An engine assembly comprising an internal combustion engine having a combustion chamber; an intake manifold for supplying air to the combustion chamber; a fuel injector for supplying fuel to the combustion chamber; an exhaust manifold for receiving exhaust gas released from the combustion chamber and a rotatable drive shaft, wherein combustion of fuel in air within the combustion chamber results in rotation of the drive shaft. The engine assembly further comprises a turbocharger system comprising a turbine and a compressor, wherein the turbine is configured to receive exhaust gas from the exhaust manifold, to recover energy from the exhaust gas, and to release the exhaust gas via a turbine outlet; and wherein the compressor is configured to receive energy from the turbine and thereby to compress air for use in combustion of fuel in the combustion chamber. An intake throttle valve is configured to selectively control a boost pressure by controlling supply of air to the intake manifold; and a bypass valve is configured to selectively divert exhaust gas from the exhaust manifold away from the turbine, wherein the bypass valve is controlled by the boost pressure. A controller is configured (a) to provide an intermediate value for desired valve position of the intake throttle valve based on a desired oxygen to fuel ratio; and (b) to output a final value for desired valve position of the intake throttle valve based on the intermediate value for desired valve position and an engine speed value.

New and/or alternative approaches to engine performance control that can account for the need to robustly monitor performance and/or operation of the physical plant and actuators thereof, while avoiding or limiting performance degradation. Model predictive control (MPC) or other control configuration such as proportional-integral-derivative control may be used to control the system by identifying a performance optimized control solution. In some examples, a modification to the performance optimized solution analysis is made to weight control solutions in favor of robust monitoring conditions. In other examples, the performance optimized solution is post-processed and modified to favor robust monitoring conditions.

A method for a model-based open-loop and closed-loop control of an internal combustion engine includes the steps of: determining, via a combustion model, injection system setpoint values for controlling injection system actuators, according to a setpoint torque; adapting, during an operation of the internal combustion engine, the combustion model according to a model value, the model value being calculated from a first Gaussian process model for representing a base grid and a second Gaussian process model for representing adaptation data points; determining, by an optimizer, a minimized measure of quality by changing the injection system setpoint values within a prediction horizon, and, in an event that the minimized measure of quality is found, the injection system setpoint values are set as critical for adjusting an operating point of the internal combustion engine; and monitoring the model value in respect of a monotony which is predefined.

A method for controlling an actuator system of a motor vehicle includes utilizing a model predictive control (MPC) module with an MPC solver to determine optimal positions of one or more actuators of the actuator system. The method further includes receiving a plurality of actuator system parameters, and triggering the MPC solver to generate one or more control commands from plurality of actuator system parameters. The method further includes applying a cost function to reduce a steady-state tracking error in the one or more control commands from the MPC solver and applying the one or more control commands to alter positions of the one or more actuators, and applying a penalty term to the steady-state predictions of positions of the plurality of actuators to limit a difference between a steady-state prediction of the actuator system and a solution from the MPC solver.

A method for operating an internal combustion engine is provided in which fuel is withdrawn from a high-pressure accumulator and injected into a combustion chamber of at least one cylinder of the internal combustion engine, the method including the steps of detecting under conditions of angular synchronism a pressure of the fuel in the high-pressure accumulator during a first injection into the at least one cylinder and during a later, second injection into the at least one cylinder; ascertaining a gradient of the detected pressure; ascertaining a frequency-transformed spectrum of the detected pressure and a frequency-transformed spectrum of the ascertained gradient; correcting the frequency-transformed spectrum of the detected pressure by the frequency-transformed spectrum of the ascertained gradient; and ascertaining a cylinder-individual injection quantity of fuel, which was injected into the at least one cylinder, from the corrected frequency-transformed spectrum of the detected pressure.

An LPV/MPC engine control system is disclosed that includes an engine control unit connected to multiple sensors. The engine control unit receives, from the sensors, signals indicative of desired engine torque and engine torque output, and determines, from these signals, optimal engine control commands using a piecewise LPV/MPC routine. This routine includes: determining a nonlinear and a linear system model for the engine assembly, minimizing a control cost function in a receding horizon for the linear system model, determining system responses for the nonlinear and linear system models, determining if a norm of an error function between the system responses is smaller than a calibrated threshold, and if the norm is smaller than the predetermined threshold, applying the linearized system model in a next sampling time for a next receding horizon to determine the optimal control command. Once determined, the optimal control command is output to the engine assembly.

A method of controlling the operation of an air charging system is disclosed. A plurality of output parameters of the air charging system are monitored. An error between each one of the monitored output parameters and a target value thereof is calculated. Each one of the calculated errors is applied to a linear controller that yields a virtual input which is used to calculate a plurality of input parameters for the air charging system. Each one of the input parameters is used to determine the position of a corresponding actuator of the air charging system and operate of the actuators according to the determined position thereof. The inputs parameters are calculated with a non-linear mathematical model of the air charging system configured such that each one of the virtual inputs is in a linear relation with only one of the output parameters.

A method for operating an internal combustion engine is provided in which fuel is withdrawn from a high-pressure accumulator and injected into a combustion chamber of at least one cylinder of the internal combustion engine, the method including the steps of detecting under conditions of angular synchronism a pressure of the fuel in the high-pressure accumulator during a first injection into the at least one cylinder and during a later, second injection into the at least one cylinder; ascertaining a gradient of the detected pressure; ascertaining a frequency-transformed spectrum of the detected pressure and a frequency-transformed spectrum of the ascertained gradient; correcting the frequency-transformed spectrum of the detected pressure by the frequency-transformed spectrum of the ascertained gradient; and ascertaining a cylinder-individual injection quantity of fuel, which was injected into the at least one cylinder, from the corrected frequency-transformed spectrum of the detected pressure.

Disclosed is a method of processing a periodic voltage signal, called the input signal, relating to the pressure existing in a combustion chamber of a cylinder of an internal combustion engine. The method includes a step (E6) of determining a second instant of unlocking of the base signal during a second peak phase, a step (E7) of determining a second instant of locking, which is subsequent to the second instant of unlocking and for which the input signal is in the plateau phase consecutive to the second peak phase, and a step (E8) of generating a base signal between the second instant of unlocking and the second instant of locking on the basis of a slope value of a straight line determined during a first peak phase between a first instant of unlocking and a first instant of locking.

An LPV/MPC engine control system is disclosed that includes an engine control unit connected to multiple sensors. The engine control unit receives, from the sensors, signals indicative of desired engine torque and engine torque output, and determines, from these signals, optimal engine control commands using a piecewise LPV/MPC routine. This routine includes: determining a nonlinear and a linear system model for the engine assembly, minimizing a control cost function in a receding horizon for the linear system model, determining system responses for the nonlinear and linear system models, determining if a norm of an error function between the system responses is smaller than a calibrated threshold, and if the norm is smaller than the predetermined threshold, applying the linearized system model in a next sampling time for a next receding horizon to determine the optimal control command. Once determined, the optimal control command is output to the engine assembly.