Honda Giken Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha

Kaoru Matsuno

Shinnosuke Ishida

Hiroyuki Kawagoe

Tomoaki Teramoto

A system for controlling steering of a vehicle, including a steering means such as a steering wheel with an electric motor which assists steering of the driven wheels of the vehicle, first steering control means for controlling the motor, a CCD camera for detecting a lane condition of a road on which the vehicle travels, a yaw rate sensor for detecting motion of the vehicle, steering assist torque calculating means for calculating a steering assist torque necessary for holding the lane, a torque sensor for detecting an actual steering torque manually applied to the steering means by the driver, and second steering control means for calculating a torque command to be output to the first steering control means based on the steering assist torque calculated by the steering assist torque calculating means and the actual steering torque such that the torque command decreases. In the system, the second steering control means transfers to the first steering control means an index indicative of a condition under which the steering assist torque was calculated, or an index indicative of an order in which the values of the steering assist torque are tansferred, thereby ensuring appropriate and highly reliable communication between the two control means.

Steering control system for vehicle

A system for controlling steering of a vehicle, including a steering device such as a steering wheel with an electric motor which assists steering of driven wheels of the vehicle, first steering control unit for controlling the motor, a CCD camera for detecting a lane condition of a road on which the vehicle travels, a yaw rate sensor for detecting motion of the vehicle, steering assist torque calculating unit for calculating a steering assist torque necessary for holding the lane, a torque sensor for detecting an actual steering torque manually applied to the steering device by the driver, and second steering control unit for calculating a torque command to be output to the first steering control unit based on the steering assist torque calculated by the steering assist torque calculating unit and the detected steering torque to control the actuator such that the torque command decreases. In the system, a switching device is provided for switching between modes of control by the first steering control unit and the second steering control unit gradually with respect to time, thereby ensuring to switch the mode of control smoothly and preventing the occurrence of disadvantages including that the vehicle driver experiences annoyance upon sensing a change in steering assist.

A system for controlling steering of a vehicle, including a steering unit having an electric motor which steers driven wheels of the vehicle, a first steering control unit (EPS ECU 76) for controlling the actuator, a CCD camera for detecting a condition of a lane on a road on which the vehicle travels, a steering assist torque determining unit for determining a steering assist torque necessary for holding a positional relationship between the vehicle and the lane condition, a torque sensor for detecting a steering torque manually applied to the steering unit by the driver, second steering control unit for calculating a torque command to be output to the first steering control unit based on the steering assist torque calculated by the steering assist torque calculating unit and the detected steering torque to control the motor such that the torque command decreases. In the system, a failure detecting unit is provided for detecting whether a failure has occurred at least in determination of the steering assist torque, and the control by the second control unit is discontinued, or is switched to the control by the first control unit when the failure is detected, thereby enabling to detect or discriminate the occurrence of failure with accuracy and to take a necessary countermeasure to cope with the failures condition.

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Wako, Japan

Kaoru Matsuno