
for adding energy to the system when desired. The primary purpose of a suspension system is to

Appl. Sci. 2020, 10, 3075; doi:10.3390/app10093075 www.mdpi.com/journal/applsci

Appl. Sci. 2020, 10, 3075 2 of 17

manage a stable compromise among quality of ride, road handling and suspension limits. On one hand,
to achieve good ride quality by reducing vertical acceleration, it is necessary to increase the suspension
travel but on the hand to achieve good road handling suspension travel should be kept in limits.
Therefore, the design of an ASS should be able to make a better compromise among the two trade-offs.
The main problem of this research is to minimize the effects of road disturbances by maintaining a
trade-off between good quality of ride, road handling and suspension limits of Half-Car model by
use of a cost-effective technique with less complexity. This research used a Feedback Linearization
technique and an LQR controller to solve the problem to a great extent. In the past, work has been done
to solve this challenging problem but the mystery has not been solved fully. While trade-off between
road handling or ride quality dominates in most of the methodologies, the rattle space trade-off can be
more ultimate but it has not been overtly solved, although it may be more important.
Mostly, tires in VASS were modelled as a linear conventional spring rebuking the tire dampness.
Ignoring dampness, motion associated with the wheel of sprung and unsprung masses is disconnected
and the vertical acceleration of the sprung mass prolongs modest which fallouts to the misleading
consequences [1,2]. The work presented in [3] described the link between the two models of
LQG-optimal one DOF two DOF. Ref. [4] reviewed the techniques of application of optimal control
to the active suspension, initializing from simple quarter-car models, 1-D followed by their half-car,
2-D and full-car, 3-D equivalents, while the primary focus is on Linear Quadratic (LQ) optimal control
technique and active suspension. Ref. [5] presented a new adaptive control design technique of
backstepping in VASS, which shows the application of road adaptive nonlinear control along with
ASS in to a Half Car Model (HCM) using road-adaptive patterns. The work is based on the non
linear filters which are quite involved from implementation perspective in real situation. Moreover,
unsprung masses are not constant relying on the value of disturbance. Vertical and pitch displacements
and accelerations are taken into the consideration although their importance is quite significant.
Ref. [6] presented a control strategy of an ASS with having preview information. Ref. [7] did modelling
and analysis of a half car model using a fuzzy logic controller. Ref. [8] further studied the possessions
of the unsprung mass on the ASS. The carpet plots, the plots of r.m.s values of sprung and unsprung
mass accelerations versus the suspension travel, were presented to give a clear comprehensive sight
of the influence of several parameters on the system concerts. The mathematical model for a half
car Vehicle Active Suspension System (VASS) was presented in [9]. Ref. [10] presented the analysis
of a half-car model; the effect of road disturbances is reduced only in these roll and pitch motions.
With the intention to ensure good force tracking, an inner PID-based hydraulic actuator forced feed
back controlled loop is assimilated. Ref. [11] presented the technique of finite element method
for the vibrational study analysis of a vehicle model with a light passenger for a half car model
by considering a 4-DOF half-car model of a rigid body namely sprung mass acceleration, sprung
mass pitch, front axle acceleration and rear axle acceleration. Road input profile was modelled
by using height sensors and attendant software. Analysis of the three controllers e.g., the passive
system, self-tunable fuzzy inference system controller and PID controller is presented in [12]. Ref. [13]
presented the half car model with the support of PID controller technique. The authors concluded that
all the existing work is based on a linearized model. Ref. [14] did a simulation of Half-Car model in
Matlab Simulink and analyzed behavior of the suspension system by using a step signal. Ref. [15]
presented a more detailed mathematical model of a suspension system for a half car model including
the dynamics of driver, state feedback and output feedback controllers were proposed for this model
and unwanted accelerations were minimized. Ref. [16] presented the vibrational analysis of a half car
model with 2-DOF. Previous research occasionally considered the road disturbance effect and its tied
effect on vehicle lateral response when concentrating on crosswise and vertical dynamics. An E-Class
(SUV) level car model in CARSIM was used as a standard, along with and without road profiles [17].
Ref. [18] carried out the study of linear passive suspension system of half-car passive suspensions
system using Newton’s 2 law of motion. This validated half car Simulink model is also used to analyse
RMS acceleration, i.e., Ride Comfort for different input road profiles. Ref. [19] studied the modelling,
Appl. Sci. 2020, 10, 3075 3 of 17

