The E-Brake

Abstract

This bachelor thesis is written as part of the curriculum for the bachelor Electrical Engineering at the Delft University of Technology. The thesis is part of the course EE3L11 - Bachelor Afstudeer Project and took place from April 2017 until July 2017.

This document describes the development of a system that is able to drive electric drum brakes, the brake control unit (BCU). The BCU is a subsystem of a larger project; a braking system that minimizes the force between a trailer and a car when braking. The ultimate goal is to let the trailer completely brake for itself.

To achieve this, two other subgroups have designed a control algorithm and a force sensor readout circuit that measures the force. The BCU receives a desired braking force from the control algorithm that should be exerted in order to eliminate the force between car and trailer.
This input force covers a certain range, so the BCU should be designed such that the braking force of the brakes can be regulated. For this purpose a power supply, current controller and lookup table are designed.

The developed power supply is able to provide a constant voltage to the solenoids inside the electric brakes. The power supply consists of a DC/DC converter, which is powered from a car battery. As a consequence, the input voltage of the DC/DC converter is dependent on the state of charge of the battery. Nevertheless, the output of the designed converter is able to provide a constant DC voltage with a maximum current of 8 A.

The designed current controller makes use of a PWM driven current source, which controls the output current of the DC/DC converter. Besides this source, an algorithm that estimates the duty cycle of the PWM signal is derived, based on the desired current through the solenoid.

Last, a lookup table is implemented that determines which current is needed for specific input forces. The table makes use of inter- and extrapolation between measured test results to calculate the right current for every input force.