An adaptive fuzzy sliding mode control of magneto-rheological seat suspension with human body model

This article presents the control performances of a vehicle seat suspension system equipped with magneto-rheological dampers using a new adaptive fuzzy sliding mode controller. A magneto-rheological damper is designed by applying the Bingham model incorporating with the field-dependent rheological properties of magneto-rheological fluid. On the other hand, a seat suspension model is established by integrating with a 4-degree-of-freedom human body model. Then, the governing equations are then derived considering the vertical motion of the seat. Subsequently, an adaptive fuzzy controller is formulated by considering the acceleration of the seat. This controller is combined with the sliding mode controller to ensure the robustness against model uncertainty and external disturbances. The controller is then evaluated through experiment. It is demonstrated that the proposed seat suspension system realized by the proposed adaptive fuzzy sliding mode controller can provide very effective ride comfort performances by reducing vertical acceleration under regular bump, random signal, and sinusoidal excitations.