Estimation of the Brake Clamping Force in an Automotive Brake by Wire System

Abstract

Braking systems are one of the most important systems in automotive technology; as it directly affects passengers’ safety. This guided many researchers towards its development over years. Several automotive companies are already using - or have used - various drive by wire systems in their vehicles. The substitution of electronic systems in place of mechanical and hydraulic controls is known as “brake-by-wire” technology. The benefits of applying electronic technology are improved performance, safety and reliability with reduced manufacturing and operating costs. A test rig has a series of sensors that monitor both the brake pedal displacement and the DC motor current, in addition to the fly wheel speed and automatically adapt the braking performance to maintain safety. When a force is applied to the brake pedal, information is electronically passed through the system, the external situation is evaluated, and the brake motors apply the correct amount of current to decelerate the rotor disc. A mathematical model for the BBW system was derived using Simulink and validated via an experimental setup where Arduino – based – controller was implemented to perform both control and data acquisition tasks. It is observable that all the readings show good correlation between experimental and simulation results which lead to developing of fuzzy control logic that was validated experimentally. Such that the proposed model can be used in future researches concerning BBW as it showed better brake control performance.