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EP0208992A1 Expired / Lapsed EP ⏱️ 0.0 years remaining

Vehicle steering system

Assignee: Mazda Motor Corp
•
Filing: 1986-07-02
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Granted: —
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Expires: 2006-07-02
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Abstract

Abstract A four-wheel steering for a four-wheel drive vehicle has a front wheel steering mechanism (1), a steering wheel (3) for effecting a movement of the front wheel steering mechanism to a desired angle, a rear wheel steering mechanism (7), a control circuit (25) for effecting a movement of the rear wheel steering mechanism in relation to the steering movement of the front wheels, and a control assembly for compensating the steering angle of the rear wheels in accordance with the drive torque distribution (28). The ratio of the steering angle of the rear wheels to the steering angle of the front wheels as considered in the same direction of steering is increased in accordance with an increase in the ratio of the torque distribution.

Inventors

  • 👤 Hitoshi Inoue
  • 👤 Gozo Watanabe
  • 👤 Takeshi Tanaka
  • 👤 Yoshihiro Watanabe

Bibliographic Details

Application Number —
Jurisdiction EP
Data Source google_patents
Last Synchronized 2026-11-04 07:51
CPC Classifications
B; B62; B62D; B62D7/00; B62D7/06; B62D7/14; B62D7/15; B62D7/1518; B62D7/1545; B60; B60K; B60K23/00; B60K23/08; B60K23/0808; Y; Y10; Y10S; Y10S477/00; Y10S477/903

Claims Analysis

Total Claims: 9
Claim 1
Independent Claim 217 words
A steering mechanism of a vehicle including front wheel steering means for steering front wheels of the vehicle, operating means for effecting a steering movement of said front wheel means to a desired angle, rear wheel steering means for steering rear wheels of said vehicle, steering angle control means for effecting a steering movement of said rear wheel steering means in relation to the steering movement of the front wheels, said-steering angle control means including rear wheel steering angle setting means for determining a desired steering angle of the rear wheels in accordance with a steered angle of the front wheels and actuating means for moving said rear wheels to said desired steering angle of the rear wheels, CHARACTERIZED By the that the vehicle further comprises four-wheel drive means for transmitting drive torque to the front and the rear wheels and changing a ratio of the drive torque distribution for the front and rear wheels, torque ratio detecting means detecting the ratio of the drive torque distribution from the four-wheel drive means and producing signals denoting the torque ratio, steering ratio changing means for receiving the signals denoting the torque ratio from the torque ratio detecting means to compensate said steering angle determined by the steering angle setting means based on the signals denoting the torque ratio.
Claim 2
Dependent Claim 217 words
A steering mechanism of a vehicle including front wheel steering means for steering front wheels of the vehicle, operating means for effecting a steering movement of said front wheel means to a desired angle, rear wheel steering means for steering rear wheels of said vehicle, steering angle control means for effecting a steering movement of said rear wheel steering means in relation to the steering movement of the front wheels, said-steering angle control means including rear wheel steering angle setting means for determining a desired steering angle of the rear wheels in accordance with a steered angle of the front wheels and actuating means for moving said rear wheels to said desired steering angle of the rear wheels, CHARACTERIZED By the that the vehicle further comprises four-wheel drive means for transmitting drive torque to the front and the rear wheels and changing a ratio of the drive torque distribution for the front and rear wheels, torque ratio detecting means detecting the ratio of the drive torque distribution from the four-wheel drive means and producing signals denoting the torque ratio, steering ratio changing means for receiving the signals denoting the torque ratio from the torque ratio detecting means to compensate said steering angle determined by the steering angle setting means based on the signals denoting the torque ratio.
Claim 3
Dependent Claim 77 words
A steering mechanism in accordance with claim 1 in which the steering ratio changing means is adapted to increase a ratio of the steering angle of the rear wheels to the front wheels as considered in the same direction of steering in accordance with an increase of the ratio of the drive torque distribution for the rear wheels to thereby eliminate the side slips of the vehicle irrespective of changes in the ratio of the torque distribution.
Claim 4
Dependent Claim 35 words
A steering mechanism in accordance with claim 1 in which said four-wheel drive means is adapted to change the ratio of the drive torque distribution for the front and rear wheels by a manual operation.
Claim 5
Dependent Claim 38 words
A steering mechanism in accordance with claim 1 in which said four-wheel drive means is adapted to change the ratio of the drive torque distribution for the front and rear wheels basesd on the vibration of the vehicle.
Claim 6
Dependent Claim 29 words
A steering mechanism in accordance with claim 1 in which said actuating means is adapted to utilize a pulse motor to obtain a desirable movement in the rear wheels.
Claim 7
Dependent Claim 35 words
A steering mechanism in accordance with claim 1 in which said actuating means is adapted to make use of a steering force of the front wheels to obtain the desirable movement of the rear wheels.
Claim 8
Dependent Claim 87 words
7, A steering mechanism in accordance with claim 1 in which said rear wheel steering angle setting means includes means for setting the desired steering ratio of said rear wheels to a negative value under a low vehicle speed operation and to a positive value under a high vehicle speed operation so that the rear wheels are steered in the opposite direction of the front wheels under the low vehicle speed operation and in the same direction of the front wheels under the high vehicle speed operation.
Claim 9
Dependent Claim 94 words
A steering mechanism in accordance with claim I in which said rear wheel steering angle setting means includes means for setting the desired steering angle of said rear wheels to a positive value under a small steering angle of the front wheels and to a negative value under a large steering angle of the front wheels so that the rear wheels are steered in the same direction of the front wheels under the smaller steering angle and in the oppsite direction of the front wheels under the large steering angle of the front wheeis.

References Cited (Backward Citations)

US4313514A Cited
US4572316A Cited

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