Method for estimating a force applied by a caliper to a brake disc of a braking system of a vehicle

Abstract

The invention relates to a method (300) for estimating a force (Fest, Fest1, Fest2, Fest3) applied by a caliper to a brake disc of a braking system (100) of a vehicle. The braking system comprises: - at least one electro-hydraulic or electro-mechanical actuator (1) of a disc brake (2), - at least one electronic control unit (20) connected to said at least one electro-hydraulic or electro-mechanical actuator to receive data representative of one or more values of electric current (I) supplied to the electric motor associated with the electro-hydraulic or electro-mechanical actuator and of one or more values of the current position (xp) of the motor; the electronic control unit comprises a functional block of contact estimation (21) between a pad of the caliper and the brake disc and a functional block of force estimation (22) operatively associated with the functional block of contact estimation. The method comprises the steps of: - receiving (301) as input, by the functional block of contact estimation, the data representative of one or more values of electric current supplied to the electric motor and of one or more values of the current position of the actuator piston; - detecting (302), by the functional block of contact estimation, a value of contact position (xTD) representative of the position taken by the piston of the electro-hydraulic or electro-mechanical actuator following the contact between a pad of the caliper and said brake disc; - generating (303) as output, by the functional block of contact estimation, a first datum (TD) representative of a contact occurred between the pad and the brake disc and a second datum (xp – xTD) indicative of the difference between said one or more values of current position of the actuator piston and the detected value of the contact position; - making available (304), to the functional block of force estimation, the first and second datum; - estimating (305), by the functional block of force estimation, a value of the force (Fest) applied by the caliper to the brake disc by calculating a stiffness curve applied to the second datum.

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