Electric brake device
11001246 · 2021-05-11
Assignee
Inventors
Cpc classification
B60T8/171
PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
H02P21/36
ELECTRICITY
B60T13/741
PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
B60T8/172
PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
B60T8/00
PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
B60T8/52
PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
H02P29/00
ELECTRICITY
B60T17/20
PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
B60T13/746
PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
B60T13/74
PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
B60T8/3255
PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
B60T2250/04
PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
International classification
B60T13/74
PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
B60T17/20
PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
B60T8/172
PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
B60T8/171
PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
B60T1/06
PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
H02P21/36
ELECTRICITY
B60T8/32
PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
H02P29/00
ELECTRICITY
Abstract
This electric brake device includes: a brake rotor, a friction member, a friction member operator, an electric motor, and a controller which controls, by controlling the electric motor, a braking force generated as a result of contact between the friction member and the brake rotor. The electric brake device includes a vehicle speed estimator which estimates the speed of the vehicle having the electric brake device mounted thereon. The controller includes a power limiter which limits the power that drives the electric motor. When an estimated vehicle speed, which is the speed of the vehicle estimated by the vehicle speed estimator, is in a determined low-speed range, the power limiter limits the power in accordance with a condition that has been determined such that the maximum power consumption of the electric brake device decreases in accordance with decrease in the estimated vehicle speed.
Claims
1. An electric brake device comprising: an electric actuator and a controller, the electric actuator including a brake rotor, a friction member to be brought into contact with the brake rotor, a friction member operator configured to bring the friction member into contact with the brake rotor, and an electric motor configured to drive the friction member operator, the controller being configured to control, by controlling the electric motor, a braking force generated as a result of the contact between the friction member and the brake rotor, wherein the electric brake device comprises a vehicle speed estimator configured to estimate a speed of a vehicle having the electric brake device mounted thereon, the controller includes a power limiter configured to limit a power that drives the electric motor, and when an estimated vehicle speed, which is the speed of the vehicle estimated by the vehicle speed estimator, is in a determined low-speed range, the power limiter limits the power so a maximum power consumption of the electric brake device decreases in accordance with a decrease in the estimated vehicle speed, and thereby performs a control for keeping a total sum of maximum power consumptions of electric devices mounted on the vehicle, including the electric brake device, constant over an entire vehicle speed range.
2. The electric brake device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the controller includes an angular velocity estimator configured to estimate an angular velocity of a rotor of the electric motor, and has a function of determining, when controlling the braking force, a torque to be outputted by the electric motor or a value corresponding to the torque, and in accordance with the estimated vehicle speed, the power limiter changes a limitation value for the torque or the value corresponding to the torque at a determined estimated angular velocity among angular velocities estimated by the angular velocity estimator.
3. The electric brake device as claimed in claim 2, wherein the electric brake device comprises a plurality of the electric actuators, the controller controls the plurality of the electric actuators, and the power limiter changes a limitation value for a total sum of the torques outputted by the electric motors or of the values corresponding to the torques.
4. The electric brake device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the controller has a function of controlling, when controlling the braking force, a voltage that is related to a current of the electric motor, and the power limiter limits the voltage such that a power derived from the current and the voltage or a value corresponding to the power does not exceed a determined limit value.
5. The electric brake device as claimed in claim 4, wherein the electric brake device comprises a plurality of the electric actuators, the controller controls the plurality of the electric actuators, and the power limiter changes a limitation value for a total sum of the powers derived from the currents and the voltages or of the values corresponding to the powers.
6. The electric brake device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the power limiter limits the power only when the electric motor performs power-running operation.
Description
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
(1) In any event, the present invention will become more clearly understood from the following description of preferred embodiments thereof, when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. However, the embodiments and the drawings are given only for the purpose of illustration and explanation, and are not to be taken as limiting the scope of the present invention in any way whatsoever, which scope is to be determined by the appended claims. In the accompanying drawings, like reference numerals are used to denote like parts throughout the several views, and:
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DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS
(14) An electric brake device according to one embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to
(15) The electric actuator 1 includes an electric motor 4, a speed reduction mechanism 5, a friction member operator or friction member operation mechanism 6, a parking brake mechanism 7, a brake rotor 8, and a friction member 9. The electric motor 4, the speed reduction mechanism 5, and the friction member operator 6 are incorporated in a housing or the like (not shown), for example. The electric motor 4 is implemented as a three-phase synchronous motor or the like. The brake rotor 8 is mounted to a wheel (not shown), and rotates integrally with the wheel.
(16) The speed reduction mechanism 5 reduces the speed of rotation, or the number of rotation per unit time, of the electric motor 4, and includes a primary gear 12, an intermediate (secondary) gear 13, and a tertiary gear 11. In this example, the speed reduction mechanism 5 can reduce the speed of rotation of the primary gear 12 mounted to a rotor shaft 4a of the electric motor 4, by an intermediate gear 13 composed of integrally-formed coaxial large and small gears, for example, and transmit the resultant rotation to a tertiary gear 11 fixed to an end portion of a rotational shaft 10.
