Nissan Motor Company Limited

Kenya Uenuma

Keijiro Iwao

Mitsuhito Ito

Hiroshi Mouri

Masayasu Shimakage

Shigeki Satoh

Hiroyuki Furusho

Tatsuo Sakai

Katsunori Okada

Yoshikazu Hatano

Takuma Suzuki

Akihiro Matsushita

Masatsugu Yokote

Takashi Sunda

Tadashi Tamasho

Youji Shimizu

Yuichiro Sakurai

Hiroto Nakashima

Yosuke Yamaguchi

Masato Takehi

A driver's feeling control apparatus which includes: a steering detection unit which detects the amount of steering operation by a driver; a seat in which the driver sits, and which has a movable part displaceable in a perpendicular direction with respect to the longitudinal direction of a vehicle, or in a yaw direction; and a control unit which determines the amount of the displacement of the movable part in response to the amount of steering operation.

Driver's feeling control apparatus

It is a task of the invention to obtain a favorable thrust force characteristic with respect to a stroke of an actuator even if the actuator is used in a thrust force control. To solve the task, in the present invention, a linear motor type electrically-powered actuator AC with a linear motoras a drive section is drivingly controlled. With a basic thrust force variation with respect to the stroke in a non-excitation state as a basis, a thrust force command Fc is used to correct a phase of the basic thrust force variation and a magnitude thereof to determine a compensation quantity which corresponds to the thrust force variation with respect to the stroke.

Electrically-powered actuator driving control apparatus and driving control method and vehicle having electrically-powered actuator driving control apparatus

A steering detecting section () detects steering angle in the steering operation of a vehicle driver performed for a steering () and a control section () controls rotational movement of a visual information display () based on the detected steering angle. A rotational angle is set while the value for steering angle in the right direction being differentiated from the value for steering angle in the left direction with regard to the same steering angle in the right and left different directions, thus guiding the vehicle driver to correct the difference between the right and left steering speeds in the steering operation.

Steering guide device and steering guide method

A driver feeling adjusting apparatus includes a seat that is fixed to a vehicle and on which a driver is seated, a movable portion that is provided in the seat and that can be displaced in a vehicle lateral direction or a yaw direction, and a control unit that displaces the movable portion in an opposite direction to a direction of centripetal acceleration or a yaw rate in turning, and enables the driver to feel easy steering.

Driver feeling adjusting apparatus

A control unit presents a visual stimulus onto a film adhered on an inner surface of a windscreen glass of a vehicle, and controls the visual stimulus so as to allow a driver to perceive the visual stimulus approaching the driver or receding therefrom in response to detection results of a driving environment detection unit, a vehicle status detection unit and a driver status detection unit. In such a way, visually induced vection can be produced for the driver by the visual stimulus. Accordingly, a drive sense of the driver can be adjusted in response to a vehicle state quantity, a driving environment and a driver state.

Drive sense adjusting apparatus and drive sense adjusting method

According to a visibility adjusting apparatus of a vehicle, an apex T is disposed at a position deviated from a driver and between a position opposed to the driver and a vehicle center position, left and right ridgelines uniformly downwardly inclined from the apex T to the vehicle-width direction are set, and a visibility adjusting section is formed as a parting line which adjusts a lower end visibility of the windshield. The visibility adjusting section is formed of the apex and the left and right ridgelines. With this, a sense of balance of the driver can be stabilized by the inclined parting line, and the sway of a head inclination angle can be suppressed.

Visibility adjusting method and apparatus of vehicle

A view adjustment portion includes a vertex at a position offset from a driver between a position opposed to the driver and a center position of the vehicle and includes right and left edges uniformly sloped down from the vertex toward each side in the vehicle width direction. On the interior surface of the view adjustment portion, textures densest and smallest in the vicinity of the vertex are provided. This can prevent the driver's visual focus to be directed to the vicinity of the vertex T and guide the driver's visual focus in the travel direction of the vehicle. Accordingly, it is possible to prevent the driver from feeling disturbance by a portion of the view adjustment portion around the vertex.

View adjustment method and view adjustment device for a vehicle

An illumination property of headlightsis controlled so that light quantity or color in a belt-like region B including a virtual line segment A may be different from those in other regions, and thereby the virtual line segment A which uniformly inclines downward from an apex T deviated from a driver toward opposite sides in a vehicle-width direction is indicated on a road surface. The virtual line segment A thus indicated can suppress inclinations of forward visibility and also suppress the sway of ahead inclination angle when a vehicle turns, thereby stabilizing a driving posture of a driver and suppressing steering disturbance.

Method and apparatus for adjusting visibility of vehicle

A visibility adjusting section () is formed by making a visible light transmission of a region (A) in a lower side of left and right ridgelines (Rl, Rr) lower than a visible light transmission of a region (B) in an upper side of the left and right ridgelines (Rl, Rr). Accordingly, a driver and a passenger on an assistant driver's seat can see an outer side of a vehicle through the visibility adjusting section (), and a suitable light can be taken into the vehicle. Further, since a parting line () of the visibility adjusting section () is uniformly inclined downward toward opposite sides in a vehicle-width direction from an apex (T) disposed at a position which is deviated from a driver, a driving posture of the driver is stabilized, and it is possible to suppress a disturbance in a steering operation.

In a steering mechanism of steer-by-wire type which includes a first steering unit that is handled by a driver and a second steering unit that steers steered road wheels with the aid of a steering motor, there is employed a control system which input and output detecting sections that detect input and output of the steering motor, a road surface disturbance estimating section that estimates a disturbance of road surface based on both the detected input and output of the steering motor, and a steering reaction force calculating section that, based on the estimated disturbance of road surface, calculates a steering reaction force that is to be applied to a steering wheel of the first steering unit.

Vehicle steering control system

A CCD camera or equivalent sensor is mounted on a vehicle and used to detect lane markings (usually the white or yellow painted lines) on a roadway. An electric motor coupled to a steering system is used to provide a torque input to the steering, which may either assist or oppose the steering torque from a driver. A steering controller is designed to assist the driver to maintain the vehicle lane position by holding the vehicle at a target point using a biasing torque. The controller resumes application of the biasing torque upon expiration of a predetermined period of delay time since a change from the absence of detection of lane marking to the presence of detection of lane marking after the presence of detection of lane marking that continues for a period of time less than a predetermined period of time has occurred a predetermined number of times within a predetermined period of monitoring time or the absence of detection of lane marking continues for a predetermined period of time.

Lane-following system by detection of lane marking

An apparatus for vehicle lane following in which a look ahead sensor including a CCD camera and an image processor detects a lane marking on the surface of a roadway. The image processor estimates a lateral displacement of a point at a preview distance in front of a vehicle from a target line. The target line is a line between lane markings defining a lane. An electric motor coupled to the steering mechanism is used to provide a bias (a torque input) to the steering, which may either assist or oppose to the steering torque from the driver. A steering controller is designed to assist the driver to maintain the vehicle's lane position by holding the vehicle at the target line using a biasing torque if the lane following is selected by the driver. In order to reflect the driver preference in the lane following, the controller collects a sufficient number of measures of the vehicle lateral displacement when the lane following is not selected. Based on the collected data, the controller updates the target line position. In the subsequent lane following, the driver is assisted to maintain the vehicle at this updated target line.

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Yokohama, Japan

Kenya Uenuma