Patent ID: 8532876

Claim:
A vehicle steering control apparatus comprising: an actuator configured to vary a steering gear ratio of a vehicle wheel steer angle of a steerable wheel to a steering wheel angle by adding an angular input of the actuator to an angular input from a steering wheel or subtracting the angular input of the actuator from the angular input from the steering wheel; and a controller configured to control the actuator to produce an actuator torque in a steering direction at a start of a driver's steering operation; wherein the controller is configured to produce the actuator torque in the steering direction with the actuator in a case of a steering angle decreasing actuator operation, in which the actuator is operated to subtract a rotation angle produced by the actuator from a driver's steering input; wherein the controller is configured to perform a control operation to control the actuator to produce the actuator torque in a direction to reduce a deviation of an actual rotation angle of the actuator from a target rotation angle; and wherein the controller is further configured to modify the deviation to prevent the actuator torque from being produced in an opposite direction opposite to the steering direction, by the control operation for reducing the deviation caused by a delay of the actual rotation angle with respect to the target rotation angle, which is due to internal friction in the actuator at the start of the driver's steering operation in the case of the steering angle decreasing actuator operation.