(17) A linear motion mechanism is applied as the friction member operator 6. The linear motion mechanism as the friction member operator 6 converts the rotary motion outputted from the speed reduction mechanism 5, into linear motion of a linear motion portion 14 by a feed screw mechanism, thereby bringing the friction member 9 into contact with the brake rotor 8 or separating the friction member 9 from the brake rotor 8. The linear motion portion 14 is supported in such a manner as to be prevented from rotating and as to be movable in an axial direction indicated by an arrow A1. The friction member 9 is provided at the outboard-side end of the linear motion portion 14. Rotation of the electric motor 4 is transmitted to the friction member operator 6, through the speed reduction mechanism 5, whereby the rotary motion of the electric motor 4 is converted into linear motion of the linear motion portion 14, the linear motion is converted into a pressing force of the friction member 9, and a braking force is thereby generated. It should be noted that, in a state where the electric brake device is mounted to a vehicle, the outer side in the vehicle width direction of the vehicle is referred to as outboard side, and the center side in the vehicle width direction of the vehicle is referred to as inboard side.
(18) For example, a linear solenoid is used as an actuator 16 of the parking brake mechanism 7. The actuator 16 causes a lock member 15 to advance to be fitted into and engaged with a locking hole (not shown) formed in the intermediate gear 13, thereby preventing rotation of the intermediate gear 13. Accordingly, a parking lock state is realized. When the lock member 15 is disengaged from the locking hole to allow rotation of the intermediate gear 13, an unlock state is realized.
(19) The controller 2 and the power supplier 3 are connected to the electric actuator 1.
(20) The power supplier 3 supplies power to the electric motor 4 and the controller 2. The higher-order ECU 17 outputs a braking force command value to each controller 2 in accordance with a sensor output which changes in accordance with a manipulation amount of a brake operator or brake operation mechanism 18. As the brake operator 18, a brake pedal or the like may be used, for example, but another operator such as a joy stick may be used.
(21) Each controller 2 includes a braking force controller 19, a current converter 20, a current controller 21, a motor driver 22, and a current sensor 23. The braking force controller 19 includes a braking force control calculation unit 24, and a power limiter 26 which includes a torque limiting unit 25 and an angular velocity estimator 28. The braking force control calculation unit 24 performs control calculation of a command value for attaining a braking force command value provided from the higher-order ECU 17.
(22) For example, the braking force controller 19 converts the braking force command value into an actuator load, which is the load of the electric actuator 1, and performs load feedback control of causing an output load, which is a sensor output from a load sensor 27, to be controlled to follow the actuator load. Accordingly, high accuracy braking force control can be easily realized. The braking force controller 19 may use motor angle feedback control, angular velocity feedback control, or the like as appropriate, in addition to the load feedback control. Eventually, the braking force control calculation unit 24 obtains a motor torque command value necessary for the braking force control.
(23) The load sensor 27 is used in order to control the pressing force, as the braking force, between the friction member 9 (
(24) The torque limiting unit 25 has a function of limiting the torque of the electric motor 4 in accordance with the angular velocity of the rotor of the electric motor 4, the vehicle speed, and the like. The angular velocity estimator 28 estimates the angular velocity by performing differentiation on the motor angle detected by an angle sensor 29, for example. As the angle sensor 29, for example, if a resolver, a magnetic encoder, or the like is used, high accuracy and high reliability are realized, and thus, such a configuration is preferable. However, various types of sensors such as an optical encoder can also be used. Alternatively, without using the angle sensor 29, the angular velocity estimator 28 may estimate the motor angle on the basis of a relationship between motor voltage and motor current, or the like.
(25) The vehicle speed is estimated by a vehicle speed estimator 30. The vehicle speed estimator 30 can estimate the vehicle speed using a wheel speed sensor, an acceleration sensor, an attitude sensor, or the like (each not shown) of the vehicle, for example. When an estimated vehicle speed, which is the speed of the vehicle estimated by the vehicle speed estimator 30, is in a determined low-speed range, the torque limiting unit 25 exerts the limiting function by changing the limitation value (limit torque) for the motor torque command value at a determined estimated angular velocity among angular velocities estimated by the angular velocity estimator 28.
(26) The power required for outputting a predetermined torque at the determined estimated angular velocity can be known in advance through simulation or experiments. Therefore, by limiting the motor torque command value, it is possible to limit the power that drives the electric motor. A compensation operation or the like at the time when the motor torque derived by the braking force control calculation unit 24 is limited by the torque limiting unit 25 may be separately provided to the braking force control calculation unit 24.
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(28) The process in which, when the absolute value of the vehicle speed becomes small, the limit torque according to the motor angular velocity becomes small, may be applied only when the vehicle is traveling forward, but the minimum limit value for forward traveling may be applied, when the vehicle is traveling backward, for example. In general, the vehicle speed when a vehicle is traveling backward is often very low compared with that when the vehicle is traveling forward. Therefore, there is no problem if the limiting process described above is applied only during forward traveling where a high speed traveling state could occur.
