Patent ID: 8352142

Claim:
A brake control apparatus comprising: a master cylinder; a wheel cylinder; a hydraulic pressure source arranged to supply a hydraulic fluid sucked from the master cylinder to the wheel cylinder, and to increase a pressure of the wheel cylinder; a control valve arranged to increase or reduce the pressure of the wheel cylinder; an outside gate valve arranged to connect or disconnect between the master cylinder and the wheel cylinder; a brake operation sensing section configured to sense a driver's brake operation; and a control unit configured to control the hydraulic pressure source, the control valve, and the outside gate valve, to perform an automatic-brake pressure-increasing control to control the outside gate valve in a valve closing direction, to drive the hydraulic pressure source, and thereby to increase the pressure of the wheel cylinder in accordance with a vehicle condition, to judge whether or not a pressure of the master cylinder is smaller than the pressure of the wheel cylinder, and to increase a driving quantity of the hydraulic pressure source when a brake operation is sensed during the automatic-brake pressure-increasing control and the pressure of the master cylinder is smaller than the pressure of the wheel cylinder.