Robust H-infinity Controller in a MRF Engine Mount for Improving the Vehicle Ride Comfort

Abstract

In this paper, a robust controller is designed with the help of a Magnetorheological fluid (MRF) for a semi-active engine mount. To do so, an 8-DOF vehicle model is chosen in which the road roughness and engine vibration are the disturbance inputs to the system and the mass of the vehicle is taken into accounts as an uncertainty. In addition, the maximum magnitude and frequency of the force applied to the vehicle body by the actuators are limited in the ranges of 0~1500N and 0~10Hz, respectively. To validate such a design, the proposed controller is compared with a PID controller. The comparison results show that the proposed controller has a good performance while dealing with uncertainties such a way that using it leads to transmitting the engine vibration frequency less than 6%. It is also shown that the vibrations due to disturbances entering the system are effectively reduced in the system including the proposed controller.