Modeling and control design for a computer controlled brake system

In this paper we consider the problem of modeling and control of a computer controlled brake system. The brake model is developed using a series of experiments conducted on a test bench which contains the full scale brake subsystem of a Lincoln town car and a computer controlled actuator designed by Ford Motor Company. The developed model has the form of a first order nonlinear system with the system nonlinearities lumped in the model coefficients. The brake controller design makes use of a standard feedback linearization technique along with intuitive modifications to meet the closed loop performance specifications. The simulation results show that the proposed controller guarantees no overshoot and zero steady state error for step inputs. Test of the same controller using the experimental bench setup demonstrates its effectiveness in meeting the performance requirements.