Patent ID: 9481346
Filing Date: 2016-11-01
CPC Classification: B60T,B62D

Claim Text:
1. A method of controlling the braking of a coupled tractor-trailer combination in which the tractor includes a drive train having an engine and at least one ground-engaging member driveably connected thereto via an adjustable-ratio transmission; at least one ground-engaging member of the tractor includes at least one tractor brake; and at least one ground-engaging member of the trailer includes at least one further, trailer brake, the method comprising: determining a reference deceleration value AX_REF derived from (i) the deceleration of the tractor, when considered alone, resulting from braking effort applied via the tractor brake and/or (ii) the deceleration of the tractor, when considered alone, resulting from engine braking; determining from the reference deceleration value, in accordance with a predetermined relation, a target value of the braking effort of the trailer brake, wherein the reference deceleration value is calculated in accordance with the expression wherein AX_REF is the reference deceleration value; F using the reference value as a control input in an open-loop contralto control the braking effort of the trailer brake so that the braking of the tractor-trailer combination approximates to the braking of the tractor when considered alone.