A computer implemented method for controlling a vehicle includes obtaining a value of the mass of the vehicle, receiving a plurality of time sequential measured first values of one or more further state parameters, calculating a first plurality of time sequential values of the vehicle mass, including a first calculated mass value, using the plurality of measured first values of the one or more further state parameters, the non-linear model, and an extended Kalman filter with a first filter tuning, with the obtained mass value as a start value, receiving a plurality of time sequential measured second values of the one or more of the further state parameters, and calculating a second plurality of time sequential values of the vehicle mass, including a second calculated mass value, using the plurality of measured second values of the one or more further state parameters, the non-linear model, and an extended Kalman filter with a second filter tuning, with the first calculated mass value as a start value, wherein the second filter tuning is made less aggressive than the first filter tuning.

A valve arrangement (2a, 2b) of a hydraulically braked tractor vehicle for controlling the brake pressure of a pneumatically braked trailer includes an electronically controlled trailer control valve (6) with an inlet valve (14), an outlet valve (16), a pneumatical relay valve (18), a breakaway valve (20) and a brake control pressure sensor (24). The valve arrangement also has a hydraulically controlled backup valve (8) with a hydraulically activated relay valve (46), a redundancy valve (112, 112′) and a hydraulic control pressure sensor (50). Output-side brake control lines (40; 62) are connected via a shuttle valve (10) to a brake coupling head (82). The valves (14, 16, 18, 20) and the pressure sensors (24, 50) of the trailer control valve (6), the valves (46, 112, 112′) of the backup valve (8) and the shuttle valve (10) may be combined in one trailer control module (98) with a single housing (100).

A system for a vehicle and a trailer connected to the vehicle is provided. The system includes a trailer brake output circuit configured to output a trailer brake output signal, and an electronic control unit. The electronic control unit is configured to determine whether a value of a yaw rate of the trailer connected to the vehicle becomes greater than a threshold value, change a yaw rate oscillation counter in response to determining that the value of the yaw rate of the trailer becomes greater than the threshold value, instruct the trailer brake output circuit to output the trailer brake output signal to the trailer in response to the yaw rate oscillation becoming a first value, and activate trailer sway control in response to the yaw rate oscillation becoming a second value. The second value is greater than the first value.

A method is proposed for stabilizing a tractor-trailer combination comprising a tractor vehicle and a trailer. The tractor vehicle has front and rear axle steering. The distinguishing feature of the method is that while driving, and braking while rounding a curved trajectory, the steering angle of the wheels on the rear axle is set to be in the same direction as the steering angle of the wheels on the front axle in order to stabilize the tractor-trailer combination.

A method for operating a tractor-trailer combination made up of a towing vehicle and a trailer including an overrun brake. A total weight of the tractor-trailer combination is ascertained using a drive torque of the towing vehicle and an acceleration of the tractor-trailer combination. A trailer braking effect of the overrun brake is determined using a deceleration of the tractor-trailer combination, the total weight, and a vehicle braking effect of the towing vehicle without the trailer. A brake force distribution of the towing vehicle is set using the trailer braking effect.

A parking brake valve device for controlling a spring accumulator parking brake in an electro-pneumatic brake system includes a compressed air inlet configured to connect to a compressed air supply. The parking brake valve device also includes an electro-pneumatic handbrake (EPH) valve configuration and a parking brake control outlet configured to connect a spring accumulator parking brake, and a trailer control valve (TCV) device configured to control a trailer control outlet and a trailer supply outlet for a trailer brake system. The parking brake valve device further includes a multiplex switching device connected to the compressed air inlet and having electro-pneumatic switching valves configured to be controlled via electrical control signals for selective compressed air supply and venting of the EPH valve configuration and/or the TCV device.

Braking of a vehicle and a trailer can be balanced when regenerative braking of the vehicle is activated. The activation of regenerative braking of the vehicle can be detected. Responsive to detecting that regenerative braking of the vehicle is activated, one or more brakes of the trailer can be caused to be activated. Thus, the braking effectiveness of the vehicle and the braking effectiveness of the trailer can be substantially balanced. As a result, a possible push force from a trailer to the vehicle towing the trailer can be reduced, which, in turn, can help to avoid unwanted movements of the trailer (e.g., swaying or jackknifing).

The disclosure relates to a vehicle system for a vehicle, in particular a commercial vehicle, that includes an electronically controllable pneumatic braking system, and an electronically controllable steering device. The electronically controllable pneumatic braking system has a redundant control unit, which controls the brake circuits in the event of a failure of an electronic stability control of the braking system during travel. In the event of the failure of the electronic stability control during travel, the redundant control unit performs axle-wise control of the front axle with a front axle redundancy brake pressure and/or of the rear axle with a rear axle redundancy brake pressure and the electronically controllable steering device carries out laterally stabilizing steering interventions in order to keep the vehicle in a tolerance corridor of a predefined target trajectory of the vehicle. The disclosure also relates to a vehicle and a method.

A controller for a trailer is disclosed. An example trailer controller assembly includes a force transducer that measures a force between a trailer and a towing vehicle connected to the trailer indicative of a difference in speeds between the trailer and the towing vehicle, and a controller communicatively coupled to the force transducer. The controller includes a brake controller that controls brakes of the trailer based on an input signal from the force sensor.

A brake system for a trailer has first and second pneumatic circuits for supplying air pressure to the wheel ends on the trailer. The air pressure to brake devices at the wheel ends is controllable via a first brake ECU. First and second pressure control valves control pressure from the pneumatic circuits to the respective wheel ends. The system further has a second ECU adapted to electrically control the actuation of the pressure control valves.