A method for controlling a reductant generation device 100, the reductant generation device 100 including: a sprayer 10 capable of spraying a reductant precursor 50; and a heater 20 comprising a ceramic substrate 21, the heater 20 being arranged on a downstream side of the sprayer 10 and capable of heating the reductant precursor 50 to generate a reductant 60. The method includes: a permeation step of spraying the reductant precursor 50 from the sprayer 10 and permeating the ceramic substrate 21 with the reductant precursor 50 when the heater is not heated; and after the permeation step, a heating step A of heating the reductant precursor 50 by the heater 20 and generating the reductant 60 while spraying the reductant precursor 50 from the sprayer 10.

A method for NOx emission control during start of a vehicle comprising an exhaust aftertreatment system, an engine, and a NOx sensor is provided. The method includes determining a temperature of the NOx sensor; if the determined temperature of the NOx sensor is below a predetermined threshold, initiating heating of the NOx sensor, and performing a preventive action for delaying engine start until a determined temperature of the NOx sensor exceeds or is equal to the predetermined threshold.

A controller for controlling operation of an aftertreatment system that is configured to treat constituents of an exhaust gas produced by an engine, the aftertreatment system including a selective catalytic reduction (SCR) catalyst, the controller configured to: generate a short-term cumulative degradation estimate of the SCR catalyst corresponding to reversible degradation of the SCR catalyst due to sulfur and/or hydrocarbons based on a SCR catalyst temperature parameter; generate a long-term cumulative degradation estimate of the SCR catalyst corresponding to thermal aging of the SCR catalyst based on the SCR catalyst temperature parameter; generate a combined degradation estimate of the SCR catalyst based on the short-term cumulative degradation estimate and the long-term cumulative degradation estimate; and adjust an amount of reductant and/or an amount of hydrocarbons inserted into the aftertreatment system based on the combined degradation estimate of the SCR catalyst.

A multi-task deep learning-based real-time matting method for non-green-screen portraits is provided. The method includes: performing binary classification adjustment on an original dataset, inputting an image or video containing portrait information, and performing preprocessing; constructing a deep learning network for person detection, extracting image features by using a deep residual neural network, and obtaining a region of interest (ROI) of portrait foreground and a portrait trimap in the ROI through logistic regression; and constructing a portrait alpha mask matting deep learning network. An encoder sharing mechanism effectively accelerates a computing process of the network. An alpha mask prediction result of the portrait foreground is output in an end-to-end manner to implement portrait matting. In this method, green screens are not required during portrait matting. In addition, during the matting, only original images or videos need to be provided, without a need to provide manually annotated portrait trimaps.

A method to control an internal combustion engine having an exhaust duct and an exhaust gas after-treatment system comprising at least one catalytic converter arranged along the exhaust duct; an oxygen sensor housed along the exhaust duct and arranged upstream of said at least one catalytic converter; and a burner suited to introduce the exhaust gases into the exhaust duct upstream of the oxygen sensor the method provides the steps of calculating the thermal power required to reach the nominal operating temperature of said at least one catalytic converter obtained with an objective value of the air/fuel ratio value; and determining both the objective fuel flow rate and the objective air flow rate to be fed to the burner to obtain the thermal power required to reach the nominal operating temperature of said at least one catalytic converter.

A method to control an internal combustion engine provided with an exhaust system for the exhaust gases of a vehicle having an exhaust duct and an exhaust gas after-treatment system comprising at least one catalytic converter arranged along the exhaust duct; a burner suited to introduce the exhaust gases into the exhaust duct to speed up the heating of said at least one catalytic converter, wherein a combustion chamber is defined inside the burner which receives fuel from an injector, designed to inject the fuel inside the combustion chamber and the fresh air by means of an air feeding circuit provided with a pumping device that feeds the air, a shut-off valve arranged upstream of the burner and a mass air flow sensor interposed between the pumping device and the shut-off valve; the method provides the following steps: calculating the thermal power required to reach the nominal operating temperature of said at least one catalytic converter; determining the objective air flow rate to be fed to the burner to obtain said thermal power required to reach the nominal operating temperature of said at least one catalytic converter; determining the nominal number of revolutions with which to operate the pumping device by means of a map depending on the objective air flow rate, on the ambient pressure, on the ambient temperature and on the pressure of the air entering the burner; determining a closed-loop contribution of the number of revolutions with which to operate the pumping device by means of a PID controller which tries to zero a difference between the objective air flow rate and the air flow rate detected by the mass air flow sensor; determining a further contribution of the number of revolutions with which to operate the pumping device depending on the integral action of the PID controller under stationary conditions; and determining the actual number of revolutions with which to operate the pumping device by the sum of the nominal number of revolutions, the closed-loop contribution of the number of revolutions with which to operate the pumping device and the further contribution of the number of revolutions with which to operate the pumping device.

A method to control an internal combustion engine having an exhaust duct and an exhaust gas after-treatment system comprising at least one catalytic converter arranged along the exhaust duct; an oxygen sensor housed along the exhaust duct and arranged upstream of said at least one catalytic converter; and a burner suited to introduce the exhaust gases into the exhaust duct upstream of the oxygen sensor the method provides the steps of identifying the operation phases in which the internal combustion engine is turned off and the burner is turned on so that the oxygen sensor is exclusively hit by the exhaust gases produced by the burner; acquiring the signal generated by the oxygen sensor; and using the signal generated by the oxygen sensor to determine the objective fuel flow rate and the objective air flow rate to be fed to the burner.

In a method for operating an internal combustion engine of a motor vehicle having an automatic transmission, a torque generated by the internal combustion engine is reduced as a function of an operating state of a drive train of the motor vehicle. As a function of an excess of combustion air occurring when the torque is reduced and supplied to the internal combustion engine by an exhaust gas turbocharger, fuel combustion efficiency in at least one combustion chamber of the internal combustion engine, which is related to the torque generated by the combustion chamber, is reduced. The combustion efficiency is reduced by at least one late post-injection of fuel into the at least one combustion chamber of the internal combustion engine.

Apparatus and methods are provided for a welding-type power system that includes an engine comprising a starter battery. An electric generator is turned by the engine. A power bus connects an output of the generator to a welding-type output. A sensor measures a power demand on the power bus. A controller is configured to control the engine to adjust speed in response to a measured power demand on the power bus, and to control a converter to connect the starter battery to output power to the power bus in response to the measured power demand.

A fluid supply system for a machine such as an internal combustion engine includes a shutoff valve having an electrical actuator that includes a solenoid subassembly, and a stabilizer for the electrical valve actuator. The stabilizer includes a fitting structured to couple the shutoff valve to adjacent hardware in the fluid supply system, and a strongarm extending between the fitting and the solenoid assembly and clamped to the solenoid subassembly. A vibration-damping reinforced grommet may be clamped between the solenoid subassembly and the clamp.