Due to the inherent nonlinear nature of electro-rheological (ER) fluid dampers, one of the challenging aspects for utilizing these devices to achieve high system performance is the development of accurate models and control algorithms that can take advantage of their unique characteristics. In this paper, the nonlinear damping force model is made to identify the properties of the ER damper using higher order spectrum. The higher order spectral analysis is used to investigate the nonlinear frequency coupling phenomena with the damping force signal according to the sinusoidal excitation of the damper. Also, this paper presents an inverse model of the ER damper, i.e., the model can predict the required voltage so that the ER damper can produce the desired force for the requirement of vibration control of vehicle suspension systems. The inverse model has been constructed by using piecewise linear damping force model. In this paper, the fuzzy logic control based on heuristic knowledge is combined with the skyhook control. And it is simulated for a quarter car model. The acceleration of the sprung mass is included in the premise part of the fuzzy rules to reduce the vertical acceleration RMS value of the sprung mass. Then scaling factors and membership functions are tuned using genetic algorithm to obtain optimal performance.

Stability issues of linear Takagi-Sugeno (TS) fuzzy models (1985, 1992) are investigated. We first propose a systematic way of searching for a common matrix, which, in turn, is related to stability for N subsystems that are under a pairwise commutative assumption. The robustness issue under uncertainty in each subsystem is then considered. We then show that the pairwise commutative assumption can, in fact, be relaxed by a similar approach as that for uncertainty. The result is applicable to a rather broad class of TS models, which are nonHurwitz and/or nonpairwise commutative.

A systematic method for analysis of cooperating robotic mechanisms is investigated using constrained optimization. The wrench distribution problem is formulated as a quadratic optimization problem with a linear constraint. This leads to the definition of the Lagrangian screw, which is shown to be an important geometrical tool for analysis. The geometrical meaning of the distributed wrench field is explained in terms of the Lagrangian screw. Examples show that several previous investigations in the literature may be included as special cases.>