Redundant Parking Brake Control With Timed Backup Activation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing vehicle parking systems, particularly for autonomously-driven trucks, lack redundancy in their primary and secondary parking brake systems, leading to potential failures and safety concerns when the primary brake system malfunctions.
Innovation Solution
A redundant parking brake apparatus with two independent controllers and valves, each with a timer counter, ensures that parking brakes are applied after a predetermined time, even if the primary system fails, providing a backup mechanism to ensure brake application.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a primary parking brake system is used, then the parking brake can be applied in response to a request signal, but the system lacks redundancy and may fail when the primary controller malfunctions
Solution Approach 1:
The parking brake control system is segmented into two independent controllers: a primary parking brake controller that responds immediately to request signals, and a secondary parking brake controller that acts as a backup. Each controller has its own timer counter and can independently activate the parking brakes, ensuring system reliability through functional segmentation while maintaining manageable complexity through modular design
Solution Approach 2:
The secondary parking brake controller is pre-configured with a timer counter that begins counting when a request signal is received. If the primary controller fails to activate the brakes within the predetermined time period, the secondary controller is already prepared to activate the brakes automatically, eliminating the need for complex real-time decision-making during failure scenarios
2Reliability
If a secondary parking brake system with timer counter is added, then redundancy is provided to ensure brake application, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The secondary parking brake controller is designed as a simplified copy of the primary controller, with the same basic functionality to receive request signals, count through a timer, and activate the parking brakes. This copying approach provides full redundancy for reliability while keeping the secondary system simple and manageable in terms of complexity
Solution Approach 2:
The system uses parameter changes in the timer counter to control the backup mechanism. The timer counter is configured with a predetermined time period parameter, and when this parameter is exceeded without brake activation, the secondary controller changes its state to activate the brakes. This parameter-based control simplifies the complexity by using time as the key differentiation factor between primary and secondary activation
Data Source
AI summary
A redundant parking brake apparatus is provided for a vehicle having components of a parking brake system. The redundant parking brake apparatus comprises a first parking brake controller arranged to (i) monitor a first signal indicative of a request to apply parking brakes of the vehicle, and (ii) provide one or more control signals to be applied to components of the parking brake system to apply the parking brakes in response to receiving the first signal. The redundant parking brake apparatus also comprises a second parking brake controller arranged to (i) initiate a timer counter in response to receiving the first signal, and (ii) provide one or more control signals to be applied to components of the parking brake system to apply the parking brakes when the timer counter has reached a predetermined count.