Fuzzy Life-Extending Control of Anti-Lock Braking System

The repeated operation of the Anti-Lock Braking System (ABS) causes accumulation of structural damages in its different subsystems leading to reduction in their functional life time. This paper proposes a Fuzzy Logic based Life-Extending Control (FLEC) system for increasing the service life of the ABS. FLEC achieves significant improvement in service life by the trade-off between satisfactory dynamic performance and safe operation. The proposed FLEC incorporates structural damage model of the ABS. The model utilizes the dynamic behavior of the ABS and predicts the wear rates of the brake pads/disc. Based on the predicted wear rates, the proposed fuzzy logic controller modifies its control strategy on-line to keep safe operation leading to increase in service time of the ABS. FLEC is fine tuned via genetic algorithm and its effectiveness is verified through simulations of emergency stops of a passenger vehicle model.