🏎️ Optimized Quarter-Car Suspension Controller

A high-performance active suspension control system designed to minimize "Comfort Score" for volatile cargo transport.

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🎯 The Challenge: "Volatile Cargo"

Stark Industries requires a suspension controller for an autonomous convoy. The goal is to minimize a weighted Comfort Score ($CS$) based on:

1. RMS Displacement (bouncing)
2. Max Displacement (bottoming out)
3. RMS Jerk (vibration)
4. Max Jerk (sudden shocks)

Constraints:

• Actuator Delay: 20ms (4 simulation steps)
• Damping Limits: 800 - 3500 Ns/m
• Blind Control: No preview of the road; only current accelerometer data.

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💡 The Solution: Smoothness First

My analysis revealed that Max Jerk dominates the penalty score. Standard "Skyhook" controllers switch damping too fast, creating huge jerk spikes.

My approach uses a "Smooth Skyhook" strategy:

1. Predictive Logic: Uses relative velocity trends to "brace" for impact before it happens.
2. Heavy Filtering: Applies an exponential moving average ($\alpha=0.02$) to damping requests to filter out road noise.
3. Strict Rate Limiting: Caps the rate of change of the damper ($\Delta c / \Delta t$) to prevent sudden force discontinuities.

The Physics Engine

• Integration: Runge-Kutta 4th Order (RK4) for high-precision simulation.
• Dynamics: Full 2-DOF Quarter-Car model ($m_s, m_u, k_s, k_t$).

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