This paper presents the control design and analysis of a non-linear model of a MacPherson suspension system equipped with a magnetorheological (MR) damper. The model suspension considered incorporates the kinematics of the suspension linkages. A state feedback controller is developed using an L 2-gain analysis based on the concept of energy dissipation. The controller is effectively a saturated PID. The performance of the closed-loop system is compared with a purely passive MacPherson suspension system and a semi-active damper, whose damping coefficient is tunned by a Skyhook-Acceleration Driven Damping (SH-ADD) method. Simulation results show that the developed controller outperforms the passive case at the rattle space, tire hop frequencies and the SH-ADD at tire hop frequency while showing a close performance to the SH-ADD at the rattle space frequency. Time domain simulation results confirm that the control strategy satisfies the dissipative constraint.

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