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Assessment of Ride Comfort Enhancement in a Full Vehicle Active Suspension System Using Sliding Mode and Fuzzy Logic Control

Asma Al-Tamimi , Ahmad Al-Jarrah , Mohammad Salah , Suleiman Banihani , Samer Mutawe

Published
August 25, 2026

Vol. 9 No. 2 (2026)
Pages 612-629

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Open Access
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Abstract

Vehicle suspension systems play a crucial role in ensuring ride comfort, stability, and safety under varying road conditions. While conventional passive suspensions offer limited adaptability, active suspension systems dynamically regulate actuator forces to counteract road-induced disturbances and improve overall performance. This paper introduces and comparatively evaluates two control strategies, sliding mode control and fuzzy logic control, for a full-vehicle active suspension system, aiming to achieve vibration suppression and ride comfort enhancement. Comprehensive simulations were performed in MATLAB/Simulink environment under three severe deterministic road-disturbance profiles with amplitudes ranging from −15 cm to +20 cm. The results demonstrate that both controllers effectively suppress full-vehicle vibrations under challenging road disturbances. Using SMC as the comparative reference, FLC achieved up to a 69.5% reduction in maximum vertical displacement and a 97.5% reduction in peak vertical acceleration, while maintaining a steady-state tracking error below 0.89 cm and comparable control effort. The study’s key contribution lies in demonstrating the superior vibration-suppression and ride-comfort performance of FLC relative to the implemented SMC in a full-vehicle active suspension system.. The large reduction in peak acceleration is mainly associated with the smoother control action of FLC compared with the switching-induced acceleration fluctuations of the implemented SMC. The main contribution of this study is a systematic comparative assessment of decentralized SMC and FLC under identical coupled full-vehicle suspension dynamics and severe asymmetric road disturbance.

Keywords

Full active suspension; Ride comfort; Vibration suppression; Sliding mode control; Fuzzy logic control

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Published August 25, 2026
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Copyright Copyright (c) 2026 Asma Al-Tamimi, Ahmad Al-Jarrah, Mohammad Salah, Suleiman Banihani, Samer Mutawe
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Keywords
  • Full active suspension
  • Ride comfort
  • Vibration suppression
  • Sliding mode control
  • Fuzzy logic control

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