This paper presents an adaptive inertia weight particle swarm optimization (AIWPSO) employed for solving the multiobjective weight optimization problem of LQR applied for the vehicle active suspension system (ASS). To meet the competing control objectives of ASS including the ride comfort, road handling, and suspension travel, the state feedback controller design for ASS is formulated as an optimization problem and an improved PSO is employed for finding the optimal weights of the linear-quadratic regulator (LQR). Specifically, for solving the premature convergence of the particles and imbalance between exploration and exploitation capabilities of PSO, an adaptive inertia weight that updates the velocity of the particles based on the success rate is used. The efficacy of the AIWPSO-tuned LQR is experimentally tested on a quarter-car ASS plant using the hardware in loop (HIL) testing for an uneven road surface. Experimental results highlight that, compared to conventional PSO-tuned LQR, the proposed scheme can significantly minimize the vehicle body acceleration due to irregular road profile while guaranteeing the minimum tire friction for passenger safety. The ISO 2361-1 standards adopted to evaluate the ride and health criteria substantiate that the proposed scheme reduces the vibration dose value by 25.34% for a bumpy road profile. Moreover, the cumulative power spectral density (CPSD) of vehicle body acceleration assessed in both low- and high-frequency regions manifests the significant improvement in the ride comfort. © 2020 Joshua Sunder David Reddipogu and Vinodh Kumar Elumalai.