1892results about "Power driven steering" patented technology

The steering angle of a vehicle is monitored using position sensors of an electric motor of an electric power assisted steering (EPAS) system. A position of the electric motor corresponding to the straight-ahead, center position of the steering system is stored in non-volatile memory during a steering calibration procedure, such as an end-of-line calibration in a vehicle assembly plant. Following power loss due to a dead battery, a steering angle zeroing procedure performed in a vehicle stability control (VSC) system generates a center position with enough accuracy to be within one electrical cycle of the motor. The pre-stored electric motor position is then used to determine the electrical cycle where the center position was located, and accurate monitoring of steering angle is resumed.

A vehicle control system which can ensure high reliability, real-time processing, and expandability with a simplified ECU configuration and a low cost by backing up an error through coordination in the entire system without increasing a degree of redundancy of individual controllers beyond the least necessary level. The vehicle control system comprises a sensor controller for taking in sensor signals indicating a status variable of a vehicle and an operation amount applied from a driver, a command controller for generating a control target value based on the sensor signals taken in by the sensor controller, and an actuator controller for receiving the control target value from the command controller and operating an actuator to control the vehicle, those three controller being interconnected via a network. The actuator controller includes a control target value generating unit for generating a control target value based on the sensor signals taken in by the sensor controller and received by the actuator controller via the network when the control target value generated by the command controller is abnormal, and controls the actuator in accordance with the control target value generated by the control target value generating unit.

A vehicle-trailer back-up control system that employs an active front steer sub-system. The system includes a smart hitch controller that receives a vehicle speed signal and a hand-wheel angle signal, and calculates a hitch angle command signal. The system further includes a hitch angle sensor that measures the hitch angle between the vehicle and the trailer that is compared to the hitch angle command signal to generate a hitch angle error signal. A PID control unit receives the hitch angle error signal, and generates a corrected road wheel angle signal based on proportional and derivative gains. The corrected road wheel angle signal is used to generate a motor angle signal that is applied to a steering actuator to be combined with the steering angle signal to generate the front wheel steering signal during a back-up maneuver.

When a shaft misalignment detection part detects occurrence of a shaft misalignment that is a misalignment in a relative position in a radial direction of a rotary shaft between a magnet part and a sensor part, the shaft misalignment detection part outputs a shaft misalignment determination flag to a correction part and a control change instruction part. The correction part calculates a motor rotational angle so as to reduce a detection error caused by the shaft misalignment. The control change instruction part outputs instructions of changing calculation methods so that influence by the detection error decreases to an assist torque setting part and an assist current instruction part.

A vehicle-trailer back-up control system that employs an active front steer sub-system. The system includes a smart hitch controller that receives a vehicle speed signal and a hand-wheel angle signal, and calculates a hitch angle command signal. The system further includes a hitch angle sensor that measures the hitch angle between the vehicle and the trailer that is compared to the hitch angle command signal to generate a hitch angle error signal. A PID control unit receives the hitch angle error signal, and generates a corrected road wheel angle signal based on proportional and derivative gains. The corrected road wheel angle signal is used to generate a motor angle signal that is applied to a steering actuator to be combined with the steering angle signal to generate the front wheel steering signal during a back-up maneuver.

A control apparatus for a multi-phase rotary machine includes a control unit and a plurality of power supply systems including respective inverter units. When a short-circuiting failure occurs in one of the systems due to an ON-failure in any one of FETs in an inverter unit of the failure system, the control unit stops driving of the rotary machine by bringing all the FETs in the failure system into the OFF state. The control unit controls FETs of the non-failure system such that a brake torque generated in the failure system is cancelled or the influence of the brake torque exerted on the driving of the motor is reduced.

A wheel assembly for a small-scale machine includes a pair of opposing, individually-driven wheels, associated motors and possibly one or more gear assemblies. The motors receive separate drive signals from a control electronics subsystem of the wheel assembly. The motors can be connected to the wheels via the gear assemblies. Because the wheels are separately driven, driving the two wheel assemblies at similar or different speeds drives the wheel assembly over straight or curved paths. An orientation assembly allows the orientation of the wheels to the machine to be controllably altered. A height adjusting assembly allows the distance between the wheels and a point on the machine where the wheel assembly is attached to be adjusted. The rotational axis that the wheel assembly rotates about when re-oriented need not pass through either wheel of the wheel assembly. The wheels can be driven by control signals generated by on-board control electronics.

The present invention provides a control apparatus for an electric power steering apparatus comprises: a steering assist command value calculating section; a current control section that calculates a voltage command value; and a motor driving section that drives a motor based on the voltage command value, wherein an assist power from the motor is applied to a steering system, the control apparatus is characterized in that an SAT measuring section, that inputs an angular speed and an angular acceleration of the motor, the steering assist command value and the torque signal therein so as to estimate an SAT, is provided, and the SAT obtained by the SAT measuring section is feedbacked to the steering assist command value via a feedback section composed of a phase compensating section and a gain section.

A vehicle control system which can ensure high reliability, real-time processing, and expandability with a simplified ECU configuration and a low cost by backing up an error through coordination in the entire system without increasing a degree of redundancy of individual controllers beyond the least necessary level. The vehicle control system comprises a sensor controller for taking in sensor signals indicating a status variable of a vehicle and an operation amount applied from a driver, a command controller for generating a control target value based on the sensor signals taken in by the sensor controller, and an actuator controller for receiving the control target value from the command controller and operating an actuator to control the vehicle, those three controller being interconnected via a network. The actuator controller includes a control target value generating unit for generating a control target value based on the sensor signals taken in by the sensor controller and received by the actuator controller via the network when the control target value generated by the command controller is abnormal, and controls the actuator in accordance with the control target value generated by the control target value generating unit.

An electric power steering device includes: an electric power source for supplying first current; a controller for setting a current instruction value; multiple electric power converters for converting the first current to second current corresponding to the current instruction value; multiple pairs of windings for generating a driving force of a motor; and a failure detection element for detecting failure of the electric power converters and the windings. The controller reduces the current instruction value to be equal to or smaller than a predetermined instruction value of a normal operation when the failure detection element detects the failure. The controller controls the electric power converter in a normal state to supply the second current to a corresponding winding.

A method for dividing a field into zones with similar crop attributes and developing a mission plan for steering the harvester to selectively harvest crops based on one or more of the attributes. The attributes include protein level, starch level, oil level, sugar content, moisture level, digestible nutrient level, or any other crop characteristic of interest. The method can be applied to selectively harvest and / or segregate according to attribute any crop, including grains such as wheat, corn, or beans, fruits such as grapes, and forage crops. Directed crop sampling provides absolute value and variance information for segregated batches of harvested crop.

A method for reducing EMI emissions in the control of an electric motor supplied by a switching inverter fed by a DC bus comprising controlling a phase advance of a conduction angle period during which a phase of the motor is fed power by the inverter to control the conduction angle to control the speed of the motor, thereby to reduce the number of switching operations of the inverter and thereby reduce EMI.

A device for controlling an automatic steering system of a vehicle includes a signal input (which receives a setpoint travel direction variable, a memory device on which a correction factor is stored, a control unit which ascertains a corrected setpoint travel direction variable on the basis of the correction factor and the predefined setpoint travel direction variable, and an evaluation device which compares an actual travel direction variable ascertained by a sensor of the vehicle to the predefined setpoint travel direction variable, and if the actual travel direction variable deviates from the predefined setpoint travel direction variable by at least a minimum difference, redefines the correction factor according to the comparison.