Method and apparatus for determining brake wear at a vehicle

1. A method for determining brake wear of a vehicle, comprising:

determining, by a processor, for each of one or more time periods during which a brake of the vehicle is actuated, a speed of the vehicle at a start time of the respective time period and a speed change parameter indicative of a change of speed of the vehicle during the respective time period;

determining, by the processor, for each of the one or more time periods during which a brake of the vehicle is actuated, whether the vehicle is traveling on a slope;

determining, by the processor, for one or more first time periods during which the vehicle is not traveling on a slope, a respective first brake wear contribution parameter indicative of brake wear, without consideration of the slope, of one or more brakes of the vehicle during the respective first time period based on the speed of the vehicle at the start time of the respective first time period, the speed change parameter indicative of the change of speed of the vehicle during the respective first time period, and the mass or weight of the vehicle;

determining, by the processor, for each of one or more second time periods during which the vehicle is traveling on a slope, a slope parameter indicative of a slope inclination angle of the slope on which the vehicle is traveling;

determining, by the processor, a respective second brake wear contribution parameter indicative of brake wear at one or more brakes of the vehicle during the respective second time period based on the speed of the vehicle at the start time of the respective second time period, the mass or weight of the vehicle, and the respective determined slope parameter indicative of the slope inclination angle; and

determining, by the processor, a respective brake wear parameter based on the first and second brake wear contribution parameters, based on a linear combination or sum of the first and second brake wear contribution parameters.

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein

the respective second brake wear contribution parameter is determined further based on the time length of the respective time period.

3. The method according to claim 1 , wherein

the respective second brake wear contribution parameter is determined to be zero when the slope inclination angle during the respective time period is smaller than a threshold.

4. The method according to claim 1 , wherein

plural respective brake wear parameters are determined for plural time periods, and

the method further comprises:

accumulating, by the processor, the plural respective brake wear parameters to determine an accumulated brake wear parameter indicative of brake wear at one or more brakes of the vehicle during an accumulation duration spanning the plural time periods.

5. The method according to claim 4 , further comprising:

determining, by the processor, at least one of a remaining lifetime or an expected brake replacement time based on the accumulated brake wear parameter and a length of the accumulation duration.

6. The method according to claim 1 , wherein

the respective first brake wear contribution parameter is determined to be zero when the change of speed of the vehicle during the respective time period is smaller than a threshold.

7. The method according to claim 1 , wherein

the respective brake wear parameter is determined to be zero for at least one of (i) time periods in which the brake of the vehicle is not activated, (ii) time periods in which the brake of the vehicle is activated and the vehicle speed is determined to be smaller than a.

8. The method according to claim 1 , further including:

obtaining, by the processor, sensor data indicative of brake system characteristics of the vehicle, and determining, by the processor, whether the brake system is in a fault state based on a brake system anomaly detection performed on the basis of the obtained sensor data, before determining, by the processor, the respective brake wear parameter based on at least one of the sensor data or parameters derived from the obtained sensor data.

9. The method according to claim 8 , wherein

the brake system anomaly detection is performed by mapping the obtained sensor data to an abstract sensor data vector space and comparing the vector space position of the mapped sensor data to one or more cluster regions in the vector space which are associated with normal operation of the brake system, by a machine learning algorithm including mapping sensor data obtained during normal operation of the brake system to the abstract sensor data vector space.

10. An apparatus for determining brake wear of a vehicle, the apparatus including a memory and a processor being configured to execute program code to perform operations comprising:

determining, for each of one or more time periods during which a brake of the vehicle is actuated, a speed of the vehicle at a start time of the respective time period and a speed change parameter indicative of a change of speed of the vehicle during the respective time period;

determining, for each of the one or more time periods during which a brake of the vehicle is actuated, whether the vehicle is traveling on a slope;

determining, for each of the one or more first time periods during which the vehicle is not traveling on a slope, a respective first brake contribution wear parameter indicative of brake wear, without consideration of the slope, of one or more brakes of the vehicle during the respective first time period based on the speed of the vehicle at the start time of the respective first time period, the speed change parameter indicative of the change of speed of the vehicle during the respective first time period, and the mass or weight of the vehicle;

determining for each of one or more second time periods during which the vehicle is traveling on a slope, a slope parameter indicative of a slope inclination angle of the slope on which the vehicle is traveling;

determining a respective second brake wear contribution parameter indicative of brake wear of one or more brakes of the vehicle during the respective second time period based on the speed of the vehicle at the start time of the respective second time period, the mass or weight of the vehicle, and the respective determined slope parameter indicative of the slope inclination angle; and

determining a respective brake wear parameter based on the first and second brake wear contribution parameters, based on a linear combination or sum of the first and second brake wear contribution parameters.

11. A computer program product including a computer program including computer program instructions adapted to cause a controller, computer, processor or mobile computing device to execute the steps of a method of claim 1 .