Patent ID: 7222008

Claim:
A steering control apparatus comprising: a steered wheel drive mechanism including a plurality of motors for driving a steered wheel, wherein the plurality of motors are arranged coaxially, have substantially the same performance, and are driven simultaneously; a plurality of control means, each controlling an associated one of the motors; and a plurality of systems comprised by the plurality of motors and the plurality of control means, wherein the control means of one of the systems comprises means for generating a first torque command representing torque for turning the steered wheel based on the steering position of a steering wheel and position information of the motor associated with the one of the systems; means for distributing the first torque command to the plurality of systems as one or more divided torque commands; and means for controlling the torque of one of the motors associated with said one of the systems in accordance with the distributed torque command distributed to the one of the systems; and wherein the control means of at least a further one of the systems comprises means for controlling the torque of a further one of the motors associated with said further one of the systems in accordance with the distributed torque command distributed to the further one of the systems.