Active Damping of Oscillations in Off-Road Vehicles

This paper relates to analyse and control of the oscillations occuring in many off-road vehicles, which are designed without any suspension. Without suspension, the tire is the only elastic element acting between the vichle and the ground, but the suspension and damping properties of the tires cannot meet the demands for fast, safe and comfortable road transportation.

During transport, the lack of suspension causes the vechile to bounce and pitch, and makes it difficult to control.For this type of application the oscillations represent one of the main difficulties to be overcome in order to ensure safe driving, durability and driver´s comfort at higher speeds and velocities.

In the current paper the phenomenon mention above research results are presented and discussed with focus on agricultural tractors. For this purpose, a mathematical model was developend and transfered to a computer simulation model that describes dynamics of the tractor with mechanica栬inkkages, and the hitch actuator and an typical implemenet.

The developed model was used and is in use for both stability and damping analysis, and for evaluation of control strategies, incliding active damping of oscillations.