Asahi Kogaku Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha

Honda Giken Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha

Honda Motor Co., Ltd.

Asahi Kogaku Kogyo K.k.

Masakatsu Hori

Akihiro Iwazaki

Tatsuhiro Tomari

Kazuhiro Wada

Shinji Okuma

Hiromi Inagaki

Takashi Kuribayashi

Tomoyuki Shinmura

Kiyoshi Wakamatsu

Ryuji Asada

Shinji Ohkuma

Takashi Adachi

Satoshi Ando

Yasuji Shibahata

Masatoshi Noguchi

Kota Saito

Makoto Tsuchihashi

Sei Shinohara

Tetsuro Tani

Shogo Takano

Chao Niu

A vehicle control apparatus including a driving force generation unit, a driving force distribution mechanism distributing a driving force from the driving force generation unit to a front wheel and a rear wheel, and an electronic control unit having a microprocessor and a memory. The microprocessor is configured to perform: determining whether a mode switching instruction from self-drive mode enabling a self-drive function to manual drive mode disabling the self-drive function has been input; and controlling the driving force distribution mechanism so that a driving force distribution rate of rear wheel driving force relative to front wheel driving force is a first distribution rate during driving in the self-drive mode, and thereafter so that the driving force distribution rate is a second distribution rate greater than the first distribution rate when it is determined that the mode switching instruction has been input.

Vehicle control apparatus

A motor controller obtains: a first motor target rotation number, a first motor actual rotation number of a first motor, a second motor target rotation number, and a second motor actual rotation number of a second motor; determines a first rotation number difference between the first motor target rotation number and the first motor actual rotation number of the first motor, and a second rotation number difference between the second motor target rotation number and the second motor actual rotation number of the second motor, determines first and second rotation control torques based on a smaller one of the first rotation number difference and the second rotation number difference; and determines a first motor torque of the first motor and a second motor torque of the second motor based on the first and second rotation control torques.

Vehicle driving system and vehicle driving system control method

A driving force distribution system selectively operates right and left electromagnetic clutches and, thereby assisting a vehicle in turning by transmitting torque from the inner turning wheel to the outer turning wheel. The right electromagnetic clutch includes an armature on the right side of a core housing a coil. The left electromagnetic clutch includes an armature on the left side of the core housing a coil. When the right electromagnetic clutch is engaged in order to assist the turning by transmitting torque from the right driven wheel to the left driven wheel when the vehicle is turning right, since the right electromagnetic clutch includes the armature on the right side of the core, the armature is urged leftward toward the core due to a centrifugal force caused by turning right to reduce an air gap, thereby enhancing the responsiveness of engagement of the right electromagnetic clutch as well as reducing the power consumption.

Electromagnetic clutch structure in driving force distribution system

An electromagnetic clutch structure in a driving force distribution system selectively operates right and left electromagnetic clutches so as to transmit torque from the inner turning wheel to the outer turning wheel, thereby assisting turning, or so as to transmit torque from the outer turning wheel to the inner turning wheel, thereby stabilizing vehicle behavior. The right and left electromagnetic clutches each include a coil, a core housing the coils, armatures arranged so as to adjoin the core in the lateral direction, and frictional engagement members arranged on the inside, in the radial direction, of the core. The frictional engagement members are engaged by pressure of a pressure part of the armatures, the pressure part extending further inward in the radial direction than the core.

In a vehicle in which a torque generated in an engine is transmitted to driven wheels through a torque converter and an automatic transmission, when a speed ratio e in the torque converter is equal to or larger than a predetermined value (e.g., 0.85), and the accuracy of estimating a capacity &tgr; of the torque converter is low, an estimated engine torque Ti is multiplied by a torque ratio k of the torque converter to estimate a drive torque Td. When the speed ratio e in the torque converter is smaller than the predetermined value, and a response lag is produced in the transmission of the engine torque, a drive torque Td is estimated from an engine rotational sped Ne and the speed ratio e in the torque converter. During shifting of the automatic transmission, a drive torque Td is estimated from a wheel speed V. Thus, a correct drive torque can be estimated.

