Haiping Du

A state-of-the-art review on magnetorheological elastomer devices

During the last few decades, magnetorheological (MR) elastomers have attracted a significant amount of attention for their enormous potential in engineering applications. Because they are a solid counterpart to MR fluids, MR elastomers exhibit a unique field-dependent material property when exposed to a magnetic field, and they overcome major issues faced in magnetorheological fluids, e.g. the deposition of iron particles, sealing problems and environmental contamination. Such advantages offer great potential for designing intelligent devices to be used in various engineering fields, especially in fields that involve vibration reduction and isolation. This paper presents a state of the art review on the recent progress of MR elastomer technology, with special emphasis on the research and development of MR elastomer devices and their applications. To keep the integrity of the knowledge, this review includes a brief introduction of MR elastomer materials and follows with a discussion of critical issues involved in designing magnetorheological elastomer devices, i.e. operation modes, coil placements and principle fundamentals. A comprehensive review has been presented on the research and development of MR elastomer devices, including vibration absorbers, vibration isolators, base isolators, sensing devices, and so on. A summary of the research on the modeling mechanical behavior for both the material and the devices is presented. Finally, the challenges and the potential facing magnetorheological elastomer technology are discussed, and suggestions have been made based on the authors’ knowledge and experience.

Fuzzy Control for Nonlinear Uncertain Electrohydraulic Active Suspensions With Input Constraint

This paper presents a Takagi-Sugeno (T-S) model-based fuzzy control design approach for electrohydraulic active vehicle suspensions considering nonlinear dynamics of the actuator, sprung mass variation, and constraints on the control input. The T-S fuzzy model is first applied to represent the nonlinear uncertain electrohydraulic suspension. Then, a fuzzy state feedback controller is designed for the obtained T-S fuzzy model with optimized H infin performance for ride comfort by using the parallel-distributed compensation (PDC) scheme. The sufficient conditions for the existence of such a controller are derived in terms of linear matrix inequalities (LMIs). Numerical simulations on a full-car suspension model are performed to validate the effectiveness of the proposed approach. The obtained results show that the designed controller can achieve good suspension performance despite the existence of nonlinear actuator dynamics, sprung mass variation, and control input constraints.

Event-Triggered Fault Detection of Nonlinear Networked Systems

This paper investigates the problem of fault detection for nonlinear discrete-time networked systems under an event-triggered scheme. A polynomial fuzzy fault detection filter is designed to generate a residual signal and detect faults in the system. A novel polynomial event-triggered scheme is proposed to determine the transmission of the signal. A fault detection filter is designed to guarantee that the residual system is asymptotically stable and satisfies the desired performance. Polynomial approximated membership functions obtained by Taylor series are employed for filtering analysis. Furthermore, sufficient conditions are represented in terms of sum of squares (SOSs) and can be solved by SOS tools in MATLAB environment. A numerical example is provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed results.

Adaptive Sliding Mode Control for Interval Type-2 Fuzzy Systems

This paper is concerned with the adaptive sliding mode control problem of uncertain nonlinear systems. Interval type-2 Takagi-Sugeno (T-S) fuzzy model is employed to represent uncertain nonlinear systems. The input matrices of the nonlinear systems are allowed to be different for the sliding mode controller design. The uncertain parameters are described by the lower and upper membership functions. An integral sliding mode surface is designed for analysis of sliding motion. Based on the sliding mode surface, a novel sliding mode controller is designed to guarantee that the closed-loop system is uniformly ultimately bounded. Some simulation results are given to illustrate the effectiveness of the presented control scheme.

Application of evolving Takagi-Sugeno fuzzy model to nonlinear system identification

In this paper, a new encoding scheme is presented for learning the Takagi-Sugeno (T-S) fuzzy model from data by genetic algorithms (GAs). In the proposed encoding scheme, the rule structure (selection of rules and number of rules), the input structure (selection of inputs and number of inputs), and the antecedent membership function (MF) parameters of the T-S fuzzy model are all represented in one chromosome and evolved together such that the optimisation of rule structure, input structure, and MF parameters can be achieved simultaneously. The performance of the developed evolving T-S fuzzy model is first validated by studying the benchmark Box-Jenkins nonlinear system identification problem and nonlinear plant modelling problem, and comparing the obtained results with other existing results. Then, it is applied to approximate the forward and inverse dynamic behaviours of a magneto-rheological (MR) damper of which identification problem is significantly difficult due to its inherently hysteretic and highly nonlinear dynamics. It is shown by the validation applications that the developed evolving T-S fuzzy model can identify the nonlinear system satisfactorily with acceptable number of rules and appropriate inputs.

