Apple gets 66 new patents covering vehicle steering systems

According to foreign media reports, the US Patent and Trademark Office (US Patent and Trademark Office) has granted Apple 66 new patents, including a project Titan patent: vehicle steering system.

Project Titan concept image source: patentlyapple.com

Steer-by-wire system with multiple steering actuators

Vehicle actuators are controllable systems that cause or affect vehicle motion, and include propulsion actuators, brake actuators, steering actuators, and suspension actuators.Steer-by-wire systems avoid or break the physical connection between the steering wheel (aka handwheel) and the wheels.

Apple's latest patent is for a system and method that provides feedback to a vehicle operator based on the operating state of each wheel of the vehicle.For example, the feedback torque may be determined based on the component torque for each operating condition at each steered wheel.

This latest steer-by-wire system covers a method for controlling a vehicle, including operating the steering system in a manual steer-by-wire control state, determining that the steering system will perform a transition to an automatic steer-by-wire control state, obtaining a manual steering angle and automatic steering angle, determine the use of the hybrid function to determine the hybrid steering angle during the transition to the automatic steer-by-wire control state, and use the hybrid steering angle to control the steering actuators during the transition to the automatic steer-by-wire control state.

The second method includes receiving a steering wheel angle value representing a manual steering input at the steering wheel, and a steering wheel torque representing a manually applied steering torque at the steering wheel, and receiving steering actuator information describing operating conditions of the steering actuator.

The method also includes determining a component torque for each steering actuator using one or more feedback models based on the steering actuator information and the steering wheel angle value, determining a feedback torque based on the component torque and the steering wheel torque, and using the feedback actuator to convert the feedback Torque is applied to the steering wheel.

Apple Patent FIG. 3 is an illustration of an example configuration of a steering actuator module for a steering system; Apple Patent FIG. 4 is an illustration of an example configuration of a steering column module of a steering system.

Image credit: patentlyapple.com

According to the new patent description, the steering system includes: an actuator configured to control the motion of the wheels of the vehicle; a steering wheel configured to generate input for the actuator in a manual steer-by-wire control state; a controller configured to: determine the operating conditions of the brakes, the steering wheel, or both; the hybrid steering angle based on the manual steering angle of the steering wheel, the manual wheel angle based on the manual steering angle, and the automatic steering angle based on the external wheel angle commanded as an external part, and the automatic steering angle The associated automatic steering angle steer-by-wire control state; when all operating conditions are met and the hybrid function is used, the operation of the steering system transitions from the manual steer-by-wire control state to the automatic steer-by-wire control state, where the hybrid function applies a weighted value to The manual steering angle as well as the automatic steering angle determine the hybrid steering angle, where the weighting value depends on the difference between the manual wheel angle and the outer wheel angle; and the use of the hybrid steering angle to control the actuators.