High Stability Traversing of Multi-Axle Active Suspension Vehicles on Impassable Abrupt Roads

Strategic Insights -

Researchers from Shandong University of Technology have made significant progress in the field of robotics, proposing a novel control framework for multi-axle active suspension vehicles to traverse impassable abrupt roads. The study, which was financially supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province and the National Natural Science Foundation of China, demonstrated the effectiveness of the proposed framework in achieving high stability traversing of multi-axle active suspension vehicles, leading to at least a 50% improvement in attitude stability and controllable wheel loads.

Key Takeaways:

  • The researchers proposed a body attitude and wheel load coupling control model based on the explicit characterization of the load-deformation coupling nature of vehicles.
  • The study designed a suspension adjustment-based wheel gait control for typical impassable scenarios, invoking the coupling control model to solve the suspension adjustment under stability objectives.
  • A multi-axle active suspension unmanned ground vehicle (MAS-UGV) in near-conventional configurations was developed and tested on originally impassable abrupt roads.
  • The proposed framework and controller demonstrated a significant improvement in attitude stability and controllable wheel loads, reaching at least 50% improvement.
  • The research has been peer-reviewed and has provided new possibilities for UGVs and even near-conventional vehicles to construct versatile, tough terrain crossing schemes.
  • The study was led by Fan Zhang from Shandong University of Technology, in collaboration with Jikai Cui, Xianyue Gang, Jintian Cai, and Zuochao Rong.

Statistics:

  • The proposed framework demonstrated a 50% improvement in attitude stability and controllable wheel loads.
  • The research was supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province (ZR2023ME065) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (51705298).
  • The study used a custom-built multi-axle active suspension unmanned ground vehicle (MAS-UGV) in near-conventional configurations.
  • The research was conducted at the Shandong University of Technology, School of Transportation and Vehicle Engineering, Zibo, People's Republic of China.

Sources:

  • NewsRx. Study Data from Shandong University of Technology Provide New Insights into Field Robotics (High Stability Traversing Practice of a Mas-ugv On Impassable Abrupt Roads). Robotics & Machine Learning. June 23, 2025; p 406.
  • Journal of Field Robotics. (2025). High Stability Traversing Practice of a Mas-ugv On Impassable Abrupt Roads. Wiley. www.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1002/(ISSN)1556-4967
  • Shandong University of Technology. School of Transportation and Vehicle Engineering. Zibo, People's Republic of China.