Process for estimating drive torque in vehicle

The engagement force of an electromagnetic clutch can be precisely controlled at a target engagement force by a simple structure even when an air gap of the electromagnetic clutch varies. An electromagnetic clutch control system includes magnetic flux density sensors, a target engagement force calculating device, a target magnetic flux density calculating device, and a feedback control device. The target magnetic flux density calculating device calculates a target magnetic flux density &phgr;t based on a target engagement force Tt of electromagnetic clutches calculated by the target engagement force calculating device. The current supplied to the electromagnetic clutches is feedback controlled by the feedback control device so that an actual magnetic flux density &phgr; detected by the magnetic flux density sensors agrees with the target magnetic flux density &phgr;t. This allows a target engagement force to be generated in the electromagnetic clutches by making the actual magnetic flux density agree precisely with the target magnetic flux density, even when the air gap varies due to wear of a frictional engagement member, etc. and the relationship between the actual magnetic flux density and the current supplied to the electromagnetic clutches changes.

Electromagnetic clutch control system

A vehicle co-operative control system is provided which suppresses the torque steer phenomenon by co-operatively controlling a driving force and/or braking force distribution device and an electric power steering device without changing the control device of the electric power steering device for a vehicle having a specification in which the co-operative control is not carried out or with the introduction of only a minimal change. The control device can also be applied to a vehicle having a specification in which the co-operative control is carried out. In order to achieve this, the steering torque detected by the steering torque detecting device is input into a corrected steering torque calculating device of a first electronic control unit for controlling the driving force and/or braking force distribution device and a corrected steering torque which has been calculated in the corrected steering torque calculating device is input into the second electronic control unit for controlling the electric power steering device. The second electronic control unit controls the electric power steering device based on the corrected steering torque and thus the torque steer phenomenon caused by the driving force and/or braking force distribution device is suppressed.

Vehicle co-operative control system

A driving force distribution device which controls the engagement forces of electromagnetic clutches and which govern the torque distribution between the driving wheels of a vehicle by calculating a target magnetic flux density and converting the same into a target excitation current. Since the relationship between the target magnetic flux density and the target excitation current changes according to a decrease in the air gaps accompanying wear of the frictional engagement members of the electromagnetic clutches, a relationship between the magnetic flux density and the excitation current is determined by applying current to the electromagnetic clutches when torque distribution control is not being carried out such as when the system is started, and the target excitation current is calculated from the target magnetic flux density based on the determined relationship. Since there is no need to detect dynamic changes in the magnetic flux density, inexpensive devices can be used as magnetic flux density detecting means so contributing to a reduction in the cost.

Driving force distribution device for vehicle

An electric power steering system for a vehicle that consists of a motor control signal calculation device for calculating a motor control signal for driving a motor to generate a steering assist torque, which is based on at least a steering torque detected by a steering torque sensor, a motor control signal correction calculation device for calculating a corrected motor control signal from an amount of motor control signal correction calculated by an external control device and the motor control signal, a driving device for driving a motor based on the corrected motor control signal calculated by the motor control signal correction calculation device; and a motor control signal correction amount reducing device for reducing the amount of motor control signal correction according to vehicle speed.

Electric power steering system

A film back exchangeable camera is provided. The film back exchangeable camera has a camera body and a film back that can be attached to a rear portion of the camera body. The film back exchangeable camera includes a backward protrusion protruding backward from a film back attaching surface and covering a top surface of the film back. The camera also includes at least one operation member provided on the backward protrusion and a grip portion protruding backward from the film back attaching surface and covering one side surface of the film back.

