Patent ID: 6301541
Filing Date: 2001-10-09
Classification: B60T

Abstract:
A braking force control apparatus adapted to a four-wheel drive vehicle comprising a center differential for distributing and transmitting driving force to front wheels and rear wheels, and a braking system capable of exerting braking force on a specific wheel, based on voluntary switching between braking according to driver's brake-pedal actuation and forced braking independent of the brake-pedal actuation, said braking force control apparatus comprising:engine brake determining means for determining whether said vehicle is in an engine brake state;road-contactless state determining means for determining whether at least one of said wheels is in a road-contactless state; andbraking control means for exerting the braking force based on said forced braking on the wheels other than said at least one wheel while permitting the braking force based on said driver's brake-pedal actuation to be exerted on said at least one of the wheels, when said engine brake determining means determines that said vehicle is in the engine brake state and when said road-contactless state determining means determines that said at least one of the wheels is in the road-contactless state.