Mitsubishi Denki Kabushiki Kaisha

Kazuo Kikuta

Hiroshi Nishimura

Shigeki Ohtagaki

Yuji Takatsuka

Katsuhiko Ohmae

In the prior art electric power steering controller, if it is restarted immediately after being turned off, melting and welding of a contact of a relay are detected while a smoothing capacitor is not yet fully discharged. This may lead to a misdetection. A novel electric power steering controller has a relay contact voltage detection circuit and a discharging circuit. The relay contact voltage detection circuit is located between the battery of a vehicle and an electric motor to give an assisting torque to a steering wheel and acts to detect the voltage at the contact of a relay on the side of the electric motor, the relay controlling the output from the battery. Then, melting and welding of the relay contact are detected, based on the voltage at the relay contact detected by the relay contact voltage detection circuit.

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Tokyo, Japan

Kazuo Kikuta