Methods and systems are provided for using an engine laser ignition system to take images, in real-time, of a cylinder during combustion and estimate cylinder soot generation. If excess soot generation is determined, cylinder fueling is adjusted by varying an injection pressure, amount, and ratio. An air-fuel ratio of the cylinder is also adjusted in view of exhaust temperature constraints to reduce soot generation.

A dual-fuel internal combustion engine with a device for regulating the internal combustion engine, with at least two piston-cylinders, a fuel injector assigned to the piston-cylinder units for a liquid fuel, which has an injector needle. Each piston-cylinder unit has a gas supply device for fuel, wherein the regulating device controls the fuel injector and the at least one gas supply device individually for metering of the quantity of the liquid or gaseous fuel supplied to each piston-cylinder unit. At least one needle sensor is connected to the regulating device and assigned to the respective piston-cylinder unit, which detects a characteristic signal of the needle position in the ballistic range, so that the fuel injector can be operated with individual controllability for each of the at least two piston-cylinder units for the regulation of the supplied fuel quantity in the ballistic range.

Methods and systems are provided for expediting heating of intake valves to improve engine startability. An engine laser ignition system is operated prior to, and during, an engine start to heat intake valves, thereby improving fuel vaporization. The ignition system is also operated to initiate cylinder air/fuel combustion.

A turbine engine optical system includes a plurality of viewing ports in an engine case that are circumferentially spaced from one-another. At least one optical device is optically coupled to the ports for viewing an internal chamber defined by the engine case and for depicting at least spatial temperature distributions. The chamber may be an exhaust chamber and the controller may have the capability to correlate events in the exhaust chamber to events in an upstream combustor chamber and may thereby adjust operating parameters of a fuel system of the combustor.

An adaptive, any-fuel reciprocating engine using sensor feedback integration of high-speed optical sensors with real-time control loops to adaptively manage the electronic actuation schemes over a range of engine loads and fuels. The engine uses one or more optical sensors to collect specific types of gas property data via a spectroscopic technique to adaptively control various components within the engine.

Systems and methods are provided for a camless reciprocating engine control system that uses laser absorption spectroscopy (LAS) sensors and artificial intelligence/machine learning to optimize engine operation. The control system evaluates LAS data in real time or substantially real time to optimize the operation of the engine through dynamic management of camless engine components such as intake valves, exhaust valves, fuel injectors, spark plugs, and variable compression mechanisms.

Methods and systems are provided for closed-loop adjusting a laser intensity of a laser ignition device of a hybrid vehicle. The laser intensity applied over consecutive laser ignition events is decreased until a flame quality is degraded for a threshold number of cylinder combustion events. The laser intensity is then increased to improve flame quality and the closed-loop adjustment is reiterated.

A combustion engine with a device adapted to detect operating conditions in the engine, and which device has a device with at least one sensor element, arranged separately from a cylinder chamber on a cylinder head of a cylinder in the engine. The sensor element is adapted to detect propagated movements in the cylinder head or in parts adjacent thereto, generated by pressure changes in said cylinder chamber.

An internal combustion engine includes a pre-chamber assembly including a wall having an internal surface opposite an external surface, the internal surface of the wall defining a combustion pre-chamber and at least one orifice extending to an aperture through the external surface of the wall; a block having an internal surface defining a bore therein; a piston disposed within the bore and configured for reciprocal translation within the bore, the piston, the bore, and the external surface of the wall at least partly defining a main combustion chamber, and the combustion pre-chamber being in fluid communication with the main combustion chamber via the at least one orifice; an energy source operatively coupled to the combustion pre-chamber; and an exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) valve fluidly coupled to the combustion pre-chamber and an exhaust conduit of the internal combustion engine.

Systems and methods for estimating an engine event location are disclosed herein. In one embodiment, a controller is configured to receive a signal from at least one knock sensor coupled to a reciprocating engine, transform the signal, using a multivariate transformation algorithm, into a power spectral density, transform the power spectral density into a plurality of feature vectors using predictive frequency bands, predict the engine event location using at least the plurality of feature vectors and a predictive model, and adjust operation of the reciprocating engine based on the engine event location.