Model-Free H_∞ Output Feedback Control of Road Sensing in Vehicle Active Suspension Based on Reinforcement Learning

An active suspension system ensures the controllability of a vehicle in the vertical direction, which greatly enhances the control redundancy and safety of an intelligent driven vehicle. However, many calibrated model parameters are not conducive to the application of optimal control. To reduce the control cost of active suspension, a model-free H_∞ output feedback control method is studied in this research. First, the optimal governing equation of the active suspension is transformed into a zero-sum game problem of two players, and an off-policy reinforcement learning algorithm is established to solve the game algebraic Riccati equation. This method could overcome the disadvantage of constant interactions between Q-learning and the environment. Secondly, with the consideration that some state variables are difficult to measure, a data-driven H_∞ output feedback controller is designed using road sensing information and historical measurement data, and the Bellman equation of the system is solved using the least squares method to obtain the optimal control solution of the active suspension. The simulation and rapid prototype experimental results show that the proposed method could produce the optimal control strategy of the system without model parameters, overcome the strong dependence and sensitivity of traditional design methods to model parameters and improve the robust control effect of the active suspension.