Mitsubishi Jidosha Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha

Masayuki Hashiguchi

Kiichi Yamada

Masayoshi Ito

Susumu Nishikawa

Shuji Ikeda

Yasunobu Miyata

Atsuhiro Kawano

Takeshi Funakoshi

Katsunori Otake

Keiji Isoda

Toshio Shigehara

Hiroaki Yoshida

Masanori Tani

Hiroo Yuasa

Tadao Tanaka

Makoto Shimada

Takashi Dogahara

Hiroshi Yoshida

Tomohiro Narita

Hiroki Yamanaka

Masayoshi Itoh

Katsunori Ohtake

Masayoshi Osaki

An electric steering device includes an electric actuator which generates a steering assist force for a steering mechanism of a vehicle, a control unit which controls the steering assist force generated from the electric actuator based on an operation of a steering wheel by a driver, an ignition signal detection unit which detects presence or absence of an ignition signal of the vehicle, and a speed acquisition unit which acquires a running speed of the vehicle. In a case that the ignition signal is not detected and the running speed is a predetermined speed or more, the control unit reduces an upper limit of the steering assist force generated from the electric actuator so as to be smaller than an upper limit in a case that the ignition signal is detected.

Electric steering device

A driving torque controlling system by which a vehicle can drive with safety and certainty while maintaining an appropriate posture without dissatisfying the will of a driver very much. The driving torque controlling system comprises a control signal selecting section which selects, in response to a predetermined change-over condition, one of control signals from a turning control unit for setting an aimed driving torque in response to a magnitude of lateral acceleration applied to the vehicle during turning of the vehicle and a slip control unit for setting an aimed driving torque in response to an amount of slip of a driving wheel of the vehicle. A torque controlling unit receives a selected control signal from the control signal selecting means and reduces the driving torque of the vehicle in response to the received control signal independently of operation by a driver of the vehicle.

Engine torque controlling device responsive to the acceleration of the

In a turning control apparatus for a vehicle, a torque calculation unit calculates a target lateral acceleration of the vehicle according to detection signals from a steering angle sensor for detecting the direction of a steering wheel and a vehicle speed sensor for detecting the speed of the vehicle. It then sets target driving torque of the engine according to the target lateral acceleration. An electronic control unit controls the operation of a torque control device for reducing driving of the engine so that the driving torque of the engine is a target driving torque independent of manipulation by the driver. This thereby rapidly estimates lateral acceleration applied to the vehicle during turning and prevents control delay to enable stable and positive traveling through a curved road.

Turning control apparatus for vehicle

An output control apparatus for a vehicle includes a torque reduction device for reducing driving torque of an engine independent of manipulation by the driver and a vehicle speed detection device for detecting a vehicle speed. It further includes a reference driving torque setting device for setting a reference driving torque according to the vehicle speed detected by the vehicle speed detection device. A reference torque setting device is further included for setting a reference driving torque according to a slip amount of the driving wheels. A target driving torque setting device is further included for setting a target driving torque from the reference driving torque set by the reference torque setting device according to a peripheral speed of the driving wheels. A torque control unit is also included for controlling operation of the torque reduction device so that the driving torque is that of the target driving torque set by the target driving torque setting device. Finally, a turning correction device is included for correcting the target driving torque according to the steering angle, to adequately control the driving force of the vehicle during turning, separately from that of straightforward traveling, thereby enabling safe and smooth traveling of the vehicle.

Output control apparatus for vehicle

A method and apparatus for learning the neutral position of vehicle steering angle, in which first neutral position decision means decides that the steering shaft is at a neutral position when a running speed detector detects that the vehicle speed is not less than a predetermined threshold level, that the difference in peripheral speed between the right and left drive wheels is smaller than a predetermined first straight-running threshold value and also when a steering shaft reference position sensor continues to detect a reference position of the steering shaft for at least a first count time. The vehicle steering angle is computed on the basis of the angular displacement from the neutral position thus learned.

