RESEARCHERS AT THE University of Technology Sydney are busy working on a new active suspension system that could entirely eliminate body roll when cornering. This would especially benefit top-heavy vehicles such as 4WDs and crossovers, making it harder for them to roll over.
Active suspension (systems which automatically react to road surfaces and vehicle movements) has been experimented with before. The prohibitive cost and complexity of such systems however has limited their use in regular road-going passenger cars.
The UTS researchers aim to develop a system which not only improves handling performance, but is both simple and relatively cheap.
UTS will be basing their system on a double-acting hydraulic cylinder, one of which replaces each spring/damper assembly in a car.
Laboratory tests have proved promising. The UTS team is now conducting real-world trials using a late model Territory donated by Ford.
However, if you’re itching to see the sophisticated suspension tech in a production car, don’t hold your breath: the UTS team does not expect it to be ready for road-going vehicles for at least a couple of years.
Loading ...
Comments
Click here to jump to Add Comment box
How do you get a picture next to your name?
Get a Gravatar. Click here to find out more.
This is not a new thing - anti body roll systems have been toyed with for a long time. In fact, there was an Aussie system that was marketed a few years back that was dead simple (found a write-up on Autospeed.com - http://autospeed.com/cms/title_Active-Suspension-For-The-Masses/A_0477/article.html )