Parking Brake Controller Using Multi-Factor Verification
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Solution Overview
Problem
Commercial vehicle parking systems, particularly for air-braked tractors, face challenges in ensuring the parking brake is not inadvertently released, as they lack a 'Park' setting and require reliable mechanisms to verify the driver's presence and intent before releasing the brake.
Innovation Solution
A parking brake controller that monitors multiple vehicle factors using sensors such as facial biometrics, switches, and cameras, and only releases the brake when a valid sequence of these factors is met and a request to unpark is received, ensuring the vehicle is ready for operation by an authorized user.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If the parking brake is designed to be easily released for convenience, then the ease of operation is improved, but the risk of accidental release increases, reducing reliability
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary verification of vehicle factors (gear position, brake application status, ignition state) before allowing parking brake release. This preliminary check ensures that the vehicle is in a safe state for brake release, preventing accidental release while maintaining ease of operation when conditions are met.
Solution Approach 2:
The controller continuously monitors vehicle factors and provides feedback to determine whether release conditions are satisfied. This feedback mechanism ensures that the parking brake can only be released when the vehicle is in the correct state, balancing ease of operation with reliability by automatically verifying safety conditions.
2Reliability
If multiple vehicle factors are monitored to ensure safe brake release, then the reliability is improved, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The controller utilizes existing vehicle sensors and systems (gear position sensors, brake application sensors, ignition switches) that serve multiple functions in the vehicle operation. By repurposing these existing components for parking brake control, the system achieves reliable multi-factor monitoring without proportionally increasing device complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The parking brake control function is merged with the existing vehicle control system and integrated into the controller that manages other vehicle operations. This consolidation allows multiple vehicle factors to be monitored through a single integrated control unit rather than requiring separate dedicated systems, thereby reducing overall complexity while maintaining reliability.
3Reliability
If the system requires a sequence of vehicle factors to be met before releasing the brake, then the reliability is improved, but the loss of time increases due to additional verification steps
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary checks of vehicle factors in the background or in parallel with driver actions, so that when the driver attempts to release the parking brake, the verification is already complete or can be quickly determined. This reduces the perceived time delay while maintaining reliable verification of safety conditions.
Solution Approach 2:
The controller automatically monitors and evaluates vehicle factors without requiring active driver intervention for each check. The system self-verifies the conditions and readiness state, eliminating manual verification steps and reducing time loss while ensuring reliable brake release only when appropriate conditions are met.
Data Source
AI summary
A parking brake controller comprises at least one input for receiving a signal indicative of at least one vehicle factor, a control input for receiving a request to unpark the vehicle, an output for transmitting a control signal to a parking brake valve and control logic. The control logic determines the at least one vehicle factor indicates the vehicle can be unparked, determines an unpark request has been received, and transmits a control signal to the parking brake valve only in response to the unpark request being received while the at least one vehicle factor is being met.