A: General

The ABS anti-lock braking system (or electronic brake slip control) is one of the active safety elements of a vehicle which can decisively reduce the risk of becoming involved in an accident.

For this reason, the ABS is expected to meet the following demands:

1. The driving stability of the vehicle should be assured while braking, both when the braking force is slowly increased up to the locking limit and when suddenly increasing the braking force in the event of an emergency stop.
2. As long as the vehicle speed is adequately below the curve limit speed, braking on a bend should be possible without impairing driving stability while maintaining full steerability (the curve limit speed is the speed at which a vehicle can be driven around a bend without engine power and just fast enough that it will not leave the road under the influence of centrifugal force).
3. When the brake pedal is excessively operated to the extent that an uncontrolled braking system will result in the wheels locking, the ABS will modify the braking pressure in the wheel brakes to the extent that the wheels do not lock and that instead, the adhesion between the wheels and the road is optimally exploited. Consequently, vehicles with ABS as compared with uncontrolled brake systems provide the following advantages when the brakes are fully applied:
   • Higher driving stability
   • Better steerability