To provide a braking device for a vehicle which efficiently collects and utilizes thermal energy which is generated with the braking of the vehicle.
An electronic control unit 31 inputs a battery capacity W of a battery 23 from a battery monitor 32, and determines whether the capacity W is not smaller than an upper limit value Wm. Then, the unit 31 switches a switching circuit 22 to a state that a flow of electric energy toward a thermoelectric conversion unit 21 from the battery 23 is permitted when the capacity W is not smaller than the upper limit value Wm. By this, the conversion unit 21 consumes the electric energy discharged from the battery 23, and cools a caliper 12a. Alternatively, the unit 31 switches the circuit 22 to a state that the flow of the electric energy toward the battery 23 from the conversion unit 21 is permitted when the capacity W is smaller than the upper limit value Wm. By this, the conversion unit 21 collects the thermal energy generated at the caliper 12a, and the converted electric energy is charged into the battery 23.
YOSHIHISA TAMOTSU
NISHIDA NAOTAKA
HIRAMATSU YUKIO
ONUMA YUTAKA
TSURUMI YASUAKI
SEKIYA YOSHIHIDE
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