Brake control apparatus
AssigneeAkebono Industry Co., Ltd.
InventorKatsuya Miyake
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A brake control apparatus has a control unit 30 for controlling a brake mechanism 40 for braking each of the wheels provided for a vehicle, and a tire abnormality detection device 10 for detecting abnormal air pressure of a tire attached to each of the wheels and transmitting a signal to the control unit 30. When the control unit 30 determines that the air pressure of any one of the tires has become lower than a predetermined level, the control unit 30 controls the brake mechanism 40 to brake a tire opposite to the low-pressure tire to the right or left. As a consequence, safety is improved even if a tire has been punctured during operation of a vehicle.
Claims18
A brake control apparatus comprising:
- a control unit for controlling a brake mechanism for braking a plurality of wheels provided for a vehicle;
- and
- a tire abnormality detection unit for detecting abnormal air pressure of a tire attached to each of the wheels and for transmitting a signal to the control unit, wherein, in response to the control unit determining that air pressure of any one of the tires has become lower than a predetermined level, the control unit always signals the brake mechanism to brake the wheel of a tire opposite that one until said vehicle is stopped.
A method for automatically controlling braking in a vehicle having wheels, the method comprising the steps of:
- detecting, by a tire abnormality detection unit of the vehicle, abnormal air pressure of a tire attached to each of the wheels;
- and
- in response to a determination by the detecting step that any one of the tires has an abnormal air pressure, always automatically controlling, by a control unit of the vehicle, a braking mechanism of the vehicle to automatically brake the wheel of a tire opposite the low-pressure one until said vehicle is stopped.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.