Disclosed are an apparatus and a method for controlling an operation of a reaction force motor. An exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure provides an apparatus for controlling an operation of a reaction force motor, which is included in a system for providing a reaction force by using the reaction force motor and an elastic member which is deformed by a rotation of a steering wheel in a direction of a rotation axis of the steering wheel, the apparatus including: a first motor control unit connected to a first winding part of the reaction force motor; and a second motor control unit connected to a second winding part of the reaction force motor, in which the first and second motor control units control turning-on or turning-off of switches included therein so that the reaction force motor generates braking torque corresponding to reaction force torque provided by the elastic member, a steering angle of the steering wheel, and steering torque of the steering wheel.

The present disclosure relates to a method of generating feedback force in case of a motor fault in a Steering Feedback Actuator (SFA) system. The method includes: determining whether a fault occurs in a motor associated with an SFA system; determining the type of fault when it is determined that the fault occurs in the motor; and generating feedback force associated with the SFA system by controlling the motor based on the determined type of fault.

An electric motor drive control device includes: an inverter circuit that converts DC power inputted via a DC bus to multiphase AC power and outputs the multiphase AC power to an electric motor; a current detector that detects a DC current flowing in the DC bus; a PWM generator that generates PWM signals and outputs the PWM signals to the inverter circuit; a current calculator that calculates a current value for each of phases to be flowed to the electric motor based upon a value of the DC current and the PWM signals; and a current controller that generates a command signal based upon the current value, and outputs the command signal to the PWM generator, wherein: if one of the phases of the AC power has become missing, the current calculator determines which phase is one that has become missing and calculates current values for other phases.

A motor drive device includes a plurality of control systems that individually supply drive currents to a plurality of coil groups included in a motor. The motor drive device independently sets the current command values for the respective control systems. Based on the set current command values, drive instructions are supplied to drive circuits of inverters with respect to the respective control systems, thereby supplying drive currents from the inverters to the coil groups. The motor drive device detects a failure in any of the inverters and the coil groups with respect to each control system, and stops only the failed control system or causes only the failed control system to fall back. The motor drive device further includes a main computing device, and an auxiliary computing device. Consequently, if the auxiliary computing device is normal even in case the main computing device fails, driving of the motor can be continued using one or some of the control systems.

A steering system circuit arrangement for operating an electric motor comprised by a steering adjuster may include a control unit and either a first sensor unit, which is designed to provide first input signals, or a second sensor unit, which is designed to provide second input signals that are different from the first input signals. The control unit is configured to both receive the first input signals provided by the first sensor unit and to provide an actuation signal for the electric motor by taking account of these received first input signals, and to receive the second input signals provided by the second sensor unit and to provide the actuation signal by taking account of these received second input signals. Further, an electromechanical steering system may include such a circuit arrangement. Methods for producing and operating such steering systems may also be utilized.

An embodiment vehicle includes a camera having an external field of view with respect to the vehicle and a controller configured to process image data obtained by the camera to determine a wheel alignment state of the vehicle and detect an abnormality in wheel alignment of the vehicle by comparing an initial wheel alignment state of the vehicle with a driving wheel alignment state obtained while the vehicle is being driven.

Described herein are steer-by-wire systems and methods of operating these systems in vehicles. A steer-by-wire system comprises a steering wheel assembly, comprising a steering wheel, sensors, and a torque generator. The system comprises a rack assembly, comprising a steering rack, sensors, and a rack actuator. The steering wheel assembly and the rack assembly are communicatively coupled by a steer-by-wire system controller, without having any direct mechanical links between the assemblies. In some examples, the controller instructs the rack assembly to control the steering rack position based on the steering input, such as changes in the steering wheel position. A steering map is used to determine the desired steering rack position based on the current steering wheel position. In some examples, a steering map is selected from a steering map set based on, e.g., the vehicle speed, vehicle direction, driver preference, and the like.

A control device for a motor including a first coil and a second coil which are insulated from each other is provided. The control device includes a first circuit and a second circuit that switches a first process to a second process when the first circuit fails. The external circuit generates an instruction for performing a process of increasing an amount of operation which is calculated by one of the first circuit and the second circuit according to the number of control systems when the other of the first circuit and the second circuit fails.

A method for controller a multiphase electric machine includes, in response to a determination that a phase of the multiphase electric machine is in an open circuit condition, determining a desired torque to be generated by the multiphase electric machine and retrieving, based on the determination that the phase is in the open circuit condition and the desired torque, a set of current values to be applied to each of the other phases of the multiphase electric machine to achieve the desired torque. The method may also include applying respective current values of the set of current values to corresponding ones of the other phases of the multiphase electric machine, the set of current values being determined based on a model of the multiphase electric machine that includes the phase is in the open circuit condition.

A power steering system includes a torque modifier module that generates a modified torque command in response to a current sensor fault, a magnitude of the modified torque command changes over a time period. The power steering system also includes a feedforward selection module that applies a dynamic feedforward compensation to a motor current command, thereby generating a motor voltage that is applied to a motor of the power steering system, the dynamic feedforward compensation modifies a frequency response of the power steering system.