simulation and control of linear half-car suspension system for different control techniques using
Matlab programming. However, the point to be noted here is that they did not take in to account
the nonlinear effects, which play an important role in the modelling and hence, an accurate analysis
cannot be carried out. Ref. [20] gave an innovative adaptive control scheme for a half-car model with
an unknown dead-zone input. Ref. [21] accessed the adaptive sliding neural network control for a
quarter car model with forceful uncertainties along with road disturbances.
Ref. [22] addressed the problem of determining the optimal parameters of sky-hook damper in
controlling stationary response of a half-car model crossing a rough road by comparing the control
force using LQR with sky-hook damper suspension force. For a class of uncertain nonlinear systems,
the problem of global output feedback stabilization is investigated [23], in which the function of output
is time variant and continuous along with several time-delays in system stale. With zero dynamics
of high-order nonlinear systems, finite-time stabilization issue is considered [24] as the systems
deliberated are suffered from unmeasurable dynamic uncertainties as well as inherent ones. This
paper [25] addressed the issue of global finite-time adaptive stabilization for a class of high order
uncertain nonlinearized systems. A state feedback stabilizer along with an adaptive mechanism was
designed by application of continuous domination to adaptive mode of the systems to be deliberated.
Ref. [26] applied PID controller for ASS of a half vehicle model using MATLAB Simulink. Performance
response of ASS was simulated and compared with a passive one. Ref. [27] suggested a black-box
attuned simulation-based method for solving the nonlinear model predictive control problem by
using a parameterized approach to control only the vertical dynamics of a half-car model fortified
with semi-active (SA) suspension system. A test path data-based method to ripen a Laplace domain
condensed mandate suspension model of halfway complexity in between a full car and a quarter
car model was presented in [28]. According to the author, a half-car model could do a better job
as it is at a midway path. A prototype of vehicle was driven on sinusoidal roads but only vertical
accelerations of wheel axles and suspension body travels were measured. Pitch accelerations play a
vital role in handling between trade-offs. The previous approaches carried out have not incorporated
the nonlinearities in mathematical models and the trade-offs have not been addressed properly.
In this manuscript, first of all, input/output feedback linearization of a nonlinear half-car model
is achieved, after that the effect of road disturbances is minimized by designing an LQR controller that
provided a state feedback gain matrix K with optimal robustness properties. The proposed control
method is verified using the Matlab/Simulink Toolbox and the results of RMS values are compared
with those of previous techniques which shows superiority of the proposed approach. The paper is
organized as follows: Section 1 contains the introduction and literature review, Section 2 presents
the methodology. Section 3 discusses modelling and Section 4 propose the results and discussion.
Section 5 concludes this study.

2. Methodology
To design a controller for vehicle active suspension system, a mathematical model is required.
An extensive study was conducted to select a model for active suspension system. The quarter-car
model, half-car model and full-car model are widely studied in the literature. In this work, the
half-car model was selected which is fairly accurate and relatively easier to handle. Furthermore,
nonlinear dynamics were incorporated to capture realistic situation. Road bumps were modelled as
external disturbances. The states, state variables were extracted from state equation, the state equations
were nonlinear and road disturbances variables were clearly evident in those equations. Output
and Input equations were derived and then this whole model was implemented in the Simulink
toolbox. Feedback linearization for single input single output (SISO) systems is fairly standard and can
be found in the standard text. However, for multi input multi output (MIMO) systems, the procedure
is mathematically more involved. We followed the approach presented in (Isidori, A., 1995) for that
purpose. This procedure is carried out in such a way that a state feedback control law u and new
set of variables z were defined. The overall system is further split into f ( x ) and g( x ), u is further
Appl. Sci. 2020, 10, 3075 4 of 17

simplified in to E and S matrices which are derived after solving the Lie derivative matrices. The system
was then converted in to normal form ζ and η. These computational details of the procedure are
explained in the next section. Finally, the LQR controller was applied to the system to minimize
the effect of disturbances by designing a gain matrix K. According to the transformed system A, B, C
and D matrices were derived and road disturbances graph is designed and applied with controller
and without controller and minimized effects were clearly seen in the states of system. The values
were then compared with those presented in the past research papers and the results were proved to
be better. The flow chart diagram to carry out this research work is shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1. Flowchart of Research.

