In order to reduce vehicle vibration and improve vehicle ride comfort and handling stability, a nonlinear energy sink inerter (NESI) is designed by combing an inerter and nonlinear energy sink (NES) for use in the seat suspension and vehicle suspension for the half-vehicle-seat (HVS) system; furthermore, a model-free adaptive control (MFAC) method based on the genetic algorithm is proposed to enhance the dynamic performance of the passive HVS system. The dynamic model of the active HVS system coupled with NESI using the MFAC method is established; its dynamic responses under pavement random and shock excitations are acquired using the numerical method and the dynamic performance is evaluated by seven evaluation indicators. The efficacy of the MFAC method is demonstrated through comparative analysis with the original passive HVS system, the HVS system coupled with NESI, and the active HVS system coupled with NESI using the proportional integral derivative (PID) control method. In addition, the influence of the installed position of MFAC on the dynamic performance of the active HVS system coupled with NESI is examined. The results show that for the active HVS system coupled with NESI using the MFAC method, compared with the other three HVS systems, the root mean square (RMS) values of the vehicle body vertical acceleration, vehicle body pitch acceleration, seat vertical acceleration, and front and rear suspension dynamic travel under pavement random excitation are smaller, the corresponding peak amplitudes under pavement shock excitation reduce, and the vibration attenuation time shortens; the RMS values of the front and rear dynamic tire loading under pavement random excitation are slightly smaller, the corresponding peak amplitudes under pavement shock excitation increase, and the vibration attenuation time decreases, which reflects the best dynamic performance among the four HVS systems and shows the effectiveness of the MFAC method. Furthermore, the control effect of the MFAC method is the best when it acts both on the seat and vehicle suspensions.
