Jtekt Corporation

Toyoda Koki Kabushiki Kaisha

Aisin Seiki Kabushiki Kaisha

Advics Co., Ltd.

Shinji Takeuchi

Hiroaki Kato

Minekazu Momiyama

Manabu Kanaya

Yoshiyuki Yasui

Jiro Nakano

Eiichi Ono

Yoshiyuki Shibata

Yuji Muragishi

Toshihiro Takahashi

Yuzo Imoto

Tsuyoshi Murakami

Shoji Asai

Hiroshi Kuroyanagi

Genki Murata

Hiroshi Suzuki

Kenji Asano

Yutaka Mori

Hiroaki Aizawa

Akihiro Ohno

Wataru Tanaka

Takayuki Ohta

Kenichi Fukumura

Toshio Kohno

Shoji Ogawa

Hirotsune Suzuki

Yuki Matsuoka

A motion assist system includes a plurality of assist devices and a management device configured to manage the assist devices. The assist device includes: a power portion configured to generate power that assists the motion of the assist target person; a communication portion communicable with the management device; and a control device configured to transmit motion information of the power portion to the management device. The management device generates overall information that unifies working states of the assist target persons based on pieces of motion information and presents at least part of the overall information to the assist target persons or an administrator.

Motion assist system and management device

A walking assist device has a frame, a plurality of wheels, drive units, a battery, and a drive control unit that controls the drive units. The walking assist device also has: a pair of right and left movable handles that are grasped by a user and movable back and forth with respect to the frame in accordance with arm swing performed during walk of the user; handle guide units provided on the frame to guide the movable handles in a movable range that matches the arm swing performed during walk of the user; and a grasp portion state detection unit that detects the state of the movable handles. The drive control unit controls the travel speed of the walking assist device by controlling the drive units on the basis of the state of the movable handles which is detected using the grasp portion state detection unit.

Walking assist device

A walking assist device has a frame, a pair of right and left arm portions, a pair of right and left grasp portions, wheels including a pair of right and left drive wheels, drive units, a battery, a drive control unit, acting force measurement units that measure acting forces on the grasp portions, and holding units that hold the grasp portions at a predetermined position in the front-rear direction of the arm portions set in advance. The walking assist device travels forward together with a user. The holding units generate a restoring force for returning the grasp portions to the predetermined position. The drive control unit controls the drive units on the basis of acting forces calculated on the basis of detection signals from the acting force measurement units.

A walking assist device has a frame, fixed handles, rails provided with movable handles, front wheels, rear wheels and that serve as drive wheels, drive units, a battery, and a drive control unit, and travels forward or rearward together with a user that walks while grasping the fixed handles or the movable handles. The walking assist device has an operation mode switching unit that switches between a training mode, in which a load is applied to operation of the body of the user performed as the user walks, and an assist mode in which a load on operation of the body of the user performed as the user walks is alleviated.

A vehicle steering apparatus for improving steering feel when changing the angle of a steered wheel with a motor. An IFS torque compensation unit includes an oversteer IFS torque compensation gain calculation unit, which obtains a larger IFS torque compensation gain as a control target element increases during oversteer control. When an oversteer state occurs, the IFS torque compensation control unit outputs a corrected gain, which is based on the IFS torque compensation gain.

Vehicle steering apparatus

A vehicle including a steer-by-wire type steering device controlling yaw moment of the vehicle in correspondence with an operation of a steering wheel mechanically separated from each of wheels. The wheels are configured such that a steered angle cannot be changed. The steering device has a power distribution device capable of changing a distribution rate of power applied to each of the wheels, and a braking force control device capable of separately controlling a braking force for each of the wheels. The steering device controls a yaw moment of the vehicle by separately controlling the power applied to each of the wheels and the braking force in each of the wheels.

Steering device for vehicle

The control system of a vehicle controls the transmission ratio of the steering angle of a steering wheel relative to a turning angle of front wheels based on a drive force distribution ratio. Thus, the performance of the tires on the front wheels can be used to almost maximum potential, providing effective prevention of understeering.

Vehicle control system

A first system and a second system include a first motor and a second motor for driving a steering mechanism in dependence on the rotational manipulation of a steering wheel. A first ECU and a second ECU mutually monitor abnormalities of the systems each to stop an abnormal system. When the respective systems are normal, the first ECU and the second ECU drivingly control the first motor and the second motor of their own systems to drive the steering mechanism by cooperation of the respective motors. When either one of the both systems is abnormal, the ECU of the other system solely drivingly controls the motor of its own system thereby to drive the steering mechanism. Thus, it can be realized to make the systems low in cost irrespective of the provision of the plural systems.

