Method for estimating speed of a braked vehicle

Method for determining speed of a braked vehicle and free-rolling peripheral speed of at least one vehicle wheel comprising:

• measuring instantaneous wheel speed of at least one vehicle wheel;
• reducing brake pressure on the at least one vehicle wheel from time to time, to define an adaptation condition in which a working point of the at least one wheel is located in a substantially linear range of a braking force verses wheel slip characteristic;
• determining a free-rolling peripheral speed Vfri of the at least one wheel i in the adaptation condition from the instantaneous wheel speed Vri and a braking force F.sub.B i at the associated wheel i;
• determining steering angle .delta., yaw angular velocity .psi. about a vertical vehicle axis and skew running angle .alpha.i of the vehicle wheels;
• calculating a vehicle speed Vf' relative to a point on the vehicle from the free-rolling peripheral speed Vfri, the determined parameters of the steering angle .delta., the yaw angular velocity .psi. about the vehicle vertical axis and the skew running angle .alpha.i of the wheels, and known vehicle dimensions;
• determining an estimated value for the vehicle speed Vf and an acceleration error b.sub.o by using filter equations ##EQU11## and obtaining at least one estimated value Vfri for the free rolling speed of the at least one wheel using the estimated vehicle speed value Vf relative to the point on the vehicle, the steering angle .delta., the yaw angular velocity .psi. and the skew running angle .alpha.i parameters, together with the known vehicle dimensions referenced to the point on the vehicle, where ##EQU12## is an acceleration estimated from a vehicle mass m.sub.F and the braking forces F.sub.B i, b.sub.o is an error term and K1 and K2 are correction amplifications which are positive in the adaptation condition and are zero outside the adaptation condition.