3. Modelling
In quarter car model, only the linear motion of the body is taken without considering the rotational
motion of wheel and body so, there are 4 states in this model.In half car model, rotational motion
is considered along with the linear motion of the body and has 8 states while in full car model all
the motions are considered so, it has 16 states in total. Better analysis of suspension system can be
carried out by use of half car models as they are a fair approximation of full car model as compared to
quarter car models. Half-car model presented in [8], is shown in Figure 2. It is presented as a Linear
4-Degree of Freedom(DOF) system. A single sprung mass (chassis) is connected to two unsprung
masses (both wheels) at each corner. Vertical and pitch motion is applicable for sprung mass while only
vertical motion w.r.t chassis is applicable for both the masses of wheels. The suspensions modelled
between chassis and both the wheels are conventional springs and dampers while tires are designed
as conventional springs without dampness.
Appl. Sci. 2020, 10, 3075 5 of 17

Figure 2. Half car model of ASS [8].

By applying the Newton’s law of motion and state of equilibrium, the following state equations
are derived.

x˙1 = x2 (1)
1
x˙2 = [−( B f + Br ) x2 + ( aB f − bBr ) x4 cosx3 − K f x5
ms
+ B f x6 − Kr x7 + Br x8 + ( f f + f r ) + Kt f zr f + Ktr zrr ] (2)
x˙3 = x4 (3)
1
x˙4 = [( aB f − bBr ) x2 cosx3 − ( a2 B f + b2 Br ) x4 cos2 x3
Jy
+ aK f x5 cosx3 − aB f x6 cosx3 − bKr x7 cosx3 + bBr x8 cosx3
+ ( a f f + b f r )cosx3 + Kt f zr f + Ktr zrr ] (4)
x˙5 = x2 − ax4 cosx3 − x6 (5)
1
x˙6 = [−Kt f x1 + B f x2 + aKt f sinx3 − aB f x4 cosx3
mu f
+ ( K f + K t f ) x5 − B f x6 + K t f zr f − f f ] (6)
x˙7 = x2 + bx4 cosx3 − x8 (7)
1
x˙8 = [−Ktr x1 + Br x2 − bKtr sinx3 − bBr x4 cosx3
mur
+ (Kr + Ktr ) x7 − Br x8 + Ktr zrr − f r ] (8)

the state variables of the system along with their description is shown in Table 1.

Table 1. State Variables and Description.

States State Variables Variable Names

x1 z Vertical Displacement
x2 ż Vertical Velocity
x3 θ Angular Displacement
x4 θ̇ Angular Velocity
x5 zs f − zu f Front Suspension Travel
x6 żu f Velocity of Front Unsprung Mass
x7 zsr − zur Rear Wheel Suspension Travel
x8 żur Velocity of Rear Unsprung Mass

It can be observed from the state equation that the system presented above has coupled state
equations which is hard to treat. Since the linear system holds the beauty of easy analysis, the complex
form can be converted into a simple linearized form. Then, the linear controller can be implemented to
Appl. Sci. 2020, 10, 3075 6 of 17

control it. the general model for this specified nonlinear system is shown in Figure 3. This system block
is a nonlinear system with state equations x (t) . It has force input u(t) that contain both f f and f r . Its
output is y(t). The road disturbances zr f and zrr effect the system states depending upon the peak
value which will lead to the serious problems of ride-discomfort and poor handling performance
of road. Therefore, this whole block needs to be linearized and controlled so that the effect off road
disturbances on all the states should be minimum.