Method and apparatus for learning neutral position of vehicle steering

An apparatus for effecting a method for estimating the friction coefficient of a road surface according to the present invention comprises front- and rear-wheel rotation sensors for detecting the running speed of a vehicle, a linear G sensor for detecting an actual transverse acceleration of the vehicle, a steering angle sensor for detecting the steering angle of front wheels, and a torque calculating unit supplied with the vehicle speed, actual transverse acceleration, and steering angle detected by means of these sensors. In the torque calculating unit, which takes account of an assumed value of the stability factor of the vehicle in addition to the vehicle speed, actual transverse acceleration, and steering angle, a target transverse acceleration required by a driver is calculated, for example, and whether or not the friction coefficient of the road surface is low is then estimated according to the relationship between the calculated target transverse acceleration and the actual transverse acceleration.

Apparatus and a method for estimating the friction coefficient of a road

A motor vehicle output power control system quickly reduces the drive torque produced by an engine on a motor vehicle depending on the magnitude of a lateral acceleration which is produced when the motor vehicle makes a turn, or the amount by which drive wheels slips when the motor vehicle is accelerated. A target drive torque depending on the lateral acceleration and a demanded drive torque demanded by the driver of the motor vehicle are added at a predetermined ratio into a turn target drive torque, which is selected as a final target drive torque. The motor vehicle output power control system includes an electronic control unit for controlling an actuator to lower the output drive torque of the engine, independent from controlling action of the driver, such that the output drive torque of the engine is equalized to the final target drive torque.

System for controlling the output power of a motor vehicle

A driving and driven wheel velocity are detected by wheel velocity sensors. A reference velocity is set on the basis of the driven wheel velocity. A slip value of the driving wheel on the basis of a difference between the driving wheel velocity and reference velocity. A target output torque of an engine is set in accordance with the slip value of the driving wheel. The target output torque is corrected in accordance with a lateral acceleration generated in a widthwise direction of the vehicle. An output of the engine is controlled to reach the corrected target output torque.

Traction control apparatus

Driving and driven wheel velocities of a vehicle are detected by wheel velocity sensors, and a change in driven wheel velocities as a function of time is detected to obtain a driven wheel acceleration by the vehicle acceleration calculating section. A reference target torque is calculated on the basis of the driven wheel acceleration. A slip value of the driving wheels is calculated on the basis of the driving and driven wheel velocities, and a correction torque corresponding to the slip value is calculated every predetermined sampling time at TSn calculating section and TPn calculating section. The correction torque is substracted from the reference target torque to obtain a target engine torque. An engine output is controlled to obtain the target engine torque.

A first slip value detecting section detects slip values of the driving wheels on the basis of differences between the outputs from a selected driving wheel velocity and a reference velocity. And a second slip value detecting section detects slip values of the driving wheels on the basis of differences between the outputs from a driving wheel velocity detecting section and the reference velocity. And an engine output is controlled in accordance with the slip values detected by the first slip value detecting section. And braking force is controlled in accordance with the slip values detected by the second slip value detecting section.

This invention has traction control means having slip detecting means for detecting slipping of driving wheels, in accordance with an output signal from the driving wheel velocity detecting means and an output signal from the vehicle body velocity detecting means, and output rate calculating means for generating first instruction A for controlling engine output, in order to immediately decrease a slip rate, based on a slip start signal from the slip detecting means and for, when the slip rate is decreased to a predetermined value, generating second instruction B for controlling the engine to provide an output according to friction coefficient .mu. between a road surface and wheels, and engine output control means for controlling engine output on the basis of the first and second instructions and vehicle operating conditions.

Traction control apparatus for vehicle engine

The slip values DVR, DVL of the right and left driving wheels are respectively detected. The left braking control means control the left driving wheel in accordance with a correction slip value DVFL of the left driving wheel calculated by the following equation on the basis of the slip values DVL, DVR and the coefficient KB set by the coefficient setting means.

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Obu, Japan

Masayuki Hashiguchi