A controller learns the degree of variation in the injection amount of fuel injection valves provided for respective cylinders when the fuel injection valves are operated to control the air-fuel ratios of the respective cylinders to be equal to each other. A first advancement requesting process causes the request for the ignition timing to be more advanced when the degree of variation is great than when the degree of variation is small. A second advancement requesting process causes the request for the ignition timing to be more advanced when the torque fluctuation amount of the internal combustion engine is than when the torque fluctuation amount is small. The ignition control process controls the ignition timing in accordance with the request of the more advanced one of the first advancement requesting process and the second advancement requesting process.

A method for controlling the ignition energy of a sparkplug electrode of an ignition system comprises: providing a base current (I.sub.base) and a base duration (D.sub.base) which corresponds to the current and duration, respectively, of a physical model at a fixed engine operating point; multiplying the base current (I.sub.base) and the base duration (D.sub.base) with a sparkplug state indicator (SSI) based correction factor and with an engine operating state (EOS) based factor for achieving a final global current (I.sub.glo) and a final global duration (D.sub.glo), respectively; and communicating the final global current (I.sub.glo) and the final global duration (D.sub.glo) to a control unit for controlling the ignition energy and ignition duration of the sparkplug electrode. Further executing real-time energy control based on misfire flag status and, in the end, making sure that the optimum energy is into application by realizing optimum energy tests.

A control device for a vehicle including an internal combustion engine and an electric rotary machine connected to the internal combustion engine in a power-transmittable manner is able to perform torque-down through ignition delay control for delaying an ignition timing of the internal combustion engine and regeneration control for performing regeneration using the electric rotary machine when there is a torque-down request based on a vehicle state. The control device is configured to perform torque-down corresponding to a deficiency by delaying the ignition timing of the internal combustion engine when an actual torque of the electric rotary machine through the regeneration control is deficient for the torque-down request.

An electronic control unit performs a cylinder-by-cylinder correction of a fuel injection amount to cause differences among air-fuel ratios of air-fuel mixture burned in multiple cylinders. In a case in which the cylinder-by-cylinder correction of the fuel injection amount results in a cylinder in which combustion is performed at an air-fuel ratio richer than an output air-fuel ratio, the output air-fuel ratio being an air-fuel ratio at which combustion torque is maximized, the electronic control unit performs a cylinder-by-cylinder correction of ignition timing such that the ignition timing of the cylinder in which combustion is performed at the air-fuel ratio richer than the output air-fuel ratio becomes more advanced than the ignition timing of the other cylinders.

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 ignition control apparatus according to one embodiment of the present invention is an ignition control apparatus which generates, in an ignition coil, a voltage to be supplied to a spark plug that is provided in an internal combustion engine on the basis of a pulse signal induced in the ignition coil of the internal combustion engine, wherein the ignition control apparatus comprises at least a switch element for passing current through and discharge the ignition coil, and a controlling unit that acquires the timing for discharge the ignition coil in response to a first pulse of the pulse signal, and controls the switch element so that a current flows through the ignition coil in response to a second pulse that follows the first pulse and the ignition coil is opened on the basis of the discharge timing acquired in response to the first pulse.

A method for extracting characterizing features from an ion current trace retrieved from spark plugs of cylinders of an internal combustion engine, comprises the steps of: i. dividing the ion current signal into crank angle subintervals; 5 ii. calculating a measure of ion current in each crank angle subinterval; and iii. Performing a calculation on the measure of ion currents from different subintervals such that the result of the calculation is dimension free. Further it relates to a method of monitoring combustion processes where a plurality of ion current signals from a number of spark plugs (4A, 4B) are 10 retrieved and used in combination.

A controller learns the degree of variation in the injection amount of fuel injection valves provided for respective cylinders when the fuel injection valves are operated to control the air-fuel ratios of the respective cylinders to be equal to each other. A first advancement requesting process causes the request for the ignition timing to be more advanced when the degree of variation is great than when the degree of variation is small. A second advancement requesting process causes the request for the ignition timing to be more advanced when the torque fluctuation amount of the internal combustion engine is than when the torque fluctuation amount is small. The ignition control process controls the ignition timing in accordance with the request of the more advanced one of the first advancement requesting process and the second advancement requesting process.

An ignition device for an internal combustion engine, having a housing in which a crankshaft sensor is accommodated for detecting the rotational speed and/or the position of a crankshaft, which is in particular provided with a toothed position sensor and in which at least one ignition transformer with a primary winding is accommodated, and a secondary winding for generating a spark for the internal combustion engine is accommodated, wherein a number of input ports, in particular for the connection of an electrical energy source for supplying the or each ignition transformer and/or for supplying sensor and/or control signals, and in which a plurality of output ports, in particular for connecting at least one spark plug and/or for emitting control signals, are provided.

A method for extracting characterizing features from an ion current trace retrieved from spark plugs of cylinders of an internal combustion engine, comprises the steps of: i. dividing the ion current signal into crank angle subintervals; ii. calculating a measure of ion current in each crank angle subinterval; and iii. Performing a calculation on the measure of ion currents from different subintervals such that the result of the calculation is dimension free. Further it relates to a method of monitoring combustion processes where a plurality of ion current signals from a number of spark plugs (4A, 4B) are retrieved and used in combination.