Abstract: A controller for a power steering apparatus in which operation fluid for generating assist torque is pumped by a motor-driven pump. The controller controls the flow rate of the operation fluid by changing the voltage supplied to the motor. The controller is provided with a section for generating a target value representing a target voltage to be supplied to the motor, a section for detecting the voltage actuary supplied to the motor, and a section for generating a voltage compensation value based on the detected voltage. The voltage compensation value is obtained by integrating a voltage difference between the target voltage and the detected voltage. The voltage compensation value is added to the target value to obtain a compensated target value. The motor is driven by a voltage corresponding to the compensated target value.

Abstract: In an electric power steering device, an electric motor is drivingly connected to a steering shaft with a steering wheel for generating an assisting power to rotate the steering shaft. A memory has stored a control pattern which non-linearly varies an assisting power with variations in a steering effort. A microprocessor responsive to a vehicle speed detected by a speed sensor ascertains whether the detected vehicle speed is within a low speed range or within a high speed range. Ascertaining that the detected speed is within the low speed range, the microprocessor searches the memory for an assisting power corresponding to the steering effort detected by a torque sensor. Ascertaining that the detected vehicle speed is within the high speed range, on the other hand, the microprocessor calculates an assisting power based upon the detected steering effort and a constant.

Abstract: In an electric power steering system, a d.c. motor is drivingly connected to a steering shaft with a steering for generating an assisting power to rotate the steering shaft. Independently of an alternator for charging a battery, a d.c. generator driven by a vehicle engine is dedicated for supplying an electric power to the d.c. motor. A control circuit is responsive to a signal representing a manual torque applied to the steering and reads out one of objective values from a memory. The control circuit is further responsive to a fed-back signal indicative of a load applied to the d.c. motor and controls electric current flowing across a field coil of the d.c. generator in such a manner that the difference between the read-out objective value and the fed-back signal becomes zero.

Abstract: A steering characteristic controller for a power steering system of the type that an actuator operable in response to an electric current thereto varies the characteristic of a assisting power generated by a power steering gear. The controller includes a signal converter responsive to a signal from a vehicle speed sensor for converting the vehicle speed signal into a voltage signal corresponding thereto and a drive circuit connected to the actuator for driving the same in response to the voltage signal from the signal converter. The controller further includes a gain adjuster, which varies the output gain of the voltage signal from the signal converter in correspondence to the magnitude of a signal from a vehicle load sensor.

Abstract: A system for measuring amounts of particulates exhausted from a vehicle internal combustion engine, such as a diesel engine, has a dilution tunnel into which exhaust gas is introduced and mixed with and diluted by clear air. One part of the diluted gas is introduced into a first sampling arrangement in which a first filter is provided for collecting particulates of dry soot and another part of the diluted gas is introduced into a second sampling arrangement in which a second filter is provided for collecting particulates of soluble organic fraction (SOF). The amounts of dry soot and SOF are calculated in a real time manner in accordance with the pressure drops across the filters on the basis of the time differential of the signals output from pressure transducers provided for each filter.

Abstract: Carbon particles are effectively removed from contaminated lubricating oil, for example, in a diesel engine by an electrostatic filtering device comprising a porous dielectric inserted between positive and negative electrodes in a container into which the contaiminated lubricating oil in introduced. In particluar, in the preferred embodiment the spaced parallel electrodes sandwich a porous dielectric film for collecting particles and a porous spacer which is disposed between the porous dielectric film and one of the electrodes. The pores of the porous spacer have a size which is considerably larger than that of the pores of the particle-collecting film.