Electrically actuated brake with vibration damping

An electrically actuated braking system having a brake disk stack selectively compressed to restrain wheel rotation;

• a plurality of individually operable brake actuators disposed at a carrier housing in an annular pattern about the axis of wheel rotation and selectively and individually energizable including each individual brake actuator operable independently at any commanded energization level between the range of no energization and full energization during occurrence of a braking command to apply a braking force to thereby compress the stack and restrain wheel rotation;
• a first circuit for energizing only a first proper subset of the plurality of the brake actuators upon occurrence of a braking command;
• a second circuit for energizing only a second proper subset of the plurality of brake actuators upon occurrence of a braking command;
• means for monitoring wheel motion and providing a plurality of distinguishable control signals indicative of different monitored wheel motion conditions;
• and circuitry for selectively enabling the first circuit and not the second circuit in response to certain of the control signals, the second circuit and not the first circuit in response to other of the control signals, and both the first and second circuits in response to still other of the control signals.

An electrically actuated braking system having an electronic control unit and a plurality of individual brake actuators associated with a respective brake and the individual brake actuators of the respective brake selectively and individually energizable including each individual brake actuator operable independently at any commanded energization level between the range of no energization and full energization during a commanded braking event to effect the frictional restraint of rotation of an associated vehicle wheel, a method of avoiding braking induced wheel vibration comprising:

• predetermining a sequence of energization levels for individual ones of the actuators of a brake to minimize the introduction of braking vibrations during a braking event;
• storing the predetermined sequence in the electronic control unit;
• and
• varying the energization of one or more individual actuators of the brake in accordance with the stored sequence during the braking event to vary the braking force applied to the associated vehicle wheel to avoid excitation of adverse vibration of the brake thereby preventing the build-up of brake vibration induced by the braking force.

A multi-wheel vehicle braking system where each associated brake and vehicle wheel have a plurality of individual brake actuators selectively and individually energizable including each individual brake actuator operable independently at any commanded energization level between the range of no energization and full energization during a commanded braking event to effect the frictional restraint of rotation of the associated vehicle wheel, a method of maintaining substantially the same braking force on each wheel during the braking event comprising:

• monitoring each actuator for failure during a braking event;
• disabling an actuator upon the occurrence of failure thereby reducing the braking force on an associated vehicle wheel;
• and
• disabling another actuator of another wheel to reduce the braking force on the another wheel to substantially the same reduced braking force as the associated vehicle wheel.