Patent ID: 7878605
Filing Date: 2011-02-01
Classification: B60K,B60L,B60T,B60W,Y02T

Abstract:
1. A brake control apparatus for a brake apparatus of a vehicle which includes at least a motor as a power source and in which front wheels or rear wheels are driven wheels driven by the motor, and the remaining wheels are non-driven wheels not driven by the motor, the brake apparatus including first control means for controlling respective frictional braking forces acting on the wheels, independently of a braking operation by a driver; and second control means for controlling regenerative braking force which is generated by the motor and acts on the driven wheels, the brake control apparatus comprising: determination means for determining a first target braking force, which is a target value of total braking force applied to the vehicle, on the basis of the braking operation; adjustment means for adjusting the regenerative braking force and the frictional braking forces by the second control means and the first control means such that the total braking force, which is the sum of the frictional braking forces and the regenerative braking force, coincides with the first target braking force and that the regenerative braking force can become greater than a second target braking force, which is a braking force acting on the driven wheels when the first target braking force is distributed between the front and rear wheels in accordance with a predetermined target distribution; acquisition means for acquiring a factor influencing the easiness of occurrence of a locking tendency of the driven wheels when the driven wheels have no locking tendency; change means, when the regenerative braking force is adjusted to be greater than the second target braking force, for changing an amount by which the regenerative braking force becomes greater than the second target braking force in accordance with the acquired factor; the adjustment means uses, as the predetermined target distribution of braking force between the front and rear wheels, a distribution determined such that the proportion of the braking force acting on the front wheels is larger than that in the case of an ideal braking force distribution in which locking tendencies simultaneously occur at all the wheels of the vehicle; and wherein the change means changes the amount so that the amount by which the regenerative braking force becomes greater than the second target braking force decreases as the easiness of occurrence of the locking tendency of the driven wheels increases, by determining the regenerative braking force through multiplying the regenerative braking force by a gain which varies within a range from 0 to 1 and which decreases as the easiness of occurrence of the locking tendency shown by the acquired factor increases.