Pressure monitoring system

DETAILED DESCRIPTION Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a pressure monitoring system for monitoring a hydraulic pressure supplied from a fluid pump and accumulated in an accumulator, at a low cost.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a low cost pressure monitoring system for monitoring a hydraulic pressure supplied from a fluid pump and accumulated in an accumulator thereby to detect a malfunction easily and certainly.
In accomplishing the above and other objects, a pressure monitoring system for monitoring a hydraulic pressure, which is supplied from a fluid pump and accumulated in an accumulator, includes an electric motor which drives the fluid pump to supply the hydraulic pressure in proportion to a current fed to the motor, a current detection device which detects the current fed to the motor, and a pressure estimation device which estimates the hydraulic pressure accumulated in the accumulator in response to the current detected by the current detection device.
In the above-described system, it is preferable that the pressure estimation device is adapted to estimate the hydraulic pressure accumulated in the accumulator in response to the current detected by the current detection device after a predetermined time elapsed from the time when the current was initially fed to the motor.
The electric motor is preferably adapted to drive the fluid pump to supply the hydraulic pressure in substantially linear proportion to the current fed to the motor.
The system may further comprise a malfunction detection device for detecting a malfunction on the basis of the output of the pressure estimation device.