Hitachi Automotive Systems, Ltd.

Atsushi Uehara

Nobuyasu Kanekawa

Ryoichi Kobayashi

Tomonobu Koseki

Keisuke Honda

Shigeru Naoi

Takashi Nagai

Electronic control units (ECUs) provided with circuits for backing up other ECUs lack versatility and increase costs. In the present invention, motor control ECUs respectively control motors via signal wires that perform motor control. In addition, a dedicated substitute ECU is connected to each motor via signal wires that perform motor control. A substitute control circuit part of the dedicated substitute ECU runs to a network, is continuously receiving malfunction information and stability information via a signal wire, and detects the malfunction of the motor control ECU from said information. Then the dedicated substitute ECU substitutes for the motor control ECU and performs a backup operation to continue control of the motor via the signal wire.

Motor control system and motor control method

An electronic control apparatus includes a control unit, a plurality of power supply units for supplying the control unit with power, and a power supply fault detector unit for detecting a fault in the plurality of power supply units. The control unit operates in a normal mode on electric power supplied from the plurality of power supply units when none of the plurality of power supply units is faulty.

Electronic control apparatus

An electronic control apparatus includes a control unit; a plurality of power supply units--for supplying the control unitwith power; and a power supply fault detector unitfor detecting a fault in the plurality of power supply units--. The control unitoperates in a normal mode on electric power supplied from the plurality of power supply units--, when none of the plurality of power supply units--is faulty. If at least one of the plurality of power supply units--is faulty, the control unitoperates in an energy saving mode in which less power is consumed on electric power supplied from the power supply unit that remains fully operational. Thereby an electronic control apparatus is obtained that enables continued operation during a faulty condition, while preventing circuit scale, dimensions, weight, and cost from increasing.

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Mito, Japan

Atsushi Uehara