Control device and control method for vehicle drive mechanism

A control method for a vehicle drive mechanism including a control shaft which is rotatably supported, two stoppers, each of which defines an end of a range of rotatability of the control shaft, a motor which drives to rotate the control shaft, and an angle sensor which senses an angular position of the control shaft, the control method comprising:

• controlling the motor so as to rotate the control shaft toward a contact state of a high-rigidity stopper of the two stoppers;
• learning an output of the angle sensor corresponding to the contact state of the high-rigidity stopper;
• controlling the motor so as to rotate the control shaft toward the contact state of a low-rigidity stopper of the two stoppers from the contact state of the high-rigidity stopper;
• identifying a timing of current limit change within a course of change in the angular position of the control shaft from the contact state of the high-rigidity stopper to the contact state of the low-rigidity stopper, based on a change amount of the angular position of the control shaft or based on a rotation velocity of the motor;
• changing, at the timing of current limit change, a limit value of current supplied to the motor so as to reduce an absolute value of the rotation velocity of the motor;
• learning the output of the angle sensor corresponding to the contact state of the low-rigidity stopper;
• and
• controlling the motor based on a learned value of the output of the angle sensor.