The present disclosure relates to an apparatus and method for controlling a motor in which a failure has occurred in a vehicle steering system. A vehicle motor control apparatus according to an embodiment may include a motor failure sensor configured to determine whether a failure has occurred in a motor based on information of a current flowing in each phase of the motor provided in a vehicle steering system, and a motor controller configured to apply a demagnetization current to the motor for permanently demagnetizing the magnet in the motor when the failure has occurred in the motor. Accordingly, a driver is capable of performing stable steering even when the motor has failed.

A steer-by-wire steering system for motor vehicles may include a primary steering level with a steering transmission device, which is arranged to subject wheels of the motor vehicle to a desired setpoint steering effect, and a secondary steering level with a safety device that provides predefined functions, so that in the case of a malfunction of the primary steering level, steering the wheels remains possible during an emergency mode. The steer-by-wire steering system may also include an authentication system with a communications interface for communications with the safety device. The authentication system may be arranged so that in the case of a successful authorization, the secondary steering level of the steer-by-wire steering system is also available after the emergency mode.

An electronic control device includes a plurality of control circuit units, a signal line, and a sneak-in suppression circuit. The plurality of control circuit units are connected to separate grounds, respectively. The signal line connects a first control circuit unit and a second control circuit unit. When a system is defined as a combination of a component and a ground corresponding to a control circuit unit, the sneak-in suppression circuit suppresses a sneak-in of electric power from the ground of one system (i.e., a subject system) to the other system connected by the signal line for preventing a cascading failure.

A method for controlling a vehicle includes operating a steering system in manual steer-by-wire control state and determining that a transition to an automated steer-by-wire control state is to be performed by the steering system. The method also includes entering the automated steer-by-wire control state upon determining that all conditions from a group of state entry conditions are satisfied, and operating the steering system in the automated steer-by-wire control state until determining that any condition from a group of state exit conditions is satisfied. The method also includes entering the manual steer-by-wire control state upon determining that any condition from the group of state exit conditions is satisfied.

A method for a power steering system for empirically determining at least one property of the system including at least one steering wheel, a steering mechanism with a rack, and at least one assist motor, the method including, outside a steering phase during which the power steering system is assigned to drive a vehicle to follow a trajectory determined as a situation function of the vehicle with respect to its environment, a step (a) of automatically activating the assist motor, during which a computer automatically generates and applies to the assistance motor, without requiring action on the steering wheel, an activation instruction following one or more pre-established exploration cycles for measuring, during or at the end of the at least one exploration cycle, at least one indicator parameter is specific to the power steering system response to the automatic activation of the assist motor and is a desired property characteristic.

Technical solutions described herein include a method of controlling, in an electric power steering system, a steering angle according to a target steering angle by computing an initial value of an integral control term in a proportional integral derivative (PID) control loop used to calculate a control output signal, such as a motor torque command. The initial value of the integral control term is computed as a negative of the initial value of the feedforward term minus the initial value of the feedback term. The initial value of the integral control term corresponds to an initial value of a control output. Accordingly, the technical solutions described herein facilitate handling non-zero initial condition in Electric Power Steering angle control.

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.

Two sets of independent armature windings and two sets of control units are provided; a single power-source connector branches into at least four lines in the vicinity of a power-source terminal; a power source relay, a filter, and an inverter circuit are connected, in that order, with a line where a large current flows; a control circuit unit is connected with a line where a small current flows and a detection circuit for detecting an abnormality in the control circuit unit is provided in that line.

A power conversion device includes a first inverter and a control circuit that controls an on/off operations of switches in the first inverter and diagnoses disconnection failures of n-phase windings, where n is an integer of three or more. The control circuit generates a control signal to turn off all of n low-side switches and n high-side switches, supplies the control signal to the n low-side switches and the n high-side switches and measures the n-phase voltages that change depending on patterns of on failures of the switches, and executes a first failure diagnosis to diagnose the on failures of the n low-side switches and the n high-side switches based on the measured n-phase voltages by referring to a table associating the patterns of the on failures of the switches with n-phase voltage levels.

A motor control device is provided with a plurality of power converters and a plurality of microcomputers, and controls driving of a motor that has a plurality of sets of windings. The microcomputers perform initial check of components in respective circuits after activation. The microcomputers prohibit driving of the motor by a circuit determined to be abnormal during the initial inspection. When two or more circuits are determined to be normal in the initial check, the microcomputers start driving of the motor by synchronizing the timing between the two or more circuits determined to be normal. When only one circuit is determined to be normal in the initial check, the microcomputers start driving of the motor by the one circuit determined to be normal.