Abstract This paper investigates the energy performance of human load carriage with a variable damped suspended backpack. A vertical double-mass coupled-oscillator model is adopted to predict the load movement and energy consumption. Optimal control is found to be bang-bang, switching four times between the minimum and the maximum damping in a step cycle. With analytically tested laws for optimal switching timing, an orbitally stable event-based control strategy with feedback is designed. Simulation results reveal that the suspended backpack with an optimally controlled variable damper improves the energy efficiency of load carriage and reduces the load force exerting on carriers for a wide range of suspension stiffness and walking conditions, representing less energy expenditure, better comfort and stronger adaptability over the passive elastic backpacks with constant suspension parameters. The working principle of the variable damper is also analyzed. Although this paper only deals with the theoretical model and analysis of the problem, the discussion on validity implies a considerable improvement in energy performance, including efficiency and adaptability.

中文翻译：

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带优化控制可变阻尼器的悬吊式载重车背包能效分析

摘要 本文研究了带有可变阻尼悬挂背包的载人车厢的能量性能。采用垂直双质量耦合振荡器模型来预测负载运动和能量消耗。发现最佳控制是 bang-bang，在一个步进循环中在最小和最大阻尼之间切换四次。借助经过分析测试的最佳切换定时定律，设计了一种基于轨道稳定事件的反馈控制策略。仿真结果表明，带有优化控制的可变阻尼器的悬挂式背包提高了负载托架的能源效率，并减少了在各种悬挂刚度和行走条件下施加在托架上的负载力，代表了更少的能量消耗，与具有恒定悬挂参数的被动弹性背包相比，具有更好的舒适性和更强的适应性。还分析了可变阻尼器的工作原理。虽然本文只涉及问题的理论模型和分析，但对有效性的讨论意味着能源性能的显着提高，包括效率和适应性。