Patent ID: 7753162

Claim:
A vehicle steering apparatus comprising: a vehicle steering system including a steering wheel configured and arranged to be operated by an operator of a vehicle and a pair of drive wheels operatively coupled to the steering wheel to selectively turn with respect to the vehicle in accordance with a steering operation of the steering wheel by the operator; and a supplemental steering force applying device configured and arranged to apply a supplemental steering force to the vehicle steering system to reduce a steering load on the operator, the supplemental steering force applying device including a section that detects a vehicle condition that is indicative of a rectilinear driving condition of the vehicle, a steering torque detecting section that detects a steering torque when the vehicle is in the rectilinear driving condition to collect historical data of the steering torque during the rectilinear driving condition, and a pulling suppression control section that calculates a pulling suppression force independently of the supplemental steering force based on the historical data of the steering torque during the rectilinear driving condition, and that constantly offsets the supplemental steering force by the pulling suppression force in a direction canceling a pulling force imparted on the vehicle during the rectilinear driving condition.