Development of a Novel Seat Suspension Based on the Cubic Stewart Parallel Mechanism and Magnetorheological Fluid Damper

Abstract

To alleviate the impact and vibrations to a driver in multiple directions during the driving of non-road vehicles, the authors of this paper proposed a multi-degree-of-freedom (MDOF) seat damping suspension that was based on the cubic Stewart mechanism and magnetorheological fluid (MRF) damper. A kinematics analysis of the cubic Stewart mechanism was carried out. The relative motion velocity of each leg of the Stewart mechanism was calculated from the center velocity of the upper and lower platforms, according to a reverse kinematics equation. Furthermore, forward and inverse dynamic models of the MRF damper were established, which laid the foundation for semi-active control of the seat suspension. Finally, a semi-active control method for multidimensional damping based on the optimized fuzzy skyhook control method was proposed. The research results showed that using this method could simultaneously improve the vibration damping performance of a seat suspension in the vertical, horizontal, and roll directions.