Force control of a magnetorheological damper using an elementary hysteresis model-based feedforward neural network

Abstract

An inverse controller is proposed for a magnetorheological (MR) damper that consists of a hysteresis model and a voltage controller. The force characteristics of the MR damper caused by excitation signals are represented by a feedforward neural network (FNN) with an elementary hysteresis model (EHM). The voltage controller is constructed using another FNN to calculate a suitable input signal that will allow the MR damper to produce the desired damping force. The performance of the proposed EHM-based FNN controller is experimentally compared to existing control methodologies, such as clipped-optimal control, signum function control, conventional FNN, and recurrent neural network with displacement or velocity inputs. The results show that the proposed controller, which does not require force feedback to implement, provides excellent accuracy, fast response time, and lower energy consumption.