A method for operating a steering system includes providing an electromechanical steering assistance having several redundant control paths. Each control path includes a control unit, a power unit and a winding circuit of a servomotor. A correcting-variable unit is provided in each control unit in order to make a correcting variable available, depending on input variables. The correcting variables of all of the correcting-variable units are averaged. A set correcting variable is made available by each control unit, depending on the averaged correcting variable. A device for operating a steering system and a steering system for steering wheels of a motor vehicle, are also provided.

A steering system includes an actuator, a steering wheel that generates inputs for the actuator in a manual steer-by-wire control state, and a controller that determines operating conditions for the actuator, the steering wheel, or both. The controller determines blended steering angles based on manual steering angles of the steering wheel and automatic steering angles associated with an automated steer-by-wire control state. The controller transitions operation of the steering system from the manual steer-by-wire control state to the automated steer-by-wire control state when all operating conditions are satisfied and uses a blending function that applies weighting values to the manual steering angles and the automated steering angles to determine the blended steering angles. The controller controls the actuator using the blended steering angles.

A steer-by-wire power steering system including a lower-level mechanism that includes a servo motor and a steered wheel, and an upper-level mechanism that includes a steering wheel and an auxiliary motor, the lower-level mechanism being closed-loop controlled, at zero force, by a lower local loop including a feedback branch that measures or estimates an actual downstream force downstream of the servo motor and upstream of the point of contact between the wheel and the ground, so as to make the servo motor transparent, while the upper-level mechanism is closed-loop controlled, at zero torque, by an upper local loop including a feedback branch which measures or estimates an actual driver torque between the auxiliary motor and the steering wheel so as to make the auxiliary motor transparent, the lower and upper local loops being controlled by a single overall controller.

A steer-by-wire steering system, including: a two-system reaction force applying device including two reaction force controllers and configured to obtain operation information and apply an operation reaction force; a two-system steering device including two steering controllers and configured to steer a wheel; an operation information obtaining device; an auxiliary steering device capable of changing a direction of a vehicle; two dedicated communication lines one of which information-transmittably and information-receivably connects one of the two reaction force controllers and one of the two steering controllers to each other, and the other of which information-transmittably and information-receivably connects the other of the two reaction force controllers and the other of the two steering controllers to each other; and a first communication bus to which the operation information obtaining device is at least information-transmittably connected and to which the two steering controllers and the auxiliary steering device are at least information-receivably connected.

A vehicle steering control method includes receiving a sensed handwheel angle corresponding to a position of a handwheel and receiving a sensed handwheel toque value indicating an amount of torque applied by an operator on the handwheel. The method also includes, in response to a determination that the handwheel motor is in an unlocked condition, generating a roadwheel angle based on the sensed handwheel angle and a vehicle speed. The method also includes, in response to a determination that the handwheel motor is in a locked condition generating the roadwheel angle based on the sensed handwheel torque value and the vehicle speed and, in response to a determination that the locked condition of the handwheel motor is an intermittent condition, maintaining the handwheel motor in the locked condition.

The present invention discloses a drive-by-wire electro-hydraulic steering system based on a double-winding motor and a hybrid control method. The steering system includes a steering wheel (1), a steering column assembly, a road sense assembly, an electro-hydraulic power-assisted module, a double-winding motor power-assisted module (28), a steering control unit, an electromagnetic clutch (8), a steering tie rod (17), a steering trapezoid (13) and steering wheels (12). The steering system can be switched among various steering work modes according to work conditions of a vehicle, meets steering requirements under various work conditions, uses a work mode that two sets of windings of the double-winding motor work at the same time, and has a motor winding redundancy function. When one set of windings fails, the other set of windings can drive the motor to provide power-assisted torque.

Embodiments of the present invention relate to a rack-driven electric power assisted steering device. Embodiments of the present invention provide a rack-driven electric power assisted steering device comprising: a rack bar which slides in the axial direction in a rack housing and has an outer circumferential screw groove formed at the outer circumferential surface thereof; a ball nut which has an inner circumferential screw groove formed at the inner circumferential surface thereof and corresponding to the outer circumferential screw groove of the rack bar, and has a ball circulation passage formed between the inner and outer circumferential surfaces thereof, the ball circulation passage passing through the ball nut in the axial direction; end caps coupled to one end and the other end of the ball circulation passage, respectively, each of the end caps having a ball return hole provided to circulate balls through the ball circulation passage, the outer circumferential screw groove, and the inner circumferential screw groove; and a support member coupled to the inner circumferential surface of the ball nut while supporting the end caps in the axial direction.

A vehicle includes first and second steering drivers that steer first and second wheel pairs, a lock that locks the first wheel pair to be non-steerable, a first steering controller that controls the first steering driver in accordance with a first steering angle, and a second steering controller that controls the second steering driver in accordance with a second steering angle. The first steering controller controls the lock to lock the steering of the first wheel pair upon detecting anomaly in the steering of the first wheel pair from the steering angle and a steering detection angle of the first wheel pair. The second steering controller controls the second steering driver in accordance with a second corrected steering angle, if the steering of the first wheel pair exhibits anomaly.

A steer-by-wire apparatus may include: a first rotating part rotated with a steering wheel; a second rotating part installed so as to be isolated from the first rotating part, and engaged with a first rack gear provided on a side surface of a gear bar; a sensor installed on each of the first and second rotating parts, and configured to measure at least any one of a rotation angle of the first rotating part, a rotation angle of the second rotating part and a torque value of the first rotating part; a controller configured to receive the measured value of the sensor; and a clutch configured to operate according to a control signal of the controller and synchronize rotations of the first and second rotating parts.

A hardware architecture for controlling a safety-relevant process having at least two microcontrollers for controlling the process in at least two control branches, wherein the respective microcontroller control the safety-relevant process. The microcontrollers process the data from at least one sensor, which detects the actual characteristic of the respective control branch. Between the two microcontrollers, the data of the respective sensor are exchanged and provided for each microcontroller and a check is made to determine whether the data from the sensors are consistent. In response to an inconsistency being detected, a majority decision is made and a model value used in forming the majority decision, is calculated in the microcontroller based on control commands so the control of the safety-relevant process by the microcontroller of the control branch, whose data were detected as erroneous in the majority decision, is disabled.