Energy-Harvesting Shock Absorbers with Riding Comfort Controller on Vehicle Suspension Systems

摘要

Input current/force of Mechanical-Motion Rectifier (MMR) can be controlled through proposed controller. Better passenger experience can be provided with a high efficient energy-harvesting suspension system. The nonlinear characteristics from one-way clutches and inertia in MMR induce disengagement and large equivalent capacitor, which makes the input current/force of MMR uncontrollable with conventional feedback controller design. Controller been used in continuous, linear system cannot be applied in MMR system. This paper presents an input current/force tracking (ICFT) controller for MMR based suspension system. Additional control laws are added in the conventional controller to conquer the nonlinearity issue during MMR control. Input current/force of MMR is controlled to follow the reference signal from skyhook. The vehicle body displacement is test with speedbump on ground. Displacement error between skyhook and ICFT-MMR is within 5%. The total harvested energy is 56 joules, as 56 W of average input power. Equivalent circuits are proved to have identical performances as mechanical models.