Patent ID: 6584397
Filing Date: 2003-06-24
Classification: B60T

Abstract:
A vehicle posture control apparatus which controls posture of a vehicle in a yawing direction by independently controlling brakes of the vehicle's wheels, comprising:first judging means for judging whether an understeering tendency of the vehicle is stronger than a preset reference value; second judging means for judging whether a steering wheel is turned from a situation in which the vehicle is moving straight forward; third judging means for judging whether a deviation between a change rate of a steering wheel angle and a change rate of an actual yaw rate is in an increasing tendency; and control means for independently controlling the brakes of the wheels of the vehicle in accordance with results of the judgment by the first, second and third judging means; wherein the control means controls, when the first judging means judges that an understeering tendency of the vehicle is stronger than the preset reference value during the vehicle is cornering, the brakes of the wheels of the vehicle independently to suppress the understeering tendency; and wherein when the third judging means judges that a deviation between the change rate of the steering wheel angle and the change rate of the actual yaw rate is in an increasing tendency at a beginning of cornering of the vehicle when the second judging means judge that the steering wheel is tuned from a situation in which the vehicle is moving straight forward, the control means controls the brakes of the wheels of the vehicle independently to suppress the increasing tendency of the deviation with an amount less than a control amount for suppressing the understeering tendency during the cornering of the vehicle in accordance with a result of judgment of the first judging means, regardless of the result of judgment by the first judging means.