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The existing vehicle designs exhibit a high level of coupling. For instance the coupling in the suspension and steering systems manifests itself through the change in wheel alignment parameters (WAP) due to suspension travel. This change in the WAP causes directional instability and tire-wear. The approach of the industry to solve this problem has been twofold. The first approach has been optimization of suspension link lengths to reduce the change in WAP to zero. Since this is not possible with the existing architecture, the solution used is the optimization of the spring stiffness K to get a compromise solution for comfort (which requires significant suspension travel and hence a soft spring) and directional stability (which demands least possible change in wheel alignment parameters and hence a stiff spring).

In this paper, we have presented a novel design for a customizable automotive suspension system with independent control of stiffness, damping and ride-height; and demonstrated the concept through a suspension prototype. The major motivation for this design is to avoid the trade-offs, involved in suspension design, which arise from the conflicting requirements of comfort and handling. The objective of this paper is to explore the possible applications of variable stiffness and variable ride-height suspension system to achieve improved vehicle dynamics. The capability of achieving the desired performance depending on user preference, vehicle speed, road conditions and maneuvering inputs using the proposed system is demonstrated. The application of variable stiffness to achieve real-time alteration of pitch and bounce motion centers, and real time alteration of anti-pitch and anti-dive characteristics is discussed.