Patent ID: 8321090

Claim:
A steering mechanism control system comprising: a steering angle ratio varying device configured to control a ratio of a steered angle of a steerable wheel with respect to a steering input angle in accordance with a steering angle characteristic; a steering angle determining section configured to determine the steering input angle resulting from a steering operation; a steering state determining section configured to determine a steering state based on the steering input angle detected by the steering angle determining section, the steering state determining section being further configured to determine the steering state as one of: a driver-operated steering device has just begun turning, the driver-operated steering device is currently turning, the driver-operated steering device has just finished turning, and the driver-operated steering device is currently returning from a turned state; a vehicle speed determining section configured to detect a vehicle speed; a speed region determining section configured to determine a traveling speed region of the vehicle based on the vehicle speed that was detected by the vehicle speed determining section; a steering reaction force control device configured to control a steering reaction force in accordance with a reaction force characteristic, the steering reaction force being a reaction force that acts in opposition to the steering operation during the steering operation; and a characteristic setting section configured to set both the steering angle characteristic of the steering angle ratio varying device and the reaction force characteristic of the steering reaction force control device based on a combination of the steering state determined by the steering state determining section and the traveling speed region determined by the speed region determining section.