A Shaker Rig-Based Testing of Perceived Ride Comfort for Various Configurations of Active Suspensions

Benefits of introducing active suspension in autonomous vehicles in terms of improving the driver's work/leisure ability can be tested under laboratory conditions using a high-performance shaker rig. In this paper, five different suspension configurations, including passive, semi-active, and fully active suspensions (FAS) and related optimal controls with or without road preview information, are implemented in vehicle dynamics simulator. They are experimentally examined having the driver in the loop to obtain objective and subjective measures of ride comfort and ability to do certain tasks. In total, 44 drivers of various age, gender, and driving experience performed three different tasks while being driven on shaker-rig (reading and writing, drawing, and subjective grading). The examination results show that FAS with road preview control offers highest ride comfort improvement, which can be perceived by the driver and greatly improves his/her ability to text and particularly draw.