Potential of Electronically Controlled Brake Systems

Air braking systems for commercial vehicles are undergoing a continuous development and improvement. New technologies like disc brakes and electronic brake control will increasingly be introduced in the next years. Compared to current state-of-the-art brake systems incl. ABS and ASR the EBS systems offer the potential to reduce stopping distances, to improve the brake force distribution and braking stability as well as the brake compatibility of vehicle combinations. Reduced stress for the driver and comprehensive monitoring of the brake system are further safety enhancements. As pure electrical brake control could still find some acceptance and compatibility problem, there will be partial or mixed EBS concepts initially. These will still have pneumatic control of some functions and/or pneumatic backup for the electronic functions. EBS is currently in the final stage of development with field validation in a considerable number of vehicles.