The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jun. 20, 2000
Filed:
Apr. 16, 1998
Toshinobu Ota, Ama gun, JP;
Hiroyuki Nagai, Nagoya, JP;
Yosuke Takahira, Toyota, JP;
Toshimi Ishikawa, Anjo, JP;
Aisin Seiki Kabushiki Kaisha, Kariya, JP;
Abstract
The present invention is directed to a braking control system for controlling a braking force applied to each of front and rear wheels of a four-wheel drive vehicle, which has a front differential gear connected to the front wheels, a rear differential gear connected to the rear wheels, and a center differential gear connected to the front and rear differential gears. A wheel speed sensor is provided for detecting wheel speeds of the wheels. A non-contact detector is provided for determining whether at least one wheel is not contacting the ground in the vehicle's path, on the basis of the wheel speeds detected by the wheel sensor. A downhill detector is provided for determining whether the vehicle's path is on a downhill road. An engine brake detector is provided for determining whether the vehicle is under an engine brake. And, a braking force controlling device is provided for controlling a braking force applied to each of the wheels independently, and adapted to apply the braking force to at least one of the wheels, when the downhill detector determines that the vehicle's path is on the downhill road, the engine brake detector determines that the vehicle is under the engine brake, and the non-contact detector determines that the at least one wheel is not contacting the ground.