Figure 3. Nonlinear System of Half Car ASS

3.1. Feedback Linearization

System can be converted to equivalent linear system by using Feedback Linearization.
This method uses appropriate control law and alteration of variables so that the new malformed
system is invertible. Considering the specific Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) system of
the following form [29]:
m
ẋ = f ( x ) + ∑ gi ( x )ui (9)
i

y1 = h1 ( x ) (10)
ym = hm ( x ) (11)

In which
f ( x ), g1 ( x ), ... ,gm ( x ) are smooth vector fields and
h1 ( x ), ... ,hm ( x ) are smooth functions, defined on an open set of Rn .
where
f : D → Rn and G : D → Rn× p are defined on a domain D ⊂ Rn which encloses the origin, and trick
the question if there survives a state feedback control or not [29].
State feedback control Law is:

u = α( x ) + β( x )v (12)
−1 −1
u = −E ( x )S + E ( x )v (13)

and change of new variables such that the diffeomorphism

z = T (x) (14)

that adapts the specific system into an equivalent linear system and derive the conditions which
permits us to transmute the system such that the map between input and output is linear. Here, it is
assumed that values of all the state variables and process disturbances are available at any instant of
time and besides it no any particular assumption is considered. Outputs of the system are

y1 = z = x1 (15)
y2 = θ = x3 (16)
Appl. Sci. 2020, 10, 3075 7 of 17

Simplify the system in a expedient equation form, where

 
0 0
 1 1 
 ms ms 
 0 0 
 
 − acosx bcosx3 

 3
 J Jy 
W= y
 0 0 

 −1 

 mu f 0  
 0 0 
 

0 −1
mur

 
0 0
 Kt f Ktr 
m ms 

 s
 0 0 
 
 Kt f Ktr 
 J Jy 

y
O=
 0
 0 

 Kt f 

 mu f 0 

 0 0 
 
Ktr
mur 0

while f ( x ) is the matrix of all other other terms except inputs and road disturbance terms. the overall
state equations representation in Matrix form will be as:
" # " #
ff z
ẋ = f ( x ) + W + O rf (17)
fr zrr

Matrices (E & S) in Equation (13) are as under:

" #
L g1 L f h1 ( x ) L g2 L f h1 ( x )
E=
L g1 L f h2 ( x ) L g2 L f h2 ( x )

" #
S
S= 1
S2

" #
L2f h1 ( x )
S=
L2f h2 ( x )

Therefore, after taking derivatives the following values are obtained:

1 1
" #
ms ms
E= − acosx3 bcosx3
Jy Jy
Appl. Sci. 2020, 10, 3075 8 of 17

Now the decomposition of S matrix are as under:

1
S1 = [−( B f + Br ) x2 + ( aB f − bBr ) x4 cosx3 − K f x5
ms
+ B f x6 − Kr x7 + Br x8 ] (18)

1
S2 = [( aB f − bBr ) x2 cosx3 − ( a2 B f + b2 Br ) x4 cos2 x3
Jy
+ aK f x5 cosx3 − aB f x6 cosx3 − bKr x7 cosx3 + bBr x8
cosx3 ] (19)

Similarly, taking inverse of E matrix will be as:

 
− Jy
− bm+s ba
− E −1 ( x ) =  (b+ a) cos( x3 ) 
− Jy
− bm+s aa (b+ a) cos( x3 )

" #
1 −ms b(S1 ) + ms b(v1 ) + Jy (S2 ) − Jy (v2 )
u=( ) J S J v
b + a −ms a(S1 ) + ms a(v1 ) − cosy( x2 ) − cosy( x2 )
3 3

where v1 and v2 are linear control inputs.

As the control law is now developed, so for doing feedback linearization the system is now
converted in to normal form i.e., zeta(ζ) and eta(η) form (Li, H. et al., 2011)

ζ̇ = Aζ + Bv + Z (20)

y = Cζ (21)

In normal form, after putting the values in Equation (19) the system can be represented in the state
space form as:
 
0 0
   
0 1 0 0 0 0 " #
 Kt f Ktr 
" #
0 0 0 0
1
 0 v1
 m
s ms zr f

ζ̇ =  ζ + + (22)

0 0 0 1 0 0 v2  0 0 
 zrr


Kt f Ktr
0 0 0 0 0 1 J Jy
y

" #
1 0 0 0
Y= ζ + 0· v (23)
0 0 1 0

Now after the state space form, the disturbances term appear in it because their effect will be
minimized by the controller which design the gain for the feedback linearization. Now the LQR
controller will minimize their effect.