(29) For limiting the torque in the torque limiting unit 25, a torque limit table 25a (
(30) The current converter 20 in
(31) If the current controller 21 performs current feedback control of causing the motor current estimated by the current sensor 23 to be controlled to follow the current command value from the current converter 20, high accuracy torque output can be realized, and such a configuration is preferable. Alternatively, feedforward control may be performed on the basis of electromagnetic characteristics or the like of the electric motor 4, or the current feedback control and the feedforward control may be used in combination. Still alternatively, an equation of motion in the braking force controller 19 and the electromagnetic characteristics of the electric motor 4 may be integrated to form one control calculation loop having the functions of the braking force controller 19, the current converter 20, the current controller 21, and the like.
(32) Each of the braking force controller 19, the current converter 20, and the current controller 21 described above is specifically configured with a hardware circuit or a software function on a processor (not shown) which enables calculation and output of a result thereof, with use of a LUT (Look Up Table) implemented by software or hardware, or a prescribed transform function contained in a library of software or hardware equivalent thereto, and, as necessary, a comparison function or a four arithmetic operation function in the library or hardware equivalent thereto, etc. That is, each function of the braking force controller 19, the current converter 20, and the current controller 21 described above is preferably implemented by a computing unit such as a microcomputer, an FPGA, a DSP, or the like. Accordingly, an inexpensive and high-performance configuration is preferably realized.
(33) As the current sensor 23, a non-contact type that detects the magnetic field of the electric line may be used, or a method may be employed in which a shunt resistor or the like is provided to the electric line and detection is performed on the basis of the voltage across their opposite ends. At this time, as shown in
(34) The motor driver 22 may be configured such that: for example, a half-bridge circuit using a switching element such as an FFT is configured; and PWM control is performed in which the voltage applied to the motor is determined on the basis of a predetermined duty ratio regarding the voltage applied to the switching element. Thus, inexpensive and high performance configuration is realized, and such a configuration is preferable. Alternatively, PAM control may be performed with a transformation circuit or the like provided.
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(37) In contrast, in the system configuration example of the present embodiment shown in
(38) According to the electric brake device described above, the power limiter 26 limits the power such that, when the estimated vehicle speed decreases in a low-speed range, the maximum power consumption of the electric brake device accordingly decreases. By limiting the power in this manner, it is possible to prevent shortage of the power supply capacity due to power consumption by the electric brake device, in a low-speed range where shortage of the power supply capacity of the vehicle easily occurs. In addition, by limiting the maximum power consumption of the electric brake device so as to decrease in the low-speed range, it is possible to suppress decrease of braking performance in a medium and high speed ranges.
(39) Other embodiments will be described. In the following description, the components corresponding to the matters described in the preceding embodiment are denoted by like reference numerals, and repeated description is not given. When only a part of a configuration is described, the other part of the configuration is the same as described in the preceding description unless otherwise specified. The same operation and effect can be obtained from the same configuration. A combination of parts that are specifically described in the embodiments can be implemented, and further, the embodiments may be partially combined unless such combinations cause any problem.
(40) As shown in
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(42) For limiting the voltage, if the voltage limiting unit 31 is configured to have a function of limiting the output voltage in accordance with the feedback current, a simple configuration is realized. Accordingly, for example, a voltage limit table 31a for obtaining a limit voltage in accordance with a feedback current or a vehicle speed can be used. If a look-up table (LUT) or the like is used as the voltage limit table 31a, calculation load can be reduced, and such a configuration is preferable. Other than this, as for the voltage limiting unit 31, for limiting the voltage, a look-up table (LUT) for obtaining a limit power in accordance with a vehicle speed may be provided, and a value obtained by dividing the limit power by the feedback current may be used as the limit voltage, for example.
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(45) In contrast, in the system configuration example of the present embodiment shown in
(46) [Modification]
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(50) As for the power limiters 26 and 26A shown in
(51) Although the present invention has been fully described in connection with the preferred embodiments thereof with reference to the accompanying drawings which are used only for the purpose of illustration, those skilled in the art will readily conceive numerous changes and modifications within the framework of obviousness upon the reading of the specification herein presented of the present invention. Accordingly, such changes and modifications are, unless they depart from the scope of the present invention as delivered from the claims annexed hereto, to be construed as included therein.
REFERENCE NUMERALS
(52) 1 ⋅ ⋅ ⋅ electric actuator 2 ⋅ ⋅ ⋅ controller 4 ⋅ ⋅ ⋅ electric motor 6 ⋅ ⋅ ⋅ friction member operator 8 ⋅ ⋅ ⋅ brake rotor 9 ⋅ ⋅ ⋅ friction member 26, 26A ⋅ ⋅ ⋅ power limiter 28 ⋅ ⋅ ⋅ angular velocity estimator 30 ⋅ ⋅ ⋅ vehicle speed estimator