Control apparatus for automatic transmission

An apparatus for controlling an automatic transmission configured to change speed of driving rotation of a power source mounted on a vehicle and transmit the speed of driving rotation to an output shaft of the transmission, comprising:

• an up-shift instructing unit configured to be operated by a driver of the vehicle to output an up-shift command for a gear position of the transmission;
• a down-shift instructing unit separated from the up-shift instructing unit and configured to be operated by the driver to output a down-shift command for the gear position of the transmission;
• a mode switching unit configured to switch a gear-shift mode between an automatic gear-shift mode for automatically selecting the gear position based on a driving condition of the vehicle and a manual gear-shift mode for selecting the gear position based on an output of the up-shift instructing unit or the down-shift instructing unit;
• and
• a mode maintaining unit configured to maintain the manual gear-shift mode for a predetermined time period when the up-shift instructing unit or the down-shift instructing unit is operated by the driver,
• wherein the mode maintaining unit sets the predetermined time period when the up-shift instructing unit is operated, to be shorter than the predetermined time period when the down-shift instructing unit is operated, when the gear position is at or higher than a first gear position, and
• the mode maintaining unit sets the predetermined time period when the up-shift instructing unit or the down-shift instructing unit is operated in a case that the gear position is at or higher than a second gear position higher than the first gear position, to be equal to or shorter than the predetermined time period when the up-shift instructing unit or the down-shift instructing unit is operated in the case that the gear position is at or higher than the first gear position and lower than the second gear position.