3.2. LQR Controller

the purpose of designing LQR controller is to minimize the cost function

H −1
J= ∑ (xtT Qt xt + utT Rt ut ) + xTH PH x H (24)
t =0
Appl. Sci. 2020, 10, 3075 9 of 17

and design gain matrix K for the feedback system to work appropriately.

v = −Kζ (25)
ζ̇ = ( A − BK )ζ (26)

For computing K, A, B, C, D, Q and R matrices are prerequisite. As m is 2 so, A1 and A2 and in

the same manner b1 and b2 are required. C matrix is found by decomposition of z = φ( x ) vector in
column form D matrix is 0 as due to absence of either of the input terms ( f f and f r ) in both the outputs.
Q matrix is a positive-definite or positive-semi definite Hermitian or real-symmetric matrix while R
matrix is a positive definite Hermitian or real symmetric matrix. These both matrices Q and R are
chosen optimally to reduce the cost function J. Feedback control vector u will be derived as,

u(t) = −K · x (27)

State feedback gain matrix ‘K’ will be calculated from,

K = R −1 B T P (28)

Therefore, Q is a 4 × 4 matrix (size of A) and R is an identity matrix of 2 × 2 (size of C). v matrix

is computed by the expression v = −Kζ. ζ is a column matrix of x1 , x2 , x3 and x4 .

3.3. Simulink Modelling

In Simulink Road Disturbance is modelled by means of a Ramp block and a block of Matlab
Function. In the m−file of Matlab, code is written for the block. Transport Delay is inserted for giving
a delay in case of rear disturbances. In this paper, two cases are taken in to account: the first case will
analyze the positive disturbances only, while the second case will analyze both positive and negative
disturbances for practical purposes.

3.3.1. Case 1: Positive Road Disturbances

For convenience of analysis, positive road disturbances are considered in this case; therefore,
the most common type of road disturbances used for analysis is of the form:

Y = A cos(ωt + θ ) (29)

where range of time is taken from 0 to 30 s Front road disturbance is shown in Figure 4.

Figure 4. Front Road Disturbance.

the rear road disturbance graph shown in Figure 5 is designed by giving a typical delay (used for
analysis purposes) of 4.25 s to the graph of front road disturbance as first the disturbance is faced by
front tyres and then by the rear tyres.
Appl. Sci. 2020, 10, 3075 10 of 17

Figure 5. Rear Road Disturbance.

3.3.2. Case 2: Positive and Negative Road Disturbances

For practical purposes, both positive and negative road disturbances are taken into account as
shown in Figures 6 and 7 for both front and rear side respectively and then applied to the designed
system. The Matlab function remains the same for both the cases except a product of −1 in the
later case.

Figure 6. Front Road Disturbance PN.

Figure 7. Rear Road Disturbance PN.

In Simulink, for designing the control law, R, E, I and H Blocks are coupled to the multiplexer in
as per equations of control law u while K will be designed according to LQR Controller. Gain block is
connected to demultiplexer as there are two outputs which will be the inputs of the those respective
blocks of forced inputs u1 and u1. The forced inputs will then eventually linearize the system.
Finally, connecting all the blocks to a main block of Half-Car model as its inputs which actually
contains all state equations of the system. The outputs of the main block are the actual variables to
be controlled. The outputs of Road Disturbance sub-system and control law are now the inputs of
the main block. The Simulink block diagram is shown in Figure 8. For simulation, typical half car
model parameters are used.
Appl. Sci. 2020, 10, 3075 11 of 17

Figure 8. Simulink model.

4. Results and Discussions

When the whole system is coupled and simulated, the results for both the cases are shown in
Figures 9–14 for Case 1 and Figures 15–20.

