A system for detecting and controlling air-fuel ratio imbalance conditions between cylinders of an internal combustion engine having a plurality of cylinders is disclosed.

Methods and systems are provided for reducing blackening of an oxygen sensor due to voltage excursions into an over-potential region. Before transitioning the sensor from a lower voltage to an upper voltage during variable voltage operation, an operating temperature of the sensor is reduced via adjustments to a sensor heater setting. The reduction in temperature increases the range of temperatures available to the sensor before the over-potential region is entered.

A gas sensor element comprising a long plate-like element body and a porous protective layer protecting a surface of the element body, wherein the element body has a gas detection part at an end thereof on one end face side in a longitudinal direction, and the protective layer includes an end face part covering the one end face in laminate, side face parts covering side faces connected to the one end face in laminate, and corner parts where two adjacent ones of the end face part and the side face parts meet. An outer surface of one or more of the end face part and the side face parts has a concave shape that is smoothly continuous with the corner parts and configured such that a layer thickness increases toward the corner parts.

A system for detecting and controlling misfire and/or AFR imbalance conditions in cylinders of an internal combustion engine having a plurality of cylinders is disclosed.

A method for performing an on-board diagnostic function in a motor vehicle including at least one drive system, at least one operating element and at least one control unit with a processor, a control module and an on-board diagnostic function module. The method includes the steps of: activating an on-board diagnostic function in the on-board diagnostic function module; supplying a first signal profile (S1) of an operating value (CV) of the operating element to an analysis module; the analysis module analyzing the first signal profile (S1) of the operating value (CV); activating a filtering module in the event of a positive analysis result; and the filtering module filtering the first signal profile (S1) of the operating value (CV) with selected damping parameters (DP) upon activation of the filtering module in order to obtain a filtered second signal profile (S2) of the operating element.

An electronic decision support device for implementing a critical function or an assistance function by an avionics system in response to a query from an operator. The device includes a module for receiving the query and a current context, and a processing module configured for generating a recommendation in response to the query, and the processing module includes a similarity-based reasoning module configured for generating a recommendation from an algorithm based on the content of a reference database, a rule-based reasoning module configured for generating a recommendation from a deterministic algorithm, an ontology-based reasoning module configured for generating a recommendation from an ontology-based algorithm, and an activation module configured for activating at least one of the reasoning modules.

A method for diagnosing a plurality of lambda sensors which are arranged upstream of an exhaust gas catalytic converter in a plurality of exhaust gas banks of a multi-flow exhaust gas system of an internal combustion engine. An opposite lambda offset of the lambda sensors is identified (54) when a difference (ΔT) between a measured exhaust gas temperature (T.sub.measure) and a modeled exhaust gas temperature (T.sub.mod) downstream of the exhaust gas catalytic converter overshoots a threshold value (S).

A method for diagnosing a heating element of an exhaust gas sensor of an internal combustion engine. The exhaust gas sensor includes a temperature measurement device. A modeled temperature at the point of the exhaust gas sensor is continuously ascertained with the aid of a temperature model. The temperature of the exhaust gas sensor is increased by a heating process. The diagnosis of the heating element of the exhaust gas sensor is provided as the result an enable condition. Upon enablement of the diagnosis, a temperature difference between the modeled temperature of the exhaust gas sensor and the measured temperature of the exhaust gas sensor are ascertained. The heating element of the exhaust gas sensor is recognized as defective when the ascertained temperature difference exceeds a predefinable temperature threshold value.

To provide a sensor control device capable of identifying a short circuit terminal with a simple configuration and whose identification operation is not easily affected by environmental conditions around the sensor. The sensor control device includes a short circuit detection unit that detects a short circuit of a sensor having a plurality of terminals, a resistance value control unit that increases a resistance value of an element between the terminals when the short circuit of the sensor is detected by the short circuit detection unit, and a short circuit terminal identification unit that identifies at which of the plurality of terminals a short circuit occurs when the resistance value control unit increases the resistance value of the element between the terminals to a set value or greater.

Provided is a technology of accurately classifying abnormality in response characteristics of an air-fuel ratio sensors into six deterioration modes. In order to solve the above problems, the present disclosure provides a control device including a microprocessor that detects a response delay of an air-fuel ratio sensor attached to an internal combustion engine, in which the microprocessor includes a target air-fuel ratio change unit configured to change a target air-fuel ratio between lean and rich, and a response delay detection unit configured to detect a respond delay of the air-fuel ratio sensor that occurs in a real air-fuel ratio sensor signal output from the air-fuel ratio sensor when the target air-fuel ratio is changed between the lean and the rich by the target air-fuel ratio change unit.