Honda Giken Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha

Honda Kigen Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha

Mitsuya Serizawa

Yoshimi Furukawa

Yoshimichi Kawamoto

Tetsuro Hamada

Masaru Abe

Masami Ogura

Yorihisa Yamamoto

Makoto Sato

Shuji Shiraishi

Osamu Yamamoto

Takashi Kohata

Kazuhiro Seki

Toru Yasuda

Norio Ukai

Shoichi Sano

Hiromi Inagaki

Osamu Tsurumiya

Takashi Nishihara

Yoshimitsu Akuta

Keiyu Kin

Tetsurou Hamada

Yutaka Nishi

Nobuharu Kuriki

Hiroyuki Kawagoe

Yasuharu Oyama

Wataru Saito

Tsuyoshi Sato

Akihiko Ohtsu

Yoshimich Kawamoto

Toyotaka Torii

Takuya Sakai

Hidenori Ishihama

Yuichi Hashimoto

Yoshimitu Akuta

A cockpit is supported by a motion base in a state of being capable of making swinging movement. A host computer calculate vehicle motion information in accordance with operation of various operation equipments performed by a driver accommodated in the cockpit. A simulation image is formed, the cockpit is controlled for swinging movement, and various meters or the like in the cockpit are controlled on the basis of an obtained result of the calculation. Thus, the drive simulation is carried out in a state approximate to that of a real vehicle.

Drive simulation apparatus

In a method for controlling a front and rear wheel steering system in which front wheels of a vehicle are steered according to a combination of a steering wheel input and an output from a compensatory front wheel steering actuator, and rear wheels of the vehicle are steered by a rear wheel steering actuator. The front wheel steering angle is augmented according to the deviation of the actual yaw rate from a target yaw rate computed from the travelling speed of the vehicle and the steering input from the steering wheel to compensate for the delay in the yaw rate response so that the rear end of the vehicle would not be swung sideways during a turning maneuver, and the vehicle operator would not be subjected to any unfamiliar feeling. Furthermore, when the vehicle is subjected to a side wind or cross wind, because the orientation of the vehicle is corrected from the downwind direction to the upwind direction by steering the front wheel, it is possible to restore the orientation of the vehicle to an appropriate direction without the vehicle being wholly thrown laterally by the side wind. The rear wheels are steered so as to reduce the side slip angle to zero as an additional feature of the present invention, whereby the orientation of the vehicle during a turning maneuver may be aligned with the actual trajectory of the vehicle, and the driveability of the vehicle can be improved.

Method for controlling a front and rear wheel steering system

In a 'steer-by-wire' vehicle steering control system which steers steerable wheels with a powered actuator according to an input signal obtained from a sensor associated with a steering wheel, a secondary actuator is coupled to the steering wheel for the purpose of giving the operator of the vehicle a reaction force. The reaction force on the steering wheel not only gives a familiar sensation to the vehicle operator who is more familiar with a vehicle equipped with more conventional steering system, but also improves the driveability and stability of the vehicle since the reaction force provides information on the condition of the vehicle which aids the vehicle operator in making proper and accurate steering maneuvers.

Vehicle steering control system

In a 'steer-by-wire' vehicle steering control system which steers steerable wheels with a powered actuator according to an input signal obtained from a sensor associated with a steering wheel, to the end of achieving an optimum vehicle response to a steering input, a compensatory transfer function is introduced between the steering wheel and the powered steering actuator. The compensatory transfer function can be obtained by suitable manipulation of the transfer functions of the hardware involved and a desired overall transfer function. The frequency domain compensatory transfer function is transformed into a time-domain input-output relationship, and the steering mechanism is actuated accordingly as a real time operation. By suitable selection of the desired overall transfer function, it is possible to achieve a vehicle response both stable and favorable.

In a 'steer-by-wire' vehicle steering control system which steers steerable wheels with a powered actuator according to an input signal obtained from a sensor associated with a steering wheel, a secondary actuator is coupled to the steering wheel for the purpose of giving the operator of the vehicle a reaction force. The reaction force on the steering wheel is sharply increased or oscillated when a limit of the angular displacement of the steering wheel has been reached for the purpose of allowing the vehicle operator to know how far the steering wheel has been turned. The limit of the angular displacement of the steering wheel typically corresponds to the maximally steered condition of the steerable wheels.

A system for correctively controlling the turning movement of a vehicle, including a device for correcting the turning movement of the vehicle, a sensor for detecting the steering angle of a steering wheel of the vehicle, a steering angle hysteresis storage device for storing the hysteresis of the steering angle, and a reference value arithmetic device for determining a reference value of a physical quantity generated during a turning movement of the vehicle, on the basis of the hysteresis of the steering angle. The system also includes a detector for detecting an actual value of the physical quantity during the turning movement, a calculator for determining a deviation between the reference value and actual value of the physical quantity and a polarity of the deviation, and a control-quantity determining device for determining a control-quantity for the turning movement correcting device on the basis of the deviation obtained in the calculator. A device is included for determining a control-direction of correction of the turning movement on the basis of the polarity of the deviation. This system permits the turning movement of the vehicle to be automatically corrected.