With Controller
0.2 Without Controller
Vertical Displacement(m)

0.15

0.1

0.05

-0.05

-0.1

-0.15
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
Time(s)

Figure 9. Vertical Displacement.

0.15
With Controller
Without Controller
Pitch Displacement(rad)

0.1

0.05

-0.05

-0.1

-0.15
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
Time(s)

Figure 10. Pitch Displacement.

Appl. Sci. 2020, 10, 3075 12 of 17

20
With Controller

Vertical Acceleration(m/sec2)
Without Controller

10

-10

-20
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
Time(s)

Figure 11. Vertical Acceleration.

15
With Controller
Without Controller
Pitch Acceleration(rad/sec2)

10

-5

-10

-15
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
Time(s)

Figure 12. Pitch Acceleration.

Figure 13. Front Body Displacement.

Figure 14. Rear Body Displacement.

Appl. Sci. 2020, 10, 3075 13 of 17

Figure 15. Vertical Displacement PN.

Figure 16. Pitch Displacement.

Figure 17. Vertical Acceleration.

Figure 18. Pitch Acceleration.

Appl. Sci. 2020, 10, 3075 14 of 17

Figure 19. Front Body Displacement.

Figure 20. Rear Body Displacement.

4.1. Results of Case 1: Positive Road Disturbances

In the graph of vertical displacement shown in Figure 9, the peak of vertical displacement has
gone to 0.23 m but now, the peak has reduced to 0.08 m while on the other side the negative peak
without controller is −0.15 m has reduced to nearly −0.04 m by using controller.
In the graph of pitch displacement shown in Figure 10, the peak of pitch displacement has gone
to 0.125 m but now, the peak has reduced to 0.03 m while on the other side the negative peak without
controller is −0.1 m has reduced to nearly −0.052 m by using controller. After the bumps, by using
controller it came back to its steady state value 0 m while without using controller it took a time to
reach its steady state value.
As vertical displacement and pitch displacement are our system outputs so, these both are very
vital in this sense.
In the graph of vertical acceleration shown in Figure 11, the peak of vertical acceleration has gone
to 18 but now, the peak has reduced to 8, similarly there are several other peaks so its better to see RMS
value in this case which is given in Table 2.

Table 2. RMS values comparison with previous techniques.

States Values (m) Research Papers Reduction in Amplitude (%) Reduced rms Values (%)
Vertical Displacement 0.018 0.024 [10] 73.3 25 [10]
Vertical Acceleration 1.3 2.5 [10] 76 48 [10]
Pitch Displacement 0.014 0.0273 [10] 55.6 48 [10]
Pitch Acceleration 0.83 1.8 [10] 45.5 53.9 [10]
Front Suspension Travel 0.011 0.022 [8] 85.7 50 [8]
Rear Suspension Travel 0.012 0.020 [8] 80 40 [8]

In the graph of pitch acceleration shown in Figure 12, the peak of pitch acceleration has gone to
11 but now, the peak has reduced to 6, similarly there are several other peaks so its better to see RMS
value in this case which is given in Table 2.
Appl. Sci. 2020, 10, 3075 15 of 17

In the graph of front suspension travel shown in Figure 13, the peak of front suspension travel
has gone to −0.014 but now, the peak has reduced to −0.02 while on the other side it is not 0 in rear
suspension travel region but using controller it has reduced to almost 0 in that region.
In the graph of rear suspension travel shown in Figure 14, the peak of rear suspension travel has
gone to 0.15 but now, the peak has reduced to 0.03 while on the other side it is not 0 in front suspension
travel region but using this technique it has reduced to almost 0 in that region.

4.2. Results of Case 2: Positive and Negative Road Disturbances

In the graph of vertical displacement PN shown in Figure 15, the peak of vertical displacement
has gone to 0.26 m but now, the peak has reduced to 0.08 m while on the other side the negative peak
without controller is −0.13 m has reduced to nearly −0.02 m by using the controller.
In the graph of pitch displacement shown in Figure 16, the peak of pitch displacement has gone
to 0.125 m but now, the peak has reduced to 0 m while on the other side the negative peak without
controller is −0.14 m has reduced to nearly −0.07 m by using control law and the controller.
In the graph of vertical acceleration shown in Figure 17, the peak of vertical acceleration has gone
to 16 but now, the peak has reduced to 5, similarly there are several other peaks so its better to see RMS
value in this case which is given in Table 3.

