Jtekt Corporation

Koyo Seiko Company, Ltd.

Shuuji Kimura

Shingo Maeda

Ryouhei Hayama

Tomoyasu Kada

Masayasu Higashi

Masaya Segawa

Hiroshi Yoshimoto

Katsutoshi Nishizaki

Naotake Kanda

Kenji Higashi

Shirou Nakano

Tomohiro Nozu

Takeo Iino

Masayuki Ueno

An apparatus for controlling a four-wheel drive vehicle includes a tire friction circle calculator that calculates the size of a tire friction circle of each wheel on the basis of vehicle information including a tire vertical load, a resultant force calculator that calculates the magnitude of a resultant force of tire lateral and longitudinal forces for each wheel, a tire-friction-force usage rate calculator that calculates a tire-friction-force usage rate of each wheel that is the ratio of the magnitude of the resultant force to the size of the tire friction circle, and a driving-braking force adjustment controller that adjusts driving force or braking force applied to each wheel. When the tire-friction-force usage rate of any wheel exceeds a predetermined threshold of less than one, the driving-braking force adjustment controller restrains an increase in the driving force or the braking force of the wheel while increasing the driving force or the braking force of at least one of the other wheels that is selected on the basis of driving operation information indicative of the state of a driving operation by a driver.

Apparatus for controlling four-wheel drive vehicle

An object is to provide an attitude control system that can suppress an understeering characteristic when a vehicle such as an automobile travels in a medium-speed or low-speed range. A vehicle drives front wheels, and controls steering angles of the front wheels and steering angles of rear wheels. In an attitude control system to be mounted on the vehicle, a control amount detecting unit detects an operation amount of an accelerator pedal operated by a driver of the vehicle. A driving force estimating unit estimates a driving force generated on the front wheels based on the operation amount of the accelerator pedal. A rear-wheel steering angle determining unit determines a rear-wheel steering angle instruction value for controlling steering angles of the rear wheels based on an estimated front-wheel driving force that is the driving force estimated by the driving force estimating unit.

Attitude control system

A vehicle attitude control system includes a control unit that calculates a front wheel control amount and a rear wheel control amount on the basis of a front-side slip angle at a front axle of front wheels and a rear-side slip angle at a rear axle of rear wheels, and that controls the front wheels on the basis of the front wheel control amount and controls the rear wheels on the basis of the rear wheel control amount at the same time.

Vehicle attitude control system

A target sideslip angle computing unit calculates a target sideslip angle used when a vehicle makes a turn, based on a steering angle and a vehicle speed. A target sideslip angle correcting unit corrects the target sideslip angle calculated by the target sideslip angle computing unit using a sideslip angle correction amount calculated based on at least one of a steering angular velocity, a depression amount of an accelerator pedal, a depression velocity of the accelerator pedal and a depression amount of a brake pedal. Vehicle attitude control is executed using the target sideslip angle corrected by the target sideslip angle correcting unit.

A vehicle steering apparatus in which a mechanical coupling between a steering member and steered wheels is uncoupled, includes a steering actuator for driving a steered mechanism and a control unit for drive-controlling the steering actuator. The control unit reduces steering-stiffness using a PID control portion for drive-controlling the steering actuator according to a deviation between a target steered angle and a steered-angle detected by the steered angle sensor. A gain setting portion sets gains of the PID control portion to be relatively low when a predetermined condition is satisfied.

Vehicle steering apparatus

A steered shaft of a steered mechanism is rigidly fixed to a vehicle body. Steering-stiffness is reduced by a lowpass filter for filtering a steered angle detected by a steered angle sensor. A deviation between a target steered angle and the filtered steered angle detected by the steered angle sensor is input to a PID control unit. A gain setting unit sets each of gains for PID control at a low value to thereby reduce steering-stiffness. The PID control unit outputs a target current. A drive circuit performs, e.g., PID control of the steering actuator.

The steering device is constructed by supporting a center portion of a rectangle-plate-shaped operation plate at one end of a supporting shaft projected from the front face of a dashboard so as to freely swing in right and left directions. A steering apparatus for a vehicle having the steering device detects the swing direction and the swing angle of the operation plate with a steering angle sensor provided at a support portion and moves a steering mechanism in the detected direction in accordance with the detected angle so as to steer the vehicle. With this structure, a load in steering can be decreased and tiredness in driving can be reduced. Furthermore, such a steering apparatus can realize a steering device which physically handicapped drivers can operate easily.

Steering apparatus for vehicle

In a vehicle steering apparatus, a steering actuator is controlled so that the steering angle varies in accordance with the operation of an operating member. A transmission mechanism connects an operating side rotating member that is mechanically connected to the operating member and a vehicle wheel side rotating member that is mechanically connected to the vehicle wheels so that the mutual transmission of rotation is possible. Furthermore, the rotational transmission ratio between the operating side rotating member and the vehicle wheel side rotating member can be varied.

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Kashihara, Japan

Shuuji Kimura