A system and method to enable electronically controlled internal combustion engines to self-adjust parameters and operate properly on different fuels that have wide ranges of physical and chemical properties. Input from a sensor is utilized that gives a signal indicative of the combustion process. The ECU processes the signal and readjusts the engine operating parameters to achieve its operating goals.

A system for control of an internal combustion system having subsystems, each with different response times. Subsystems may include a fuel system, an air handling system, and an aftertreatment system, each being operated in response to a set of reference values generated by a respective target determiner. Calibration of each subsystem may be performed independently. The fuel system is controlled at a first time constant. The air handling system is controlled on the order of a second time constant slower than the first time constant. The aftertreatment system is controlled on the order of a third time constant slower than the second time constant. A subsystem manager is optionally in operative communication with each target determiner to coordinate control. Generally, dynamic parameters from slower subsystems are treated as static parameters when determining reference values for controlling a faster subsystem.

A combustion control method in an engine of a vehicle wherein an exhaust path includes a catalyst and a NOx sensor provided on an upstream side of the catalyst, the method includes the following steps. A step of determining whether a NOx concentration in an exhaust gas falls within a predetermined reference range; a step of estimating a heat generation rate profile indicating crank angle dependency of a heat generation rate in the engine when the NOx concentration is determined out of the reference range; and a step of comparing a value of an index characterizing the estimated heat generation rate profile with a value of an index in an ideal heat generation rate profile specified from a driving condition of the vehicle and controlling a combustion condition in the engine based on a result.

A method for operating a nitrogen oxide sensor of a vehicle having a first nitrogen oxide sensor, a second nitrogen oxide sensor and a catalytic converter, one of the first and second nitrogen oxide sensors being arranged upstream of the catalytic converter with respect to the exhaust gas flow direction, and the other of the first and second nitrogen oxide sensors being arranged downstream of the catalytic converter, includes: determining a first characteristic value of the first nitrogen oxide sensor; determining a second characteristic value of the second nitrogen oxide sensor; determining a ratio of the first characteristic value to the second characteristic value; and adapting a sensor measured value of the second nitrogen oxide sensor in accordance with the ratio of the first characteristic value to the second characteristic value.

A method for operating an internal combustion engine of a motor vehicle, which has an exhaust gas system that exhaust gas from at least one combustion chamber of the internal combustion chamber can flow through and includes at least one nitrogen oxide storage catalyst, at least one particulate filter, and at least one selective catalytic reduction (SCR) catalyst.

A machine learning system using a neural network to output an output value corresponding to values of operating parameters of the machine. When the value of an operating parameter of a machine is outside a preset range, the number of nodes of the hidden layer one layer before the output layer of the neural network is increased and training data obtained by actual measurement for a newly acquired value of an operating parameter of the machine is used to learn the weights of the neural network so that the difference between the output value changing in accordance with the values of the operating parameters of the machine and training data corresponding to the values of the operating parameters of the machine becomes smaller.

A combustion control method in an engine of a vehicle, the method includes the following steps. A step of specifying a NOx concentration in an exhaust gas, when an EGR rate is out of a first reference range, and determining whether a value thereof falls within a predetermined second reference range; a step of, estimating a heat generation rate profile indicating crank angle dependency of a heat generation rate in the engine, when the NOx concentration is determined out of the second reference range; and a step of comparing a value of an index characterizing the estimated heat generation rate profile with a value of an index in an ideal heat generation rate profile specified from a driving condition of the vehicle and controlling a combustion condition in the engine based on a result.

A system and approach for catalyst model parameter identification with modeling accomplished by an identification procedure that may incorporate a catalyst parameter identification procedure which may include determination of parameters for a catalyst device, specification of values for parameters and component level identification. Component level identification may be of a thermal model, adsorption and desorption, and chemistry. There may then be system level identification to get a final estimate of catalyst parameters.

An engine system and method for operating an internal combustion engine in dynamically varying conditions. An exemplary system comprises an internal combustion engine configured to receive both a primary fuel and a secondary fuel into one or more chambers in which a combustion process occurs, a fuel injection system, an air intake manifold and a fuel manifold; an electronic system which controls timing and metering of the primary fuel and/or the secondary fuel in the combustion process; and a plurality of sensors positioned to measure one or more variables associated with combustion of the primary fuel in the presence of the secondary fuel. The electronic system is configured to apply a control signal to adjust an engine setting to reduce NOx emissions based in part on the magnitude of the variable.

A combustion control method during a rich spike engine operation includes the steps of: specifying an exhaust gas A/F based on a first output from a NOx sensor on an upstream side of a catalyst; specifying a NOx concentration in the exhaust gas on the upstream side of the catalyst based on a second output from the NOx sensor; and when the A/F is less than a reference range and the NOx concentration is not more than a reference value, calculating a value P1P0 between a cylinder pressure P1 at EVO during the rich spike operation and that pressure P0 during a normal operation, when P1P0 is larger than the reference range and P1>P0, a fuel injection timing at a post injection is retarded, when P1P0 is smaller than the reference range and P1<P0, the timing is advanced.