Lucas Industries Public Limited Company

Robert P Page

John Nicholas Cheel

John P Millward

Stuart I Howarth

A control system for a vehicle transmission in which the clutch is controlled by an actuator including a cylinder to which fluid can be supplied by way of valves. The valves are controlled to give at least two phases of clutch engagement. In the first phase the valves are controlled by a processor so that the clutch starts to transmit a small torque. This phase is followed by a further phase in which if the vehicle brakes are applied the clutch is controlled in accordance with the law E=KdN/dT where E equals the error which the control system seeks to minimize, N is the engine speed, T the time and K a constant. If the brakes are not applied or when they are released the clutch is controlled so as to control at one of a plurality of constant rates, the acceleration of the engine.

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Birmingham, United Kingdom

Robert P Page