Vehicle steering apparatus and setting apparatus thereof
AssigneeToyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha
InventorHiroshi Shibuya
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
There are provided left and right arm mechanisms that connect an arm attachment portion as a part of a vehicle body to vehicle wheel attachment portions attached with front wheels via a front arm and a rear arm disposed in a front-rear direction of a vehicle and having plural links; and servo motors that independently drive the left and right arm mechanisms so that each link angle corresponding to a turning angle is determined. The setting position of the imaginary kingpin axis may be changed. Each link angle changes within a range of maintaining a correlation in which the turning angle increases in accordance with an increase in the steering operation amount when controlling the servo motors so as to obtain the turning angle corresponding to the steering operation amount of a steering wheel.
Claims13
A vehicle steering apparatus comprising:
- left and right arm mechanisms that connect a vehicle body to a vehicle wheel attachment portion attached with a vehicle wheel via front and rear arms disposed in a front-rear direction of a vehicle and having plural links rotatably connected to each other;
- an arm driving device that independently drives the left and right arm mechanisms so that each link angle corresponding to a turning angle of the vehicle wheel is determined;
- and
- a controller configured to
- change a setting position of an imaginary kingpin axis as a center of the turning angle, and
- control the arm driving device so that the turning angle corresponding to a steering operation amount of a steering member is obtained at the setting position of the imaginary kingpin axis,
- wherein the controller controls the arm driving device so that each link angle changes within a range of maintaining a correlation in which the turning angle increases in accordance with an increase in the steering operation amount, and
- wherein a different correlation is set to each setting position so that a degree of an increase in the turning angle with respect to an increase in the steering operation amount changes before and after changing the setting position of the imaginary kingpin axis.
A setting apparatus that is applied to a vehicle steering apparatus capable of changing a setting position of an imaginary kingpin axis as a center of a turning angle of a vehicle wheel, the setting apparatus comprising:
- a display device that visually displays plural positions that may be set as the setting position of the imaginary kingpin axis;
- a display control device that movably displays an indication device, selectively indicating any one of the plural positions, on the display device;
- an input device that receives a user's predetermined operation correlating an indication position of the indication device with any one of the plural positions;
- and
- a setting control device that outputs a setting command signal for making the steering apparatus set a position corresponding to the predetermined operation as the setting position of the imaginary kingpin axis when the input device receives the predetermined operation.
A vehicle steering apparatus comprising:
- left and right arm mechanisms that connect a vehicle body to a vehicle wheel attachment portion attached with a vehicle wheel via front and rear arms disposed in a front-rear direction of a vehicle and having plural links rotatably connected to each other;
- an arm driving device that independently drives the left and right arm mechanisms so that each link angle corresponding to a turning angle of the vehicle wheel is determined;
- means for changing a setting position of an imaginary kingpin axis as a center of the turning angle;
- and
- means for controlling the arm driving device so that the turning angle corresponding to a steering operation amount of a steering member is obtained at the setting position of the imaginary kingpin axis,
- wherein the means for controlling controls the arm driving device so that each link angle changes within a range of maintaining a correlation in which the turning angle increases in accordance with an increase in the steering operation amount, and
- wherein a different correlation is set to each setting position so that a degree of an increase in the turning angle with respect to an increase in the steering operation amount changes before and after changing the setting position of the imaginary kingpin axis.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.