Patent ID: 6847876

Claim:
An electric power steering apparatus for detecting rotational angles of a steering shaft, which connects a steering wheel of a vehicle and a steering mechanism of wheels, at different positions in an axial direction of said steering shaft, calculating torque applied to said steering shaft, based on a difference between the detected rotational angles, and driving and controlling a steering force assisting motor attached to said steering mechanism so as to apply an assisting force corresponding to a direction and magnitude of the calculated torque to said steering mechanism, comprising: a calculator for calculating an angular velocity or angular acceleration of said steering shaft at each of the detection positions, based on the detected rotational angles; a judging device for judging whether the torque was caused by an input from the steering wheel side or an input from the steering mechanism side, based on a relation between the angular velocities or a relation between angular accelerations calculated by said calculator; and a controller for driving and controlling said motor based on a result of judgment by said judging device.