Patent ID: 7347304

Claim:
A vehicle brake system comprising: a brake actuator; a brake controller operative to control said brake actuator; at least one position sensor which senses a current position of at least one moveable brake component and provides a current position signal indicative of the current position of the at least one moveable brake component to said brake controller; wherein said brake controller is operative to cause application of said brake actuator based at least in part upon a comparison of a position indicative command received by said brake controller, said position indicative command indicative of a commanded position to which the at least one moveable brake component is to be moved in order to achieve a demanded level of braking indicated by a commanded brake torque, with the current position signal; and a command converter which converts the commanded brake torque into a commanded friction force by dividing the commanded brake torque with an effective disc brake radius, which converts the commanded friction force into a commanded clamping force by dividing the commanded friction force by a disc/pad friction coefficient, and which converts the commanded clamping force into the position indicative command either: (i) by employing a known relationship between brake pad position versus clamping force, or (ii) by dividing the commanded clamping force by a brake elasticity and adding a slack position.