The development of the next generation of integrated chassis controllers for high performance passenger cars.

Co-funded by McLaren Automotive and involving an internationally leading supervisory team, this PhD project will focus on the development of the next generation of integrated chassis controllers for high performance passenger cars. The controllers will enhance ride comfort and vehicle dynamics through active suspension control and other actuation systems. The first year of the PhD programme will set the foundations for the project developments. This includes the creation and experimental validation of a model-in-the-loop development environment consisting of a vehicle model, relevant actuation system models, state estimators, a set of benchmarking controllers provided by the industrial sponsor, and relevant post processing tools. Within the first year, appropriate attention will also be paid to the analysis of the literature, and the preparation of the confirmation report (University requirement). The second and third years of the PhD activity will focus on the formulation, implementation and simulation of the novel integrated chassis controllers as well as their experimental assessment on real vehicle prototypes. The chassis controllers will be based on the combination of: a) computationally efficient nonlinear model predictive control technology; b) intelligent control / artificial intelligence for the online update of the controller parameters depending on the current operating conditions of the vehicle; and c) innovative pre-emptive control techniques enabled by vehicle connectivity, using the information on the expected road scenario ahead (e.g., road curvature profile) to enhance control system performance. The potential of the novel controllers will be critically analysed with respect to the available benchmarking controllers. In particular, the effort of the second year will target the formulation and simulation based implementation activities of the nonlinear model predictive controllers including the pre-emptive aspects, while the final year will be dedicated to the artificial intelligence aspects and the experimental assessment of the algorithms. The write-up of the PhD thesis will be carried out in the final 6 months of the project. The research of this PhD project is expected to generate high-quality journal publications (at least three quartile 1 journal publications), and to have long-term academic and industrial impact in the specific subject area.