Realization of Adaptive Shock Absorbers by Estimating Physical Process Coefficients of a Vehicle Suspension System

Shock absorbers with adjustable damping coefficients used in present vehicle suspension systems are only feedforward controlled The effective damping is not measured and many changes in vehicle conditions can not taken into consideration automatically. Two methods are presented which use real-time parameter estimation and feedback to build up a parameter adaptive shock absorber system. The dynamics of the vehicle´s vertical motion can be modelled theoretically. Unknown parameters of the nonlinear model like damping coefficient, stiffness, load and friction are estimated on-line in real-time. Simulations and experiments on a quarter-car test stand show the results obtained until now.