Safety Concepts for Future Electromechanical Brake Central Control Systems

Electromechanical brakes (EMB) are currently coming into focus in the automotive industry. This trend was confirmed in 2022, when a first automotive supplier [1] announced the series production of EMB systems. One major driver is safety, especially if EMB systems are implemented with smart actuators that install redundant electronic control units (ECU) and distributed software [1]. Earlier, the authors have addressed safety mechanisms in EMB actuators [2]. In this article the authors extend their investigation to address safety mechanisms in future EMB central control systems (CCS). Impact of different brake system topologies (X-, H-, centralized) vis-à-vis potential safety mechanisms within communication buses and ECUs is analyzed.