Experimental H∞ control to improve an industrial off-line tracking control scheme on an automotive suspension test rig

This paper discusses the improvement of the tracking accuracy on an automotive suspension test rig by extending the available industrial off-line controller with a H_∞ feedback controller. To reach a prescribed accuracy level in a bandwidth between 0 and 20 Hz, the off-line controller needs 7 iterations on a 2-axial durability suspension test rig to determine the correct control inputs. The extended scheme employs H_∞ control techniques to achieve the same result in only 3 iterations. This approach takes forward the process of durability testing to a point where the required accuracy can be achieved in significantly less time.