Trw Limited

Trw Automotive U.S. LLC

John Martin Reeve

Christopher David Dixon

Connel Brett Williams

Jiang Li

A method of monitoring the condition of a steering system comprises the steps of repeatedly measuring the angular position of a steering wheel, identifying from the measurements of steering wheel position a first moment in time at which the steering wheel comes to rest in an off center position following movement in a first direction away from a straight ahead position, measuring the torque applied to the steering system at that first moment in time, identifying from the measurements of steering wheel position a second moment in time at which the steering wheel first starts to moves away from the off center position in the opposite direction to the first direction, measuring the torque applied to the steering system at that second moment in time, calculating the difference between the measured torques at the first moment of time and second moment of time to provide a static friction value and comparing the calculated static friction value with a target static friction value to provide an indication of the condition of the steering system.

Steering systems

A method of processing signals in a rotary encoder of the kind which comprises at least one annular track of encoding regions arranged as an alternating pattern of first encoding regions and second encoding regions. The encoder including first and second detectors, each of which is arranged to produce a first alternating output signal as the track of encoding regions rotates about its axis past the detector. The detector identifying a usable pair of transitions and a rejectable pair of transitions and utilizing the pairs of transitions to produce a compensated position measurement for the rotary encoder.

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Coventry, United Kingdom

John Martin Reeve