Adaptive Fuzzy Control for Nonstrict-Feedback Systems With Input Saturation and Output Constraint

This paper presents an adaptive fuzzy control approach for a category of uncertain nonstrict-feedback systems with input saturation and output constraint. A variable separation approach is introduced to overcome the difficulty arising from the nonstrict-feedback structure. The problem of input saturation is solved by introducing an auxiliary design system, and output constraint is handled by utilizing a barrier Lyapunov function. Combing fuzzy logic system with the adaptive backstepping technique, the semi-global boundedness of all variables in the closed-loop systems is guaranteed, and the tracking error is driven to the origin with a small neighborhood. The stability of the closed-loop systems is proved, and the simulation results reveal the effectiveness of the proposed approach.

Semi-active variable stiffness vibration control of vehicle seat suspension using an MR elastomer isolator

This paper presents a study on continuously variable stiffness control of vehicle seat suspension using a magnetorheological elastomer (MRE) isolator. A concept design for an MRE isolator is proposed in the paper and its behavior is experimentally evaluated. An integrated seat suspension model, which includes a quarter-car suspension and a seat suspension with a driver body model, is used to design a sub-optimal controller for an active isolator. The desired control force generated by this active isolator is then emulated by the MRE isolator through its continuously variable stiffness property when the actuating condition is met. The vibration control effect of the MRE isolator is evaluated in terms of driver body acceleration responses under both bump and random road conditions. The results show that the proposed control strategy achieves better vibration reduction performance than conventional on–off control.

Adaptive Fuzzy Backstepping Tracking Control for Strict-Feedback Systems With Input Delay

This paper investigates the problem of adaptive fuzzy tracking control for nonlinear strict-feedback systems with input delay and output constraint. Input delay is handled based on the information of Pade approximation and output constraint problem is solved by barrier Lypaunov function. Some adaptive parameters of the controller need to be updated online through considering the norm of membership function vector instead of all sub-vectors. A novel adaptive fuzzy tracking control scheme is developed to guarantee all variables of the closed-loop systems are semiglobally uniformly ultimately bounded, and the tracking error can be adjusted around the origin with a small neighborhood. The stability of the closed-loop systems is proved and simulation results are given to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed control approach.

Stabilizing Vehicle Lateral Dynamics With Considerations of Parameter Uncertainties and Control Saturation Through Robust Yaw Control

This paper presents a robust yaw-moment controller design for improving vehicle handling and stability with considerations of parameter uncertainties and control saturation. The parameter uncertainties dealt with are the changes of vehicle mass and moment of inertia about the yaw axis and the variations of cornering stiffnesses. The control saturation considered is due to the physical limitations of actuators and tires. Both polytopic and norm-bounded approaches are used to describe parameter uncertainties, and a norm-bounded approach is applied to handle the saturation nonlinearity. The conditions for designing such a controller are derived as linear matrix inequalities (LMIs). A nonlinear vehicle model is utilized to validate the effectiveness of the proposed approach. The simulation results show that the designed controller can improve vehicle handling and stability, regardless of the changes in vehicle mass and moment of inertia and the variations of road surfaces and saturation limitations.

Experimental study and modeling of a novel magnetorheological elastomer isolator

This paper reports an experimental setup aiming at evaluating the performance of a newly designed magnetorheological elastomer (MRE) seismic isolator. As a further effort to explore the field-dependent stiffness/damping properties of the MRE isolator, a series of experimental testing were conducted. Based upon the analysis of the experimental responses and the characteristics of the MRE isolator, a new model that is capable of reproducing the unique MRE isolator dynamics behaviors is proposed. The validation results verify the models effectiveness to portray the MRE isolator. A study on the field-dependent parameters is then provided to make the model valid with fluctuating magnetic fields. To fully explore the mechanism of the proposed model, an investigation relating the dependence of the proposed model on every parameter is carried out.