As a necessary condition of use, vehicles have suspension systems that must provide reasonable ride comfort and handling and be versatile enough to permit large changes in vehicle loading. Current constraints on vehicle attitude variation allow a reasonable compromise between ride and this variation, using an open loop relationship between loading and attitude. Future constraints on attitudes will cause a change, either in the compromise, or require a more sophisticated relationship. This paper describes the fundementals of suspension related to vehicle attitude and the details of several closed loop attitude control systems.
