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:
Oct. 09, 2001
Filed:
Jun. 01, 2000
Other;
Abstract
Provided is a braking force control apparatus for vehicles capable of performing appropriate vehicle braking even in a road-contactless state of a wheel. The braking force control apparatus is adapted to a four-wheel drive vehicle having a center differential for distributing and transmitting driving force to the front wheels and rear wheels and a braking system capable of exerting braking force on each of the front and rear wheels, based on voluntary switching between braking according to driver's brake-pedal actuation and forced braking independent of the brake-pedal actuation. It is determined whether the vehicle is in an engine brake state and it is then determined whether at least one of the wheels is in the road-contactless state. When an engine brake determining device determines that the vehicle is in the engine brake state and when a road-contactless state determining device determines that at least one of the wheels is in the road-contactless state, the braking force based on the forced braking is exerted on the wheels other than the at least one wheel while the braking force based on the driver's brake-pedal actuation is permitted to be exerted on the at least one wheel.