UC Davis

In a paper published at the previous ICBGM conference, it was argued that having knowledge of the internal

dynamics within the passenger's body could be attributed to their perception of ride comfort. Using the

biomechanical model developed for this purpose, a novel, quantitative ride comfort metric is devised. Then

the passenger model is exposed to the disturbance vibration coming in from a generic vehicle. A bond-

graph representation of a full-car model is developed and the complete system, including the passenger, the

seat, and the vehicle body as well as wheels and unsprung masses, is simulated. The nonlinear system of

equations is linearized and an observer-based state-variable-feedback controller is designed. It is shown

that with 3 sensors collocated with 3 actuators for seat control positioned at the rest locations on the seat,

ride comfort can be improved significantly while maintaining little power consumption.