A braking system for a vehicle includes a first axle attached to a chassis and rotatably supporting two front wheels, with a first brake including a first electronic brake controller for controlling application of braking to the front wheels. A second axle rotatably supports two rear wheels and is detachably connected to the chassis and has a second electronic brake controller and a second brake attached thereto for braking the rear wheels. Each of the electronic brake controllers has an independent power source. The system also includes an electronic park brake controller and parking brake. A vehicle control unit is in communication with each of the electronic brake controllers for coordinating control of the braking system. One or more communications network cables, which may be wired or wireless, connect the electronic brake controllers. An electrical connector allows for swapping the second axle, which requires no fluidic connections.

A vehicle brake system including a regenerative cooperative control device configured to control a regenerative brake device that applies a regenerative braking force to one of front and rear wheels and/or a friction brake device that applies a friction braking force to the front and rear wheels. After the regenerative braking force reaches an allowable regenerative braking force, the friction braking force applied to the other of the front and rear wheels is increased by the friction brake device up to a first friction braking force less than a braking force on an actual braking-force distribution line determined by the regenerative braking force at a time when it reaches the allowable regenerative braking force, and the friction braking forces applied to the one and the other of the front and rear wheels are subsequently increased so as to bring the friction braking forces close to the actual braking-force distribution line.

In an electric automobile traveling by driving a rear wheel with an electric motor mounted on a vehicle body rear part, a load distributed to the rear wheel is larger than a load distributed to a front wheel by an amount corresponding to a weight of the electric motor. Therefore, it is desirable that a braking force distribution amount to the rear wheel be larger than that to the front wheel. Without providing a proportional pressure reducing valve changing a ratio of braking force distributed between the front and rear wheels, it is possible, by supplying a same brake fluid pressure from a master cylinder to front and rear wheel brake calipers and carrying out regenerative braking in the rear wheel, to make the braking force distribution amount to the rear wheel larger than that to the front wheel.

A vehicle brake system, including: a brake operation member to be operated by a driver of a vehicle; a hydraulic brake device provided for one of a front wheel and a rear wheel and configured to generate a hydraulic braking force in accordance with an operation of the brake operation member, the hydraulic braking force depending on a pressure of a working fluid; and an electric brake device provided for the other of the front wheel and the rear wheel and configured to generate an electric braking force in accordance with the operation of the brake operation member, the electric braking force depending on a motion of an electric motor.

A brake system for a vehicle, including: a brake operation member; a hydraulic brake device configured to give a braking force based on an operation of the brake operation member; an electric brake device configured to give a braking force generated by an electric actuator; a regenerative brake device configured to give a braking force utilizing electric power generation by rotation of a wheel, and a controller configured to determine insufficient braking force by excluding the braking force by the hydraulic brake device from a required overall braking force required for the vehicle as a whole and to control the braking force by each of the electric brake device and the regenerative brake device based on the insufficient braking force, wherein the brake system is configured such that the hydraulic brake device gives the braking force when the required overall braking force exceeds a threshold.

A hydraulic brake system for a vehicle, including: a wheel brake device configured to generate a braking force based on a pressure of a working fluid; a first brake system including a high-pressure source device including an accumulator and a first pump device that is driven intermittently such that a pressure of the working fluid in the accumulator is not lower than a set lower limit pressure and not higher than a set upper limit pressure; a second brake system including a second pump device; and a main power source that supplies electricity to the first and second brake systems, wherein the hydraulic brake system includes an auxiliary power source that supplies electricity to the first brake system when a failure occurs in the main power source, and wherein the first pump device is continuously driven when the failure occurs irrespective of the pressure in the accumulator.

A rear wheel regenerative braking control system for vehicle, may include a brake controller; a vehicle controller; a hydraulic controller; and a motor controller, wherein the system and the method may maximize an amount of rear wheel regenerative braking while easily securing braking stability of a vehicle.

An electric-brake controller controls an electric brake operable by an electric motor. The electric-brake controller includes: a rotation-angle obtainer including (i) a relative-rotation-angle obtaining unit that obtains a relative rotation angle of the electric motor for a set time, based on values output and received from a rotation-angle sensor at intervals of the set time, and (ii) an absolute-rotation-angle obtaining unit that calculates the obtained relative rotation angle with consideration of an orientation of the relative rotation angle to obtain an absolute rotation angle that is a rotation angle of the electric motor from a start of its operation; a recognition-error detector that detects a recognition error in the rotation-angle obtainer based on the obtained absolute rotation angle or a changing state of the absolute rotation angle; and a motor controller that controls the electric motor based on a result of detection performed by the recognition-error detector.

The present disclosure in at least one embodiment provides a corner module for a vehicle, including a front-wheel corner module configured to drive a front wheel and including a front-wheel inwheel motor installed on the front wheel to generate a driving force and a friction braking device configured to generate a braking force on the front wheel, a rear-wheel corner module configured to drive a rear wheel and including a rear-wheel inwheel motor installed on the rear wheel to generate a driving force, a driving information detector configured to detect driving information of the vehicle, and an electronic control unit configured to control the front-wheel corner module to form a friction braking force by using the driving information and to control the rear-wheel corner module to form a regenerative braking force, wherein the front-wheel corner module uses the front-wheel inwheel motor that is provided with a lower specification than the rear-wheel inwheel motor to save the manufacturing cost, and the rear-wheel corner module has no friction braking device installed so that the rear-wheel inwheel motor is undamaged by heat.

A method of brake steering in a four-wheel drive utility vehicle having a driven front axle carrying at least two front wheels, a driven rear axle carrying at least two rear wheels, a powertrain delivering torque to the front and rear axles via a connecting shaft, a controlled clutch arrangement in the connecting shaft operable to vary the distribution of delivered torque between the front and rear axles, and independently operable service brakes on each of the front and rear wheels. The method comprises, on the vehicle entering a turn, applying the service brakes of the front and rear wheels on the inside of the turn and adjusting the clutch arrangement to adapt the share of the available torque between the front and rear axles. Additional braking force may be applied from independently operable park brakes on the rear wheels in inverse relationship to the level of service brake force applied.