Abstract
This paper is concerned with the design and evaluation of an active suspension controller which maximizes the ride comfort of a vehicle and improves the handling characteristics. For this purpose Model Predictive Control (MPC) is applied and it is assumed that the preview information of the oncoming road disturbance is available. The predictive control approach uses the output prediction and receding-horizon approach. It uses a predictor to forecast the output over a time horizon and determines the future control over the horizon by minimizing the performance index. The method developed is applied to a four degree of freedom half vehicle model and numerical simulation shows that the MPC controller achieves substantial improvement to the ride qualities and performances of a vehicle