Patent ID: 8788170

Claim:
A vehicle left-right wheel drive force distribution control apparatus comprising: a controller programmed to execute individual drive force controls of drive forces distributed to a pair of left and right subordinate drive wheels so as to simultaneously control a first distribution of drive forces between a pair of left and right main drive wheels and the pair of left and right subordinate drive wheels and control a second distribution of drive forces between the left and right subordinate drive wheels, the controller including a subordinate drive wheel total drive force target value setting section that sets a subordinate drive wheel total drive force target value as a target value of a total drive force to be distributed to the left and right subordinate drive wheels; a subordinate drive wheel drive force difference target value setting section that sets a subordinate drive wheel drive force difference target value as a target value of a difference between drive forces to be distributed to the left and right subordinate drive wheels; a subordinate drive wheel target drive force computing section that computes a left target drive force of the left subordinate drive wheel and a right target drive force of the right subordinate drive wheel that achieve both the subordinate drive wheel total drive force target value set by the subordinate drive wheel total drive force target value setting section and the subordinate drive wheel drive force difference target value set by the subordinate drive wheel drive force difference target value setting section, and feeds the computed left and right target drive forces to the individual drive force controls of the drive forces directed to the left and right subordinate drive wheels; a target value comparing section that determines whether the subordinate drive wheel total drive force target value is smaller than the subordinate drive wheel drive force difference target value; and a target drive force limiting section that limits a smaller value of the left and right target drive force computed by the subordinate drive wheel target drive force computing section to a minimum allowable value upon the target value comparing section determining that the subordinate drive wheel total drive force target value is smaller than the subordinate drive wheel drive force difference target value.