Developments in Control of Time-Delay Systems for Automotive Powertrain Applications

Abstract

In this chapter, the authors provide an overview of several application problems in the area of automotive powertrain control, which can greatly benefit from applications of analysis and control design methods developed for time-delay systems. The first two applications considered concern, respectively, the idle speed control (ISC) and air-to-fuel ratio control in gasoline engines. The third application concerns an estimation problem in modern diesel engines with exhaust gas recirculation and variable geometry turbocharging. The nature of the delays and the role played by them in these applications is highlighted and the imposed performance limitations are discussed. Links are provided with theoretical literature on the analysis and control of time-delay systems and modeling details are discussed to a level that will permit other researchers to use the associated models for simulation case studies.