Steering apparatus for vehicle

Abstract

A steering apparatus for a vehicle capable of executing a steer-by-wire (SBW) mode in which road wheels are steered by a steering mechanism mechanically disconnected with a steering device. The steering apparatus comprises: a connecting mechanism which can connect the steering device and the steering mechanism mechanically; and an SBW control unit which sets the connecting mechanism to a disconnected state to control the steering mechanism based on an operating amount of the steering device under the steer-by-wire mode, and sets the connecting mechanism to a connected state to switch a steering mode from the steer-by-wire mode to a steer-by-wire backup mode when it has been determined that the steer-by-wire mode cannot be executed properly. The connecting mechanism is set to the disconnected state while being energized and set to the connected state while being non-energized. The SBW control unit checks whether or not the steer-by-wire mode can be executed properly at start of engine and always during operation of engine. Therefore, an SBW backup system can be activated unfailingly when the system is out of order.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.