An internal combustion engine is provided. The internal combustion engine includes a control device, and at least one injector for liquid fuel. The injector(s) can be controlled by the control device via an actuator control signal. The injector(s) include an injector outlet opening for the liquid fuel which can be closed by a needle. A sensor is also provided for measuring a measurement variable of the injector(s). The sensor is or can be in a signal connection with the control device. An algorithm is stored in the control device, which algorithm calculates a state of the injector(s) based on input variables and an injector model, compares the state calculated via the injector model with a target state, and produces a state signal in accordance therewith. The state signal is characteristic of a change in the state of the injector(s) that occurs during intended use of the injector(s) and/or an unforeseen change in the state of the injector(s). The input variables include at least the actuator control signal and the measurement values of the sensor. A method for operating such an internal combustion engine and an injector is also provided.

A misfire detection apparatus includes storage devices that store first mapping data and second mapping data, and execution devices. The execution device executes a first acquisition process, a first calculation process, a second acquisition process, a second calculation process, a determination process of determining whether or not a calculation result of the second calculation process and a calculation result of the first calculation process match, a count process of counting the number of consecutive times when a determination is made in the determination process that there is mismatch, and a transmission process of transmitting, to an outside of the vehicle, data on the value of the second misfire variable corresponding to the maximum number of times among the numbers of consecutive times counted in the count process during a predetermined period and data on the second input data used for calculating the value of the second misfire variable.

An internal combustion engine includes a state determination device. The state determination device includes a storage device and an execution device. The execution device executes an acquisition process, and a determination process. The execution device executes a guard process of bringing an internal combustion engine state variable closer to an allowable range or a value within the allowable range when the internal combustion engine state variable acquired in the acquisition process is out of the predetermined allowable range. The execution device determines the state of the internal combustion engine based on the internal combustion engine state variable after the guard process in the subsequent determination process when the guard process is executed.

A state estimation device for an internal combustion engine includes: a storage device that stores mapping data, the mapping data being data defining a mapping that takes as an input an internal combustion engine state variable and that generates as an output an estimated value for estimating the state of the internal combustion engine; and an execution device that executes an acquisition process of acquiring the internal combustion engine state variable and an estimation process of calculating the estimated value based on the output of the mapping. The mapping data is data learned by machine learning. When the estimated value is out of an acceptable range, the execution device executes a guard process of adjusting the estimated value to a value close to or within the acceptable range. When executing the guard process, the execution device calculates the value after the guard process as the estimated value.

A method of generating vehicle control data is provided. The method is executed using a processor and a storage device and includes: storing first data that prescribe a relationship between a state of a vehicle and an action variable that indicates an action related to an operation of an electronic device; acquiring a detection value from a sensor that detects the state of the vehicle; operating the electronic device; calculating a reward, on the basis of the acquired detection value; in a case where a predetermined condition is met, updating the first data using, as inputs to update mapping determined in advance, the state of the vehicle, a value of the action variable, and the reward; and in a case where the state of the vehicle does not meet the predetermined condition, obtaining second data by adapting the relationship between the state of the vehicle and the action variable.

A vehicle control system includes a memory, a first processor mounted in a vehicle, and a second processor different from an in-vehicle device. The first processor and the second processor are configured to execute acquisition processing, operation processing, reward calculation processing, and update processing. The first processor is configured to execute at least the acquisition processing and the operation processing, and the second processor is configured to execute the update processing.

Aspects of the disclosure are directed to controller for an internal combustion engine. The controller can, in each combustion cycle that composes a change cycle, calculate an average of control amounts from a first combustion cycle to an nth (1<=n<=N) combustion cycle and calculate an error of the average with respect to an average of a reference normal population. Further, the controller can set both a positive threshold and a negative threshold based on a standard error of the reference normal population in the case where the number of data is n. Subsequently, the controller can change the operation amount to make the error approach the positive threshold or the negative threshold when the error exceeds neither the positive threshold nor the negative threshold at any combustion cycle.

A vehicle control system is provided. A classification process classifies vehicles into groups based on information related to vehicles. In order to update relationship defining data for each of the classified groups, an update process inputs, into an update map, states of the vehicles belonging to a same group, values of action variables used to operate the electronic devices of the vehicles belonging to the same group, and rewards corresponding to the operation of the electronic devices.

The invention relates to a motor controller for an internal combustion engine of a vehicle, comprising a control unit for setting one or more control variables on the basis of one or more measured variables according to a stored control scheme; wherein the control unit is designed to modify the stored control scheme when the control unit is used as intended with the operational internal combustion engine, which is being controlled by the motor controller, according to a specified learning algorithm, namely using at least one feedback parameter which is associated with an optimization criterion and is provided to the control unit, in order to provide an improved control of the internal combustion engine.

A misfire detection apparatus includes storage devices that store first mapping data and second mapping data, and execution devices. The execution device executes a first acquisition process, a first calculation process, a second acquisition process, a second calculation process, a determination process of determining whether or not a calculation result of the second calculation process and a calculation result of the first calculation process match, a count process of counting the number of consecutive times when a determination is made in the determination process that there is mismatch, and a transmission process of transmitting, to an outside of the vehicle, data on the value of the second misfire variable corresponding to the maximum number of times among the numbers of consecutive times counted in the count process during a predetermined period and data on the second input data used for calculating the value of the second misfire variable.