Patent 7778760 was granted and assigned to Honda on August, 2010 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
A driving amount controller is provided for a vehicle. An ECU on the vehicle reduces a damping output Udamp when the deviation e between the target opening DTHR of the throttle valve and the actual opening DTH is near zero or when a switching function value σ is near zero. This makes it possible to reduce the damping output Udamp immediately after the start of, or immediately before the end of, the control of the opening of the throttle valve when the deviation e or the switching function value σ is near zero, and to realize a high response performance as to the control of the actual opening DTH of the throttle valve.