Patent ID: 7748794

Claim:
A braking force control method for an automotive vehicle, comprising: providing a brake input device manually operable by a vehicle driver; providing a master cylinder configured to develop a master cylinder pressure in accordance with an operation of the brake input device by the vehicle driver; setting contribution degrees of both of a stroke quantity of the brake input device and the master cylinder pressure in accordance with at least one of the stroke quantity of the brake input device and the master cylinder pressure developed in the master cylinder; calculating a target braking force of the vehicle on the basis of the contribution degrees of both of the stroke quantity and the master cylinder pressure; and controlling the braking force of the vehicle in accordance with the calculated target braking force, the contribution degree of the master cylinder pressure on a calculation of the target braking force being set to become larger when an abrupt brake operation by the vehicle driver is detected than the contribution degree of the master cylinder pressure when no abrupt brake operation by the vehicle driver is detected, wherein the braking force control method further comprises: detecting the stroke quantity of the brake input device; detecting the master cylinder pressure developed in the master cylinder; and detecting whether the abrupt brake operation by the vehicle driver occurs and wherein the target braking force is calculated on the basis of the stroke quantity of the brake input device, the master cylinder pressure developed in the master cylinder, and the contribution degrees of both of the stroke quantity of the brake input device and the master cylinder pressure developed in the master cylinder.