This work proposes a novel adaptive hybrid controller based on the sliding mode controller and H-infinity control technique, and its effectiveness is verified by implementing it in vibration control of a vehicle seat suspension featuring a magneto-rheological damper. As a first step, a sliding surface of the sliding mode controller is established and used as a bridge to formulate the proposed controller. In this process, two matrices such as Hurwitz constants matrix are used as components of the sliding surface and H-infinity technique are adopted to achieve robust stability. Secondly, a fuzzy logic model based on the interval type 2 fuzzy model which is featured by online clustering is established and integrated to take account for external disturbances. Subsequently, a new adaptive hybrid controller is formulated with a solid proof of the robust stability. Then, the effectiveness is demonstrated by implementing the proposed hybrid controller on the vibration control of a vehicle seat suspension associated with a controllable damper. Vibration control performances are evaluated on bump and random road profiles by presenting both displacement and acceleration on the seat and the driver positions. In addition, a comparative study between the proposed and one of existing controllers is undertaken to highlight some benefits of the hybrid adaptive controller developed in this work
