Influence of the road profile accuracy on disturbance compensation in active suspension systems

By applying disturbance feedforward control in active suspension systems, knowledge of the road profile can be used to increase ride comfort and safety. As the assumed road profile will never match the real one perfectly, we examine the performance of different disturbance compensators under various deteriorations of the assumed road profile using both synthetic and measured profiles and two quarter vehicle models of different complexity. While a generally valid statement on the maximum tolerable deterioration cannot be made, we identify particularly critical factors and derive recommendations for practical use.