Method for providing steering assistance for an electromechanical steering system of a motor vehicle comprising a redundantly designed control device

A method for providing steering assistance for an electromechanical steering system of a motor vehicle having a steering pinion connected to a lower steering shaft, which engages a rack mounted in a housing to be movable along a longitudinal axis for steering wheels, at least two electric motors or one electric motor with at least two winding groups for steering assistance, a torque sensor arranged between an upper steering shaft connected to the steering wheel and the lower steering shaft, and an electronic control unit for calculating the steering assistance, wherein the electronic control unit comprises a redundant control device with a primary control path and a secondary control path, wherein the primary control path has a primary computing unit, a primary gate driver module and a primary power module, and the secondary control path has a secondary computing unit, a secondary gate driver module, and a secondary power module, the secondary computing unit is configured to be less powerful than the primary computing unit the method comprising:

• detecting an applied steering torque with the torque sensor,
• when in a fault-free case, calculating a primary motor target torque and a secondary motor target torque in the primary computing unit as a function of at least the applied steering torque,
• transferring the primary motor target torque to a primary motor controller of the primary computing unit,
• determining primary motor currents for operating a primary electric motor or a primary winding group of the electric motor in the primary motor controller,
• transferring the secondary motor target torque from the primary computing unit by means of a signal line to a secondary motor controller of the secondary computing unit, and
• determining secondary motor currents for the operation of a secondary electric motor or a secondary winding group of the electric motor in the secondary motor controller of the secondary computing unit.