Patent ID: 9242557
Filing Date: 2016-01-26
CPC Classification: B60K,F02D,G01D,Y10T

Claim Text:
1. An accelerator apparatus for a vehicle, comprising: a support member that is installable to a body of the vehicle; a shaft that is rotatably supported by the support member; a manipulation member that is fixed to an outer peripheral wall of the shaft and is rotatable integrally with the shaft; an urging device that urges the shaft to rotate the shaft in an accelerator closing direction; a magnetic field generating device that is installed to one of the shaft and the manipulation member; a plurality of magnetic field sensing devices, each of which outputs a voltage, which corresponds to a change in a density of a magnetic flux that occurs at a time of rotating the magnetic field generating device relative to the plurality of magnetic field sensing devices; and an abnormality determining device that determines whether a sensed rotational angle of the magnetic field generating device relative to the plurality of magnetic field sensing devices is abnormal based on the voltages, which are outputted from the plurality of magnetic field sensing devices, wherein: a relationship between the voltage, which is outputted from one of the plurality of magnetic field sensing devices, and the voltage, which is outputted from another one of the plurality of magnetic field sensing devices, satisfies a predetermined condition when the sensed rotational angle of the magnetic field generating device relative to the plurality of magnetic field sensing devices is in a range from a full-closing-time rotational angle, which is a rotational angle of the magnetic field generating device relative to the plurality of magnetic field sensing devices at an accelerator-full-closing time, to a predetermined rotational angle that is positioned on one side of a full-opening-time rotational angle, which is opposite from the full-closing time rotational angle in an accelerator opening direction, wherein the full-opening-time rotational angle is a rotational angle of the magnetic field generating device relative to the plurality of magnetic field sensing devices at an accelerator-full-opening time; the one of the plurality of magnetic field sensing devices outputs the voltage, which is different from a voltage of the one of the magnetic field sensing devices computed according to the predetermined condition, when the sensed rotational angle of the magnetic field generating device relative to the plurality of magnetic field sensing devices is on one side of the predetermined rotational angle, which is opposite from the full-opening-time rotational angle in the accelerator opening direction; and the abnormality determining device determines that the sensed rotational angle of the magnetic field generating device relative to the plurality of magnetic field sensing devices is abnormal when a voltage difference, which is computed based on the voltage outputted from the one of the plurality of magnetic field sensing devices and the voltage outputted from the another one of the plurality of magnetic field sensing devices, is equal to or larger than a first threshold value or is equal to or smaller than a second threshold value, wherein the second threshold value is smaller than the first threshold value.