Methods and systems are provided for a dual function imaging device. In one example, a method may comprise imaging exhaust gas outside of a reverse engine condition via the imaging device. The imaging device may image a surrounding area during the reverse engine condition.

An internal combustion engine control device includes a combustion degree of stoppage determination unit which determines whether stoppage of combustion of an internal combustion engine has reached a threshold degree, and an internal combustion engine control unit which performs a normal control in the case that the combustion of the engine is resumed in a state where stoppage of combustion has not reached the threshold degree, and performs a soot suppression control in the case that the engine combustion is resumed in a state where stoppage of combustion has reached the threshold degree. In the soot suppression control, the split injection or the single injection is carried out within the predetermined stroke, and the engine control unit causes a fuel injection timing in the single injection of the soot suppression control to be delayed with respect to the fuel injection timing in the single injection of the normal control.

A port injection valve injects fuel into an intake passage. A controller increases a base injection amount over a predetermined period after the internal combustion engine is started and gradually decreases an increase correction ratio of the base injection amount. One of two processes, a multiple injection process and a single injection process, is selected in order to inject the increased base injection amount of fuel. The increase correction ratio is set to be a smaller value in the multiple injection process than in the single injection process.

A fuel injection control device causes an injector to execute main injection or pilot injection toward a joint portion, and low penetration injection to inject fuel at timing earlier than the pilot injection in a PILOT region or at timing later than the main injection in an AFTER region. The fuel injection control device causes the low penetration injection to be executed to inject the fuel only in a radial central region of a combustion chamber.

The present invention describes a fuel-management system for minimizing particulate emissions in turbocharged direct injection gasoline engines. The system optimizes the use of port fuel injection (PFI) in combination with direct injection (DI), particularly in cold start and other transient conditions. In the present invention, the use of these control systems together with other control systems for increasing the effectiveness of port fuel injector use and for reducing particulate emissions from turbocharged direct injection engines is described. Particular attention is given to reducing particulate emissions that occur during cold start and transient conditions since a substantial fraction of the particulate emissions during a drive cycle occur at these times. Further optimization of the fuel management system for these conditions is important for reducing drive cycle emissions.

A vehicle includes: a motor generator; an engine having a forced induction device; and a HV-ECU. An operation region of the engine includes a PM generating region in which an amount of particulate matters included in exhaust gas of the engine is more than a predetermined amount due to a load of the engine being abruptly increased during boosting by the forced induction device. The PM generating region is a low-rotation and high-torque region. When assistance by the motor generator is sufficiently obtained and the engine is operated in the PM generating region, the HV-ECU restricts an increasing rate of the torque of the engine to be less than or equal to an upper limit rate. The HV-ECU complements, by the torque of the motor generator, the torque of the engine restricted by restricting the increasing rate of the torque of the engine.

The invention relates to a method for operating an internal combustion engine installed in a vehicle, in particular a diesel engine, in which the instantaneous concentration of a pollutant contained in the exhaust gas, in particular the NO.sub.x concentration in the exhaust gas, is measured or calculated in the flow direction after an exhaust gas aftertreatment. Using the determined pollutant concentration, the predefined distance- and/or power-based compliance with pollutant limiting values in mg/km or mg/kWh are monitored by means of specifically influencing the operating parameters of the internal combustion engine and/or an exhaust gas after treatment system in regulated form.

An exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) control method includes a valve duty differentiated control including: detecting, by a controller, an engine operation region, a mixer region, and an external factor region as a valve control condition for an EGR valve duty correction variable for controlling an EGR system; applying, by the controller, the EGR valve duty correction variable to an EGR valve duty, which is set by a target air amount to an intake air amount, to calculate a minimum EGR valve duty; and outputting, by the controller, the calculated minimum EGR valve duty to an EGR valve as the EGR valve duty.

A control device is for an internal combustion engine including a throttle valve and a variable valve mechanism, and configured to be operated at a prescribed target air-fuel ratio and capable of restarting from an intermittent stop. The control device includes an electronic control unit configured to start the internal combustion engine after starting an intake air amount reduction control, when a fuel injection amount equal to or larger than a prescribed amount is required and an intermittent stop time is equal to or longer than a prescribed time in a case of the restart from the intermittent stop. The intermittent stop time is a stop time from an immediately preceding intermittent stop to a current restart of the internal combustion engine. The intake air amount reduction control is a control of reducing the intake air amount by operating the variable valve mechanism with the throttle valve kept fully closed.

In view of the foregoing issues, an object of the present invention is to provide a vehicle control device that reduces the constraints of heat generation and charging time of a booster circuit, and decreases favorably the fuel consumption and exhaust emission of an engine. A vehicle control device installed in a vehicle, the device includes: a battery; a high-voltage battery that has a voltage higher than a voltage of the battery; and a fuel injection device that injects fuel into an internal combustion engine, wherein the vehicle control device includes a control unit that determines whether to supply a drive current to the fuel injection device by the battery or supply a drive current to the fuel injection device by the high-voltage battery, and controls the fuel injection device.