Patent ID: 7725227

Claim:
A method of providing compensation for steering pull in a vehicle steering system that includes a handwheel, the method including: monitoring the vehicle to determine whether the vehicle is heading forward along a substantially linear straight-ahead path and, if so: measuring handwheel torque, as a sensed torque signal, to determine an amount of steering pull existing at the handwheel; generating a torque assist signal in response to the sensed torque signal; calculating an offset signal for reducing the amount of steering pull to substantially zero by; integrating the sensed torque signal to produce a short term compensation signal; integrating a sum of the sensed torque signal and the short term compensation signal to produce a long term compensation signal; and summing the short term compensation signal and the long term compensation signal to produce the offset signal; producing a modified torque assist signal by adding the offset signal to the torque assist signal; and applying the modified torque assist signal to the vehicle steering system.