Apparatus for controlling steering device of vehicle

An apparatus for controlling a steering of a vehicle, the apparatus comprising:

• a position obtainer configured to obtain a current position of the vehicle;
• a road information obtainer configured to obtain road information about a road on which the vehicle is travelling, the road information including information indicative of a shape of the road extending in a travelling direction of the vehicle;
• a target curvature obtainer configured to obtain a target curvature at a predetermined target position on the road, the target curvature being estimated based on the current position of the vehicle and the road information, the target position having a predetermined target distance away from the current position along the road in the travelling direction;
• a target steering angle calculator configured to calculate, based on the target curvature, a target steering angle representing the steering angle of the vehicle at the target position;
• a current steering-angle obtainer configured to obtain a current steering angle representing the steering angle of the vehicle at the current position;
• and
• a steering controller configured to control the steering of the vehicle to cause the current steering angle to follow the target steering angle,
• the apparatus being configured to change the target distance based on at least one of environmental information around the vehicle and control information about the vehicle.

A method of controlling a steering of a vehicle, the method comprising:

• obtaining a current position of the vehicle;
• obtaining road information about a road on which the vehicle is travelling, the road information including information indicative of a shape of the road extending in a travelling direction of the vehicle;
• obtaining a target curvature at a predetermined target position on the road, the target curvature being estimated based on the current position of the vehicle and the road information, the target position having a predetermined target distance away from the current position along the road in the travelling direction;
• calculating, based on the target curvature, a target steering angle representing the steering angle of the vehicle at the target position;
• obtaining a current steering angle representing the steering angle of the vehicle at the current position;
• controlling the steering of the vehicle to cause the current steering angle to follow the target steering angle;
• obtaining at least one of environmental information around the vehicle and control information about the vehicle;
• and
• estimating, based on the at least one of the environmental information around the vehicle and control information about the vehicle, a visible distance representing a distance visibly recognizable by the driver of the vehicle to a front of the vehicle,
• the obtaining of the target curvature obtaining using the visible distance as the target distance to obtain the target curvature at the predetermined target position that has the visible distance away from the current position along the road in the travelling direction.

A method of controlling a steering of a vehicle, the method comprising:

• obtaining a current position of the vehicle;
• obtaining road information about a road on which the vehicle is travelling, the road information including information indicative of a shape of the road extending in a travelling direction of the vehicle;
• obtaining a target curvature at a predetermined target position on the road, the target curvature being estimated based on the current position of the vehicle and the road information, the target position having a predetermined target distance away from the current position along the road in the travelling direction;
• calculating, based on the target curvature, a target steering angle representing the steering angle of the vehicle at the target position;
• obtaining a current steering angle representing the steering angle of the vehicle at the current position;
• controlling the steering of the vehicle to cause the current steering angle to follow the target steering angle;
• and
• changing the target distance based on at least one of environmental information around the vehicle and control information about the vehicle.