ZF has demonstrated its new fully active chassis system, sMOTION, which can reduce unwanted car body movements caused by potholes, bumps or bends. The company says with sMotion, the advantages of highly automated and autonomous driving can be realised, allowing vehicle occupants to work or relax mostly undisturbed while travelling.

In addition to increasing comfort, sMOTION can also help to enhance handling and safety. An intelligent actuator actively controls individual wheels, capable of adapting suspension movement for each travelling situation and road condition. sMOTION also offers vehicle manufacturers modular scalability as well as component dimensions and interfaces, making it easy to tailor and integrate the system into vehicle designs.

“When it comes to the development of highly automated and autonomous driving, the chassis plays a key role,” says Dr. Holger Klein, head of the Car Chassis Technology Division at ZF. “By the time the autopilot takes over the wheel, all passengers want to be completely relaxed and unaware of the vehicle's movement, regardless of what is happening on the road. Our sMOTION fully active chassis system can help fulfil this desire.”

Dr Klien adds, “With ZF ‘s intelligent sMOTION shock absorbers, it is possible to eliminate nearly all annoying motion and vibration from the roadway surface.  Passengers have the sensation of floating over bumps and hollows.”

The sMOTION chassis system features a very compact, external electric-motor pump unit with integrated electronics, which works as a bi-directional actuator on each wheel. This actuator can actively raise and lower the piston rod on each wheel individually.  Networked with environmental sensors such as cameras, the sMOTION system can even detect road conditions in advance, such as potholes, and prepare the actuators.

sMotion builds on the company’s Continuous Damping Control (CDC) technology with independent compression and rebound staging. This technology is designed to actively and continuously vary the characteristic compromise between hard (stability-oriented and dynamic) and soft (comfort-oriented) ride and handling.