System for correctively controlling turning movement of vehicle

A steering angle detecting device employs an analog sensor and a digital sensor to detect a displacement of a component which is displaceable depending on a change in a steering angle in a steering apparatus. The steering angle detecting device includes an analog sensor for detecting a displacement of the component and producing an analog signal having a potential corresponding to the position of the component, a digital sensor for detecting the displacement of the component and producing a predetermined number of pulses corresponding to a unit change in the steering angle, a basic count determining unit for determining a basic count corresponding to the steering angle based on the analog signal produced by the analog sensor when a steering angle starts to be detected, a counter for generating and holding a count corresponding to the steering angle by adding or subtracting the number of pulses produced by the digital sensor to or from the basic count, a steering angle calculating unit for calculating a steering angle based on the count, and a correcting unit for correcting the count when the component is positioned in a position corresponding to a predetermined reference steering angle.

Steering angle detecting device

A steering system for a vehicle includes a steering mechanism mechanically separated form a steering handle and having a motor for steering road wheels, a steering detector for detecting a steering operation of the handle, a steered angle sensor for detecting steered angles of the road wheels, and a control circuit mechanism for driving the motor to thereby steer the road wheels in response to detected signals from the steering detector and steered angle sensor. The steered angle sensor comprises a measuring member which makes rotational movements in proportion to the steered angles of the road wheels and occupies a constant space relative to the vehicle.

Steering system of vehicle

An apparatus for steering the front and rear wheels of a motor vehicle includes a front wheel steering mechanism for steering the front wheels in response to operation of a steering wheel, a rear wheel steering mechanism for steering the rear wheels at least in the same direction as the direction in which the front wheels are steered, and a connector shaft mechanically interconnecting the front and rear wheel steering mechanisms. A rotation control mechanism employing a viscous fluid is mounted on the connector shaft for applying a resistive force dependent on the speed of rotation of the steering wheel to the connector shaft.

Front and rear wheel steering apparatus for motor vehicles

A steering gear box mount includes a resilient member interposed between a motor vehicle body and a steering gear box for allowing movement of the steering gear box. The mount also has a structure for limiting allowed movement of the steering gear box. The structure includes a mechanism for selectively rigidly fixing the steering gear box to a motor vehicle body, or a mechanism for continuously adjusting the allowed movement of the steering gear box.

Mount for steering gear box

A steering gear box mount includes a resilient member interposed between a motor vehicle body and a steering gear box for allowing movement of the steering gear box. The mount also has a structure for limiting allowed movement of the steering gear box. The structure includes a mechanism for selectively fixing the steering gear box to a motor vehicle body, or a mechanism for continuously adjusting the allowed movement of the steering gear box.

Mount for a steering gear box

A steering system for a motor vehicle includes a centering mechanism for establishing a neutral steering position. The steering system includes a steering wheel and a steering assembly for steering vehicle wheels in response to angular movement of the steering wheel. The centering mechanism is mounted on at least a portion of the steering assembly for establishing the neutral steering position of the steering assembly.

Steering system for motor vehicle

Disclosed is an actuator for steering the rear wheels in front and rear wheel steering device for vehicle in which the external forces, such as the self aligning torque of the rear wheels and irregularities of the road surface, which may be applied to the rear wheels are prevented from being transmitted to the actuator for controlling the steering angle of the rear wheels. Thereby, the steering angle of the rear wheels are determined solely by the control action of the front and rear wheel steering device and the motion of the vehicle is not affected by external forces. As a result, the vehicle motion is stabilized. When the force for steering the front wheels is transmitted to the rear wheels to steer them, elimination of the reaction from the road to the actuator prevents undesirable variation in the force required to steer the vehicle or the force required to hold a steering angle. Elimination of reaction to the actuator can be accomplished by worm gears, screw threads and so on in which the lead angle is smaller than the friction angle.

Actuator for steering the rear wheels in front and rear wheel steering

In a front and rear wheel steering device for a vehicle in which the steering angle ratio of the rear wheels relative to the front wheels is variable according to the vehicle speed, by accounting for the magnitude of vehicle acceleration in determining the steering angle ratio of the rear wheels by using a mathematical function in the form of f(u) - g(u')where u is a vehicle speed and u' is a change rate of the vehicle speed, it is possible to reduce the slip angle of the vehicle to zero irrespective of the vehicle speed and the vehicle acceleration and the phase delay of the lateral response of the vehicle can be reduced, whereby the driveability of the vehicle is substantially improved and, thus, driving a car can be made easier, safer and less tiring.

Front and rear wheel steering device

The front and rear wheel steering device of the present invention not only has a means for allowing the manual selection of a mathematical function which determines the steering angle ratio of the rear wheels relative to the front wheels from a plurality of mathematical functions but also has a means for limiting such a manual selection depending on the condition of the vehicle. Since manual selection of a mathematical function for the steering angle ratio may not be appropriate under certain vehicle conditions, the device of the present invention limits such a manual selection when the vehicle speed, the vehicle acceleration, the shift position of the transmission, the steering speed or the steering acceleration is greater than a certain value. Thereby, the convenience of the manual selection of the steering angle ratio is preserved yet any undesirable vehicle response from improper manual selection of the steering angle ratio is prevented.

Growing community of inventors

Saitama, Japan

Mitsuya Serizawa