Steering control device and steering control method of motor vehicle

In a steering system, a transmission ratio Rwhich is determined in dependence on the vehicle speed by reference to a transmission ratio decision map is multiplied with a first transmission ratio alteration gain gwhich is determined in dependence on the distribution of a traveling drive torque from an engineto front wheelsand rear wheels, thereby to alter the ratio Rof steering torque distribution from a steering handleto the front wheels, whereby the variation of the steering feeling due to an increase or decrease in the distribution of the traveling drive torque to the front wheelscan be suppressed. Further, the transmission ratio Ris multiplied with a second transmission ratio alteration gain gwhich is determined in dependence on the gradient of the road surface by reference to a second transmission ratio alteration map, thereby to alter the transmission ratio R, whereby the variation of the steering feeling due to the variation of the gradient can also be suppressed.

Steering system for vehicle

A steer-by-wire steering apparatus for a vehicle includes an elastic member couples a reaction force actuator to a steering wheel. With respect to the elastic member, a side closer to the steering wheel is referred to as a primary side, and a side closer to the reaction force actuator is referred to as a secondary side. A steering wheel position detector is located at the secondary side. Therefore, the apparatus is capable of giving a feel of a steering reaction force equivalent to an ordinary mechanically connected steering apparatus to an operator and secures stability of a control system.

The present invention is directed to a road condition estimation apparatus for estimating a road condition for use in a vehicle having a steering control unit for actuating a device mechanically independent of a manually operated steering member to steer at least a wheel of front and rear wheels. The apparatus includes an actuating signal detection unit for detecting an actuating signal for actuating the device of the steering control unit, an aligning torque estimation unit for estimating an aligning torque produced on the wheel on the basis of the actuating signal detected by the actuating signal detection unit, and a vehicle state variable detection unit for detecting a state variable of the vehicle. The apparatus further includes a wheel factor estimation unit for estimating at least one of wheel factors including a side force and a slip angle applied to the wheel on the basis of the vehicle state variable, and a grip factor estimation unit for estimating a grip factor of at least a tire of the wheel, in accordance with a relationship between the estimated aligning torque and the estimated wheel factor.

Road condition estimation apparatus

The present invention is directed to a road condition estimation apparatus for estimating a road condition for use in a vehicle having steering control unit for actuating a device mechanically independent of a manually operated steering member to steer each wheel. The apparatus includes a reaction torque detection unit for detecting reaction torque for detecting a reaction torque when at least a wheel of the vehicle is steered by the steering control unit, an aligning torque estimation unit for estimating an aligning torque produced on the wheel on the basis of the reaction torque detected by the reaction torque detection unit, a wheel factor providing unit for providing at least one of wheel factors including a side force and a slip angle applied to the wheel, and a grip factor estimation unit for estimating a grip factor of at least a tire of the wheel, in accordance with a relationship between the aligning torque estimated by the aligning torque estimation unit and the wheel factor estimated by the wheel factor providing unit.

The vehicle operation control apparatus multiplies the variable gain G controlled based on the vehicle velocity V, the steering angle &thgr;h, the steering angle velocity &ohgr;h and the actual steering angle &thgr;T with the steering angle &thgr;h, and controls the actual steering angle &thgr;T of the driven wheels on a result of this multiplication. Consequently, the additional turning time gear ratio Ga or the turning-back gear ratio Ga , set up individually, can be selected depending on the turning direction of the steering wheel. Therefore, the steering feeling both at the time of additional turning and turning-back can be improved.

Vehicle operation control method and vehicle operation control apparatus

An informing apparatus informs an operator of procedures for adjusting control parameters used in a control apparatus that controls an electric power steering apparatus based on various control parameter data. The power steering apparatus is used for the steering wheel of a vehicle. A storage portion stores various data. The data includes evaluation data, steering state data, control parameter data of the power steering control apparatus, and adjusting procedure data. The evaluation data is related to steering of the steering wheel. The steering state data represents the steering state when the evaluation data is obtained. The steering state data is related to the evaluation data. The control parameter data is related to the steering state data, and the evaluation data, and is being used when the evaluation data is obtained. The adjusting procedure data is used for adjusting the control parameter data such that the evaluation data is resolved. The evaluation data and the steering state data are inputted through a selector. A controller of the informing apparatus reads the adjusting procedure data of the control parameter data from the storage portion based on the evaluation data and the steering state data. The adjusting procedure data of the read control parameter data is outputted to a display.

System of informing procedures for adjusting control parameters of an electric power steering control apparatus

A power steering apparatus is provided to generate an assistant force corresponding to a change of viscous friction in the steering unit or the like, without losing information on reaction force from a road surface. An external force calculation portion calculates an external force, that is, a force other than a force for steering (i.e. a steering force) among forces (action forces) acting on the steering unit of a vehicle. The external force is assumed to be composed of an outside force received from the road surface, such as an SAT (self-aligning torque), and an internal drag resulting from a viscous friction generated in the steering unit, and the like and these two forces are separated in an outside force and internal drag calculation portion. In separating these two forces, under the assumption that the outside force is a function of a side slip angle and an internal drag is a function of a steering angular velocity, and coefficients of functions are obtained. On the basis of the thus calculated internal drag, a motor control portion controls a motor so as to generate an adequate assistant force.

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Okazaki, Japan

Shinji Takeuchi