1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a motor control unit used to drive a brushless motor, and a vehicle steering system, for example, an electric power steering system, which includes the motor control unit.
2. Description of the Related Art
A motor control unit that controls driving of a brushless motor is usually configured to control the electric current that is supplied to a motor based on the output from a rotational angle sensor that detects the rotational angle of a rotor. As a rotational angle sensor, a resolver that outputs a sine-wave signal and a cosine-wave signal that correspond to the rotational angle (electrical angle) of a rotor is usually used. However, a resolver is expensive, and needs a large number of wires and a large installation space. Therefore, using a resolver as a rotational angle sensor hinders reduction in cost and size of a unit that includes a brushless motor.
To address this problem, a sensorless drive method for driving a brushless motor without using a rotational angle sensor has been proposed. According to the sensorless drive method, the induced voltage that is caused due to the rotation of a rotor is estimated in order to estimate the phase of a magnetic pole (electrical angle of the rotor). When the rotor is at a standstill or rotating at a considerably low speed, it is not possible to estimate the phase of the magnetic pole. Therefore, the phase of the magnetic pole is estimated by another method. More specifically, a sensing signal is input in a stator, and a response of the motor to the sensing signal is detected. Then, the rotational position of the rotor is estimated based on the response of the motor.
For example, Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 10-243699 (JP-A-10-243699) and Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2009-124811 (JP-A-2009-124811) describe the related art.
According to the sensorless drive method described above, the rotational position of the rotor is estimated based on the induced voltage or the sensing signal, and the motor is controlled based on the estimated rotational position. However, this drive method is not suitable for all uses. There has not been established a method suitable for a control of a brushless motor that is used as a drive source for, for example, a vehicle steering system such as an electric power steering system that supplies a steering assist force to a vehicle steering mechanism. Accordingly, a sensorless control executed by another method has been demanded.