Patent ID: 7604303

Claim:
A method of auditing a brake system of a vehicle, wherein said vehicle includes a translatable brake pedal, and a remaining fixed structure spaced from the pedal, said method comprising the steps of: a. securing first and second sensors in a fixed position relative to the pedal and spacing the second sensor from the structure, wherein the first sensor is configured to measure a force applied to the pedal, and the second sensor is configured to detect a relative distance between the pedal and structure; b. applying a plurality of differing forces to the first sensor, wherein each force causes the pedal to translate a correlative differing distance, so as to determine a plurality of correlative distances, and force/distance combinations; c. measuring said plurality of forces with the first sensor, and detecting said plurality of correlative distances with the second sensor; d. generating a trend based on the pluralities of forces and distances; and e. comparing the trend to a reference, so as to determine a compliance status.