Internal combustion engine controller

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2022205405-A1
Application number	US-202017606670-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Apr 20, 2020
Priority date	Apr 26, 2019
Publication date	Jun 30, 2022
Grant date	—

Abstract

An internal combustion engine controller for an internal combustion engine comprising a memory and a processor. The memory is configured to store a plurality of control maps, each control map defining a hypersurface of actuator setpoints for controlling an actuator of the internal combustion engine based on a plurality of input variables to the internal combustion engine controller. The processor comprises a map updating module, a parameter updating module and an engine setpoint module. The map updating module is configured to calculate an optimised hypersurface for at least one of the control maps based on a performance objective function of the internal combustion engine, sensor data from the internal combustion engine, and the plurality of input variables, wherein the performance objective function includes parameters. The parameter updating module is configured to update a parameter of the performance objective function upon determining a change in an operating condition of the internal combustion engine. The parameters comprise one or both of: engine parameters associated with an engine model; and cost parameters associated with a cost function. The map updating module is further configured to update the hypersurface of the control map based on the optimised hypersurface. The engine setpoint module is configured to output a control signal to each actuator based on a location on the hypersurface of the respective control map defined by the plurality of input variables.

First claim

1 . An internal combustion engine controller for an internal combustion engine comprising:
a memory configured to store a plurality of control maps, each control map defining a hypersurface of actuator setpoints for controlling an actuator of the internal combustion engine based on a plurality of input variables to the internal combustion engine controller; and a processor comprising:
a map updating module configured to calculate an optimised hypersurface for at least one of the control maps based on a performance objective function of the internal combustion engine, sensor data from the internal combustion engine, and the plurality of input variables, wherein the performance objective function includes parameters; and
a parameter updating module configured to update a parameter of the performance objective function upon determining a change in an operating condition of the internal combustion engine;
wherein the parameters comprise one or both of: engine parameters associated with an engine model; and cost parameters associated with a cost function; wherein the map updating module is configured to update the hypersurface of the control map based on the optimised hypersurface, and an engine setpoint module configured to output a control signal to each actuator based on a location on the hypersurface of the respective control map defined by the plurality of input variables.

2 . The internal combustion engine controller according to claim 1 , wherein the map updating module is configured to calculate an optimised hypersurface within a time period of 1 second.

3 . The internal combustion engine controller according to claim 1 , wherein the map updating module is configured to calculate an optimised hypersurface for each of the control maps concurrently; and
the map updating module is configured to update the hypersurface of each of the control maps based on the respective optimised hypersurfaces.

4 . The internal combustion engine controller according to claim 1 , wherein the map updating module comprises:
an optimiser module configured to search for an optimised hypersurface wherein the optimiser module selects a plurality of candidate groups of actuator setpoints to be evaluated by the performance objective function, and the optimiser module is configured to output an optimised hypersurface for the at least one control map based on the evaluations of the candidate groups of actuator setpoints by the performance objective function.

5 . The internal combustion engine controller according to claim 1 , wherein the performance objective function comprises:
an engine modelling module configured to calculate a plurality of engine performance variables associated with each candidate group of actuator setpoints based on the input variables, the sensor data from the internal combustion engine, the engine parameters, and the candidate group of actuator setpoints; and a cost module configured to evaluate the engine performance variables and output a cost associated with each candidate group of actuator setpoints based on the cost parameters.

6 . The internal combustion engine controller according to claim 5 , wherein the engine parameters comprise time varying engine parameters based on an input from an aftertreatment system connected to the internal combustion engine.

7 . The internal combustion engine controller according to claim 5 , wherein the cost parameters comprise time varying cost parameters based on an input from an aftertreatment system connected to the internal combustion engine.

8 . The internal combustion engine controller according to claim 1 , wherein a change in the operating condition of the internal combustion engine is based on an observed difference between the model and the internal combustion engine.

9 . The internal combustion engine controller according to claim 8 , wherein the change in the operating condition is determined based on a change in sensor data output from a sensor of the internal combustion engine relative to an engine performance variable representative of a predicted value of the sensor data; and
the parameter updating module is configured to update an engine parameter of the performance objective function to reduce a difference between the sensor data and an engine performance variable representative of a predicted value of the sensor data below a predetermined threshold.

10 . The internal combustion engine controller according to claim 1 , wherein the parameter updating module is configured to determine a change in the operating condition of the internal combustion engine based on at least one of: the input variables to the internal combustion engine controller, sensor data from the internal combustion engine, and sensor data from an aftertreatment system of the internal combustion engine.

11 . A method of controlling an internal combustion engine comprising:
providing a plurality of control maps, each control map defining a hypersurface of actuator setpoints for controlling an actuator of the internal combustion engine based on a plurality of input variables to the internal combustion engine controller; and calculating an optimised hypersurface for at least one of the control maps based on a performance objective function of the internal combustion engine, sensor data from the internal combustion engine, and the plurality of input variables, wherein the performance objective function includes parameters; and updating a parameter of the performance objective function upon determining a change in an operating condition of the internal combustion engine, wherein the parameters comprise one or both of: engine parameters associated with an engine model; and cost parameters associated with a cost function; wherein the hypersurface of the control map is updated based on the optimised hypersurface, and outputting a control signal to each actuator based on a location on the hypersurface of the respective control map defined by the plurality of input variables.

12 . A The method according to claim 11 , wherein an optimised hypersurface is calculated within a time period of 1 second.

13 . A The method according to claim 11 , wherein an optimised hypersurface for each of the control maps is calculated concurrently; and
the hypersurfaces of each of the control maps are updated based on the respective optimised hypersurfaces.

14 . The method according to claim 11 , wherein calculating an optimised hypersurface comprises:
searching for an optimised hypersurface by selecting a plurality of candidate groups of actuator setpoints to be evaluated by the performance objective function, and outputting an optimised hypersurface for the at least one control map based on the evaluation of each of the candidate groups of actuator setpoints by the performance objective function.

15 . The method according to claim 11 , wherein the performance objective function comprises:
an engine model configured to calculate a plurality of engine performance variables associated with each candidate group of actuator setpoints based on the input variables, the sensor data from the internal combustion engine, the engine parameters, and the candidate group of actuator setpoints; and a cost model configured to evaluate the engine performance variables and output a cost associated with each candidate group of actuator setpoints based on the cost parameters.

16 . The method according to claim 15 , wherein the engine parameters comprise time varying engine parameters based on an input from an aftertreatment system connected to the internal combustion engine.

Assignees

• Perkins Engines Co Ltd

Inventors

• Williams Gavin
• Ladlow Peter
• Kureemun Ridwan
• Deng Baoyang

Classifications

• F02D2041/1423

  Identification of model or controller parameters · CPC title

• F02D41/2441

  characterised by the learning conditions · CPC title

• F02D41/029

  the exhaust gas treating apparatus being a particulate filter · CPC title

• F02D41/1405

  Neural network control · CPC title

• F02D41/2477

  characterised by the method used for learning · CPC title