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Park-brake monitoring-system for a vehicle

  • US 6,779,636 B2
  • Filed: 10/15/2002
  • Issued: 08/24/2004
  • Est. Priority Date: 10/15/2002
  • Status: Expired due to Term
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First Claim
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1. A vehicle, comprising:

  • one or more frame structures to which a majority of other components of said vehicle are engaged directly or indirectly and which function(s) to locate said other components of said vehicle relative to one another;

    a suspension system that is engaged to and supports said one or more frame structures;

    wherein said suspension system comprises one or more ground-engaging components that are rotatable relative to said one or more frame structure(s) of said vehicle, at least when certain subsystems of said vehicle are in certain operational states, and that provide said vehicle with a relatively low resistance to movement along said ground when they are rotatable relative to said one or more frame structure(s);

    one or more body structures engaged directly or indirectly to and supported by said one or more frame structures and upon or within which occupants and/or cargo of said vehicle may reside;

    a park-brake system that has a set operational state in which said park-brake system prevents rotation of one or more of said ground-engaging components relative to said one or more frame structures and that also has a release operational state in which said park-brake system does not prevent rotation of any of said ground-engaging components relative to said one or more frame structures;

    wherein said park-brake system further comprises park-brake-actuating components that effect or allow said released operational state of said park-brake system when they are in a home position and that effect said set operational state of said park-brake system when they have been actuated away from their home position to a set position;

    wherein said park-brake system further comprises park-brake-system controls that are operable by an operator of said vehicle to effect actuation and retraction of said park-brake-actuating components between said home position and said set position;

    a park-brake monitoring-system that comprises one or more logic device(s);

    wherein said park-brake monitoring-system further comprises one or more selected-state sensor(s) that are communicatively linked to said one or more logic device(s) and that interact with said park-brake-system controls in such a manner that said one or more selected-state sensor(s) produce and communicate to said logic device(s) signals implicative of a requested operational state of said park-brake system;

    wherein said park-brake monitoring-system further comprises one or more actual-state sensor(s) that are communicatively linked to said logic device(s) and that interact with said park-brake-actuating components in such manner that said actual-state sensors produce and communicate to said logic device(s) signals implicative of an actual operational state of said park-brake system, which signals that are implicative of an actual operational state of said park brake system are dependent upon position(s) of said park-brake-actuating components relative to said home position and said set position thereof;

    wherein said one or more logic device(s) of said park-brake monitoring-system operate in accordance with logic that cause it/them to operate in such a manner that it/they perform the step of;

    producing monitoring signals in a manner that is dependent upon both said signal(s) produced and communicated to said logic device(s) by said selected-state sensor(s) and said signal(s) produced and communicated to said logic device(s) by said actual-state sensor(s);

    said one or more actual-state sensor(s) produce and communicate to said logic device(s) an under-travel signal when said park-brake-actuating components of said park-brake system are actuated and/or retracted to at least one position in and under-travel range of positions;

    said one or more selected-state sensor(s) produce and communicate to said logic device(s) a set-requested signal during any presence in said park-brake system-controls of conditions that are only present when an operator has manipulated said park-brake-system controls in a manner to effect said set operational state of said park-brake system;

    said one or more logic device(s) of said park-brake monitoring-system operate in accordance with logic that cause it/them to operate in such a manner that it/they perform the steps of;

    when a signal combination comprising an under-travel signal and a said set-requested signal, which is a non-allowed signal combination, is communicated to said logic device(s), executing a malfunction-verification algorithm comprising the steps of;

    starting a timing operation;

    continuing said timing operation until said timing operation has been active for a malfunction-verification period or said signal combination comprising said under-travel signal and said set-requested signal is no longer being communicated to said logic device(s);

    if said signal combination comprising said under-travel signal and said set-requested signal ceases to be communicated to said logic device(s) before said timing operation has been active for said malfunction-verification period, terminating execution of said malfunction-verification algorithm and waiting until a non-allowed signal combination is once again communicated to said logic device(s) before initiating another execution of said malfunction-verification algorithm; and

    if said timing operation has been active for said malfunction-verification period before said signal combination comprising said under-travel signal and said set-requested signal ceases to be communicated to said logic device(s), producing a monitoring signal that is an error signal.

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