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Steering support device

  • US 8,086,372 B2
  • Filed: 08/06/2007
  • Issued: 12/27/2011
  • Est. Priority Date: 08/07/2006
  • Status: Active Grant
First Claim
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1. A steering assistance apparatus for providing a steering mechanism with a steering torque such that a vehicle runs along a running path according to an image capturing the running path in front of the vehicle, the apparatus comprising:

  • a curve direction estimating unit to estimate a curve direction of the running path by processing the image;

    a steering direction estimating unit to estimate a steering direction of a driver of the vehicle according to a steering operation of the driver;

    a curve exit determining unit to determine that the vehicle is running through a curve exit according to a fact that the curve direction estimated by the curve direction estimating unit and the steering direction estimated by the steering direction estimating unit do not coincide with each other; and

    a steering control unit to make a greater amount of change in the steering torque during turning back a steering wheel when the curve exit determining unit determines that the vehicle is running through the curve exit than when not.

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