Electronically Controlled Brake System with Two-Channel Pressure Control for Electric Vehicles

In this study, we introduce an electronically controlled brake system (ECB) that can be applied to electric vehicles (EVs) and internal combustion engine vehicles (ICEVs). The main features of the ECB include maximizing the regenerative energy while maintaining vehicle stability and ensuring redundancy in automatic braking. The brake system consists of upper and lower units. The newly developed upper unit has a brake-by-wire configuration and can control the front and rear wheel pressures separately. Hereinafter, controlling the front and rear wheel pressures separately is referred to as two-channel pressure control. The regenerated energy can be maximized while appropriately maintaining the distribution of the front and rear braking forces based on the two-channel pressure control during regenerative cooperation. The lower unit is a conventional hydraulic unit for executing anti-lock brake control, electronic stability control and so on. Each of the upper and lower units has a pressure source and is connected via a communication bus. Thus, even if one of the pressure sources malfunctions during automatic braking, sufficient brake forces can be ensured by another brake system.