Apple's latest car patent released: car automated steering system

According to foreign media reports, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office recently announced several new patents obtained in Apple's Titan project, one of which involves an automated steering system for cars.

(Image source: patentlyapple.com)

Vehicle actuators are controllable systems that can cause or affect the movement of a vehicle and may include propulsion actuators, braking actuators, steering actuators, and suspension actuators. Steer-by-wire systems eliminate or disconnect the physical connection between the steering wheel and the wheels.

Apple's invention relates to systems and methods that can control feedback provided to a vehicle operator based on the operating state of each wheel of the vehicle. For example, feedback torque can be determined based on the component torque of each steering wheel under one or more operating conditions.

The invention relates to a method for controlling a vehicle, which includes operating a steering system in a manual steer-by-wire state, determining that the steering system can transition to an automated steer-by-wire state, obtaining a manual steering angle and an automatic steering angle, determining a mixed steering angle using a mixed function during the transition to the automated steer-by-wire state, and controlling a steering actuator using the mixed steering angle.

The invention also includes a second method for controlling a vehicle, which involves receiving a steering wheel steering angle value and a steering wheel torque, the former representing the steering force manually applied to the steering wheel, and the latter representing the steering torque manually applied to the steering wheel; and is also capable of receiving steering actuator information describing the operating conditions of the steering actuator.

The method also includes using one or more feedback models based on the steering actuator information and the steering wheel steering angle value to determine the component torque of each steering actuator, determining the feedback torque based on the component torque and the steering wheel steering torque, and using the feedback actuator to apply the feedback torque to the steering wheel.

(Image source: patentlyapple.com)

Apple's patent FIG. 3 below illustrates an example configuration diagram of a steering system steering actuator module; and patent FIG. 4 illustrates an example configuration diagram of a steering system steering column module.