Film back exchangeable camera

A film back exchangeable camera has a camera body and a film back that can be attached to and detached from the camera body. The camera includes: an aperture formed in the film back, through which photographing light flux passes; a film supplying mechanism that moves a film along a film running surface defined at a rear of the aperture; a shielding member, which is built in the film back and located movably in front of the film running surface and which is movable between a shielding state where a film is not exposed to light and a light transmissible state where the light is transmissible to the film to expose the film; a shielding member driving mechanism that moves the shielding member from the shielding state to the light transmissible state; a forward/reverse rotation motor; and a motor linking switch mechanism by which the forward/reverse rotation motor is switchingly linked with either one of the film supplying mechanism and the shielding member driving mechanism according to a forward rotation and a reverse rotation of the forward/reverse rotation motor. The film supply is executed by the forward rotation of the forward/reverse rotation motor, and the shielding member is moved from the shielding state to the light transmissible state by the reverse rotation of the forward/reverse rotation motor.

Film back exchangeable camera and exchangeable film back

A co-operative control system for a vehicle including a force distribution device for distributing the driving force or braking force between the right and left wheels or between the front and rear wheels, includes a first control means for controlling the operation of the force distribution device, an electric power steering device, having a motor for applying a steering assist torque to a vehicle steering system, and a second control means for calculating a motor control signal for driving the motor. The motor control signal is based on at least the steering torque detected by a steering torque detecting means. The first control means calculates a correction signal for correcting said motor control signal based on the distributed force generated by the force distribution device, the second control means drives the motor based on the corrected motor control signal obtained by correcting the motor control signal with the correction signal and the first control means stops the operation of the force distribution device when the electric power steering device or the second control means malfunctions.

Co-operative control system for a vehicle

A film support and feed system of a camera includes a pressure plate, a film feed mechanism which moves the film frame in a space in front of the pressure plate, a film suction mechanism which brings the film frame into intimate contact with the pressure plate by vacuum aspiration, a reversible motor, and an associating mechanism which selectively associates the reversible motor with either the film feed mechanism or the film suction mechanism in accordance with a direction of rotation of the reversible motor. The reversible motor is associated with the film feed mechanism by the associating mechanism to operate the film feed mechanism when the reversible motor is driven to rotate in a forward direction, or to operate the film suction mechanism when the reversible motor is driven to rotate in a reverse direction.

Film support and feed system of a camera

In a film back exchangeable camera provided with a camera body, an exchangeable film back is removably attached to the camera body. A light shielding member is removably attached to the film back so that the light shielding member prevents a film in the film back from being exposed when the light shielding member is attached to the film back, and so that the film is permitted to be exposed when the light shielding member is removed from the film back. The camera further includes film back attachment detecting means for detecting attachment of the film back to the camera body, light shielding member attachment detecting means for detecting attachment of the light shielding member to the film back, release lock means for switching a shutter between an operable state and an inoperable state; and viewfinder lock means for switching a viewfinder between an observable state and an unobservable state, so that the shutter being brought into the inoperable state by the release lock means and the viewfinder is brought into the unobservable state by the viewfinder lock means when attachment of the film back to the camera body is detected by the film back attachment detecting means and attachment of the light shielding member to the film back is detected by the light shielding member attachment detecting means.

Film-back exchangeable camera

A co-operative control system for a vehicle having a force distribution device for distributing at least one of a driving force and a braking force between spaced apart wheels, the co-operative system having: a first control mechanism for controlling the operation of the force distribution device, an electric power steering device having a motor for applying a steering assist torque to a steering system of the vehicle, and a second control mechanism for calculating a motor control signal for driving the motor based on at least a steering torque detected by a steering torque sensor, and for inhibiting drive of the motor based on at least an actual motor detected by a current sensor and the steering torque. The first control mechanism calculates a correction signal for correcting the motor control signal based on the amount of control of the force distribution device and an offset current for correcting the actual motor current signal; and the second control mechanism drives the motor based on a corrected motor control signal obtained by correcting the motor control signal with the correction signal and inhibits the drive of the motor based on a value obtained by correcting the actual motor current signal with the offset current and the steering torque signal, the offset current being set smaller than the correction signal.

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Wako, Japan

Masakatsu Hori