Vehicle control apparatus

A vehicle control apparatus, comprising:

• a first shaft coupled with a first drive wheel of a pair of left and right drive wheels of a vehicle;
• a second shaft coupled with a second drive wheel of the pair of left and right drive wheels;
• a differential gear mechanism configured to distribute torque from a motor to the first shaft and the second shaft;
• a first wheel speed sensor configured to detect a first wheel rotation speed of the first drive wheel;
• a second wheel speed sensor configured to detect a second wheel rotation speed of the second drive wheel;
• a motor rotation speed sensor configured to detect a rotation speed of the motor;
• and
• a motor control unit including a processor and a memory coupled to the processor, and configured to control the motor, wherein
• the motor control unit:
• calculates an input rotation speed input into the differential gear mechanism based on the rotation speed of the motor;
• calculates an output rotation speed output from the differential gear mechanism based on the first wheel rotation speed and the second wheel rotation speed;
• calculates a difference between the input rotation speed and the output rotation speed;
• determines whether a duration of a state in which the difference exceeds a predetermined value has exceeded a determination time;
• and
• limits a target torque of the motor to zero when it is determined that the duration has exceeded the determination time, wherein
• the motor control unit:
• further calculates a wheel speed difference between the first wheel rotation speed and the second wheel rotation speed;
• determines whether the wheel speed difference is smaller than a predetermined wheel speed difference;
• and
• limits the target torque to zero on condition that it is determined that the wheel speed difference is smaller than the predetermined wheel speed difference.

A vehicle control apparatus, comprising:

• a first shaft coupled with a first drive wheel of a pair of left and right drive wheels of a vehicle;
• a second shaft coupled with a second drive wheel of the pair of left and right drive wheels;
• a differential gear mechanism configured to distribute torque from a motor to the first shaft and the second shaft;
• a first wheel speed sensor configured to detect a first wheel rotation speed of the first drive wheel;
• a second wheel speed sensor configured to detect a second wheel rotation speed of the second drive wheel;
• a motor rotation speed sensor configured to detect a rotation speed of the motor;
• and
• a motor control unit including a processor and a memory coupled to the processor, and configured to control the motor, wherein
• the motor control unit:
• calculates an input rotation speed input into the differential gear mechanism based on the rotation speed of the motor;
• calculates an output rotation speed output from the differential gear mechanism based on the first wheel rotation speed and the second wheel rotation speed;
• calculates a difference between the input rotation speed and the output rotation speed;
• determines whether a duration of a state in which the difference exceeds a predetermined value has exceeded a determination time;
• and
• limits a target torque of the motor to zero when it is determined that the duration has exceeded the determination time, wherein
• the motor control unit calculates an arithmetic mean of the first wheel rotation speed detected by the first wheel speed sensor and the second wheel rotation speed detected by the second wheel speed sensor as the output rotation speed.