Table 3. RMS values comparison with previous techniques.

States Without Controller (m) With Controller (m) Improvement (%)

Vertical Displacement 0.05 0.016 68
Vertical Acceleration 4.4 1.3 70.4
Pitch Displacement 0.03 0.01 66.7
Pitch Acceleration 2.3 0.69 70
Front Suspension Travel 0.022 0.013 41
Rear Suspension Travel 0.025 0.016 36

In the graph of pitch acceleration shown in Figure 18, the peak of pitch acceleration has gone to
8.5 but now, the peak has reduced to 3.
In the graph of front suspension travel shown in Figure 19, the peak of front suspension travel
has gone to 0.0125 but now, the peak has reduced to 0.03 while on the negative side it has reached to
−0.15 but now it has reduced to almost −0.03.
In the graph of rear suspension travel shown in Figure 20, the peak of rear suspension travel has
gone to 0.15 but now, the peak has reduced to 0.03 and same reduction level on the other side.
Effect of road disturbances is reduced up to great extent in all the states. The results obtained in
RMS values for Case 1 are compared with the previous techniques are given in Table 2. The values
obtained from figures of Case 2 are given in Table 3 in which the values of states are compared without
controller and with controller are given and the improvement is given in percentage. This technique
has demonstrated the results which proved it to be the most economical solution for stabilizing
and implementing this nonlinear system in the real world. This technique is cost effective as compared
to other techniques i.e., road adaptive algorithm, PID and many others. Comparative analysis with
the work [8,10] shows that states are much more stable in comparison to several previous techniques
and the RMS values of the given states are much more reduced than as obtained in the above stated
work.The simulation results exhibited that the half-car model considering road input conditions
presented in [17] was found to have a maximum accuracy of 65% while the design proposed in this
paper proves to have a maximum accuracy of 85% of which is significantly higher.

5. Conclusions
Effective road handling and better ride quality are two conflicting requirements in design
of a suspension system. In active suspension system, additional design freedom is provided by
Appl. Sci. 2020, 10, 3075 16 of 17

the active element (linear actuator) present therein. In this paper, the objective of minimizing the road
disturbances of a half-car model is achieved successfully using the Feedback Linearization technique
and LQR controller. A nonlinear transformation is defined which transforms the nonlinear model of
the active suspension system into normal form, which is then linearized using a nonlinear control
law. Linearizing the nonlinear system and then applying an LQR greatly reduced the complexity of
implementation in Simulink/Matlab as well as in real time. The technique proposed in this research
solved the problem a great extent by maintaining a trade-off between the good quality ride and road
handling performance by not letting the suspension travels to rise so much in presence of road
disturbances. Simulation results of case 1 and case 2 presented in this paper revealed that compared
with other techniques, Feedback linearization technique applied along with LQR controller has a better
response in reducing the amplitudes of states, overshoot and good dynamic performance.
In this work, it has been assumed that states of the system are measurable. As a future work,
an LQG controller may be designed to achieve better ride quality when all the states are not measurable.
Furthermore, driver dynamics can be added in the model of Half Car Active Suspension system to
make the system more accurate.

Author Contributions: M.A. proposed the concept, M.A.K. and M.A. did formal analysis and designed
methodology, M.A.K. performed mathematical model, M.A.K. performed simulations, M.A. and N.A. supervised
the research work. M.A.K. wrote the original draft of paper and M.A. supervised it. H.P. did funding acquisition.
A.W. provided resources and administered the manuscript submission process. A.W. and H.P. review and
supervised the manuscript for final submission. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of
the manuscript.
Acknowledgments: This research was supported by Basic Science Research Program through the National
Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Education (2017R1D1A3B03035693).
Conflicts of Interest: The authors declare no conflict of interest.

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