There is provided a novel electric power steering device capable of continuing a steering assist function as much as possible even in an environment where moisture enters inside a housing of an electric motor due to breakage of a rubber boot and an electrical short circuit phenomenon occurs. A stator 14 around which a winding is wound is vertically divided into two areas in the direction of gravity, a winding 16 of one system is wound in the upper stator area of the stator 14 while the winding 16 of the other system is wound in the lower stator area of the stator 14, and power of the winding of one system is controlled by an electronic control means 33 of one system while power of the winding of the other system is controlled by an electronic control means 34 of the other system. Even if moisture enters inside the housing of the electric motor due to breakage of the rubber boot, occurrence of the electrical short circuit phenomenon is suppressed at least in the winding wound on the upper side, whereby the steering assist can be continued.

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 steering system to steer wheels by a movement of a steering shaft, including: the steering shaft; an electric motor; a converter configured to convert a rotational motion of the motor into the movement of the steering shaft; a motor rotation angle obtainer configured to obtain a motor rotation angle from a zero point position; a movement-amount-related-amount obtainer configured to obtain a movement-amount-related amount that is a movement amount of the steering shaft from a neutral position or a physical amount in a one-to-one correspondence with the movement amount; and a controller including a malfunction detector configured to detect a presence or absence of a malfunction of the converter in a mode that differs depending on a temperature state of the steering system, based on the motor rotation angle from the zero point position obtained by the motor rotation angle obtainer and the movement-amount-related amount obtained by the movement-amount-related-amount obtainer.

An electronic control device with short-circuit protection for actuating an electric motor may include a switching device that is connectable to a power source and a power module coupled to the switching device and configured to be coupled to the electric motor for supplying electrical power. The power module contains an inverter and a capacitor connected in parallel. A current-measuring device may be connected to the power module and configured to output a short-circuit fault signal based on the intensity of electric current in the power module. A control unit connected to the current-measuring device may control the switching device, with the control unit configured to isolate the power module from the power source via the switching device upon the short-circuit fault signal. The current-measuring device may measure an electric current flowing through the capacitor and output the short-circuit fault signal based on a direct-current component of the measured current.

Provided is a rotation angle detection device including: an intermediate signal generation unit configured to generate an intermediate signal based on a product of a sine signal and a cosine signal which are based on a rotation angle of a rotating body; a first multiplication unit; and a first rotation angle calculation unit. The intermediate signal generation unit includes: a first multiplier configured to calculate the product of the sine signal and the cosine signal; and a first low-pass filter configured to remove frequency components equal to or higher than twice a frequency of fundamental waves of the sine signal and the cosine signal from an output of the first multiplier.

A method of controlling an electric power assisted steering (EPS) apparatus comprises a plurality of inverter bridges each connected to a multi-phase motor configured to provide power assist to steering of a vehicle. After detection of a failure within one of said inverter bridges, the current flow within the faulty inverter bridge is controlled, and one or more of the other inverter bridges is used to provide power assistance. A control system for an electric power assisted steering (EPS) apparatus comprises a plurality of inverter bridges each connected to a multi-phase motor configured to provide power assist to steering of a vehicle, selection means for selectively operating switches in an inverter bridge in which a failure has been detected to control the current flow within the faulty inverter bridge, and control means for controlling one or more of the other inverter bridges to provide power assistance in accordance with the method.

A control circuit connected to a control device configured to control a motor connected to a rotation shaft that is convertible into a turning angle of a turning wheel, the control circuit includes a main circuit configured to calculates a rotation number indicating a rotational state of the rotation shaft based on a detection signal from a rotation angle sensor configured to detect a rotation angle of the motor as a relative angle, a detection result communication unit configured to detect whether or not there is an abnormality in the main circuit and output a detection result to the control device, and a pseudo abnormality generating unit configured to set the detection result to be abnormal based on a pseudo abnormal signal from the control device.

The invention relates to a steering assembly (12) for a vehicle (10). The steering assembly (12) comprises a first steering actuator (14) and a second steering actuator (16). The first steering actuator (14) is adapted to be actuated in accordance with at least one signal issued from a motion control system (18) to control a steering angle of at least one steerable ground engaging member (20, 22) of the vehicle (10) to thereby control the steering of the vehicle (10). The first steering actuator (14) is associated with a first nominal steering capability, defining at least one limitation of at least one of the following: steering angle, steering angle rate and steering torque, for the at least one steerable ground engaging member (20, 22). The second steering actuator (16) is adapted to be actuated in accordance with at least one signal issued from the motion control system (18) to control the steering angle of the at least one steerable ground engaging member (20, 22) of the vehicle (10) to thereby control the steering of the vehicle (10). The second steering actuator (16) is associated with a second nominal steering capability, defining at least one limitation of at least one of the following: steering angle, steering angle rate and steering torque, for the at least one steerale ground engaging member (20, 22). The motion control system (18) is adapted to, upon detection of a malfunction associated with the first steering actuator (14), associate the second steering actuator (17) with a second enhanced steering capability instead of the second nominal steering capability. The second enhanced steering capability is different from the second nominal steering capability.

An electromechanical motor vehicle power steering system having a multiphase, permanently excited electric motor via a controller and supply lines from an onboard power supply of a motor vehicle.

A drive controller according to an aspect controls drive of a three-phase motor, and includes an electric value calculation unit that calculates an electric value in each of coordinate axes of rotating coordinates of the three-phase motor based on an electric value that is at least one of a current value and a voltage value generated in the three-phase motor, and a fault determination unit that determines a fault phase having a fault in phases of the three-phase motor by combining positive-negative information on at least one of a difference between a calculation electric value calculated by the electric value calculation unit and a target electric value indicating a control target of an electric value in each of the coordinate axes, and a variation of the difference, with each of the coordinate axes.