Apparatus for and method of steering vehicle

Abstract

Unless the steering operation quantity detected by a steering quantity detection unit indicates that the vehicle is advancing almost rectilinearly, an approach disallowed area present toward the outer side of the turning vehicle relative to the front of the vehicle along the advancing direction, such as a road boundary, a blocking wall or a white line, is detected by an approach disallowed area detection unit. A mode judging unit judges that a steering angle limit mode is set if an approach disallowed area has been detected. An α calculating unit calculates an angle α formed by the orientation of the approach disallowed area boundary and the orientation of the vehicle. In the steering angle limit mode, a target front steering angle calculating unit performs an arithmetic operation by imposing a limit on the absolute value of the target steering angle for the front of the vehicle along the advancing direction so as to ensure that the absolute value does not exceed the maximum value of approximately α.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.