ICROS-SICE International Joint Conference 2009 August 18-21, 2009, Fukuoka International Congress Center, Japan

Nonlinear Observer-based Torque Control for SI Engine

Munan Hong1 Tielong Shen2 and Minggao Ouyang1
1

State Key Laboratory of Automotive Safety and Energy, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China (Tel: +86-10-6278-5706; E-mail: hmn@mails.tsinghua.edu.cn Tel: +86-10-6278-5706; E-mail: ouymg@mail.tsinghua.edu.cn) 2 Department of Mechanical Engineering, Sophia University, Tokyo, Japan (Tel: +81-3-3238-3308; E-mail: tetu-sin@sophia.ac.jp)

Abstract: In this paper, a nonlinear torque observer for Spark Ignition (SI) engine is proposed and a torque control method based on the observer is presented. In the observer, a torque production model is employed to give the nominal value of torque estimation. Then, using the rotational dynamic equation of the crankshaft, a nonlinear adjusting law is added to correct the nominal estimation. The proposed observer is used to realize closed loop torque control, where the torque demand is given by solving an optimal speed tracking problem. To demonstrate the observer and torque controller, experimental results are shown nally. Keywords: Nonlinear observer, torque control, SI engine

1. INTRODUCTION
In order to manage the network of more and more integrated systems, a new standard interface between the vehicle coordination and the engine management system (EMS) is required. The key variable in this interface is the engine torque demand, which must be realized by the engine via torque control [1]. Indeed, torque control is not a novel topic but has attracted a great deal of attention in view of the increasing demand for improved driving ability and comfort. A disturbance observer was employed to control engine torque under the assumption that rotary torque sensor was available in [2]. A linear nominal model with uncertainty description was established and implemented for engine torque control in [3], where the IMEP (Indicated Mean Effective Pressure) was used as feedback data instead of effective torque. Unfortunately, both torque sensor and in-cylinder pressure sensor are too expensive and not technically available for commercial production engines. Earlier publications developed various indirect methods to estimate engine torque and they can be classied into several groups. The most common torque estimation method involved look-up tables where the signals used to generate the tables included mean engine speed, intake and exhaust pressures, spark advance and fuel injection quantity [4]. The second group paid attention to modeling the system from throttle input to torque production, which includes intake manifold dynamics, fuel dynamics and combustion process. In [5], a steady-state torque production model which was actually an empirical formula was constructed. In [6], a linear model was proposed by introducing a new index, which was dened as the ratio of air mass ow into the cylinder and the engine speed. The third group explored the relationship between engine torque and speed response. The difference between the maximum and minimum engine speed during a combustion event was abstracted as an index which
This work was supported by Toyota Motor Corporation.

could be easily correlated to the mean torque in [7, 8]. In [9], a PI observer and a sliding mode observer using the difference between estimated and measured engine speed were designed. The engine speed uctuations were used for torque determination based upon an elastic model [10] and an electrical circuit model [11] of the rotational dynamics of the crankshaft, respectively. The last group considered the whole system from throttle input to speed response. A closed loop torque observer using Kalman lter was proposed in [12]. In this paper, a nonlinear torque observer utilizing the torque production model and on-line modication is presented. Based on the developed torque observer, a closed loop torque control method is designed to track the given torque demand which is provided by solving an optimal speed tracking problem. The organization of this paper is as follows. In Sec.2, the torque observer is designed based on a torque production model. Sec.3 presents a closed loop torque control approach using the observer. Results and validations are given in Sec.4 and conclusions are summarized in Sec.5.

2. TORQUE OBSERVER DESIGN

2.1 Torque Production Model Using the speed density formula, the air mass ow into the cylinder m ap can be obtained by [13] m ap = Vd v pm n 120RTm (1)

where Vd is the displacement of the engine, v is the volumetric efciency based on intake conditions, pm is the intake pressure, n is the engine speed in r/min, R is the gas constant, Tm is the air temperature in the intake manifold, which is assumed to be constant. Then the fuel mass ow into the cylinder m f for a desired air fuel equivalence ratio (usually is equal to 1) is m ap (2) m f = Lth

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PR0002/09/0000-4114 400 2009 SICE

where Lth is the theoretical air fuel mass ratio for gasoline and is equal to about 14.7. The indicated power Pi , which forces the crankshaft via the fuel ow, is given as follows [13] f Pi = Hu i m (3) where Hu is the fuel low heating value, i is the indicated efciency. Substitute Eqs.(1)(2) to Eq.(3), let the resultant equation be divided by angular speed , notice that = n 30 , the mean indicated torque i can be derived: Hu Vd i v pm (4) 4Lth RTm If the loss in the rotational movement of the crankshaft such as friction dissipation is denoted by f , the mean effective torque e can be obtained: i = e = Hu Vd i v pm f (5) 4Lth RTm The volumetric efciency is a parameter difcult to be identied in Eq.(5). An approximate relation between this parameter and the intake pressure was obtained after a large of calibration experiments in [14]: v pm = spm y (6)

namely, a closed loop observer is required. Since the engine torque excites and rotates the crankshaft, the resultant speed response contains torque information. Furthermore, engine speed information is easily obtained on commercial engines. Thus, we can construct a torque observer in such a way that the nominal torque calculated with the torque production model is adjusted based on the on-line error between the measured speed and the speed output of the rotational model, which is excited by the torque estimation. If the speed output of the crankshaft forced by the estimated torque is exactly equivalent to the measured speed value, then we can accept the estimated torque as the true value. It should be noticed from the crankshaft dynamic Eq.(8) that the engine load information should be known. A possible way is to estimate the load torque using the vehicle model [15, 16]. For the sake of simplicity in presentation of the basic idea, this issue is out of target with this paper. We suppose the load torque is measurable in the observer design. Assumption H1: pm is measurable, the parameters L( ) and d ( ) in Eq.(7) are not exactly known, however, can be represented as with known nominal mappings L0 ( ), d0 ( ), unknown constant b and unknown function (, pm ) which is bounded by a known function ( ), i.e. |(, pm )| ( ). Construct the closed-loop torque observer as follows: e0 = L0 ( )pm d0 ( ) e0 + kp + ki dt + ( )sgn( ) (10) e = = Je e l [L( )pm d ( )][L0 ( )pm d0 ( )] = b+(, pm )(9)

where s, y > 0 are slightly affected by engine speed, usually can be dealt with as constant. The indicated efciency depends on a lot of physical factors, such as engine speed, intake pressure, spark advance, and air fuel ratio. It is approximately an exponential function of the engine speed, as other factors only give a slight perturbation [13]. The loss in the rotational movement of the crankshaft mainly depends on engine Hu Vd > 0 being approximately speed. With a = 4L th RTm constant and taking Eq.(6) into account, Eq.(5) can be rewritten as e = asi ( )pm ayi ( ) f ( ) = L( )pm d ( ) (7)

where L( ), d ( ) > 0 are related to engine speed. The crankshaft can be simply regarded as rigid for mean value modeling and the engine rotational dynamic model can be derived directly from Newtons second law as following: where Je is the equivalent inertial of crankshaft including pistons and ywheel of the engine, l is the load torque. 2.2 Observer Design A natural motivation of Sec.2.1 is to use the torque production model to estimate the engine torque. Indeed, the mean effective engine torque can be directly calculated by Eq.(7) if L( ), d ( ) are exactly known. However, in practical applications, the model parameters are hardly exactly known, which will lead to estimation error all along without any modication. To deal with the problem of parameters uncertainty of the torque production model, an appropriate modication should be added, = e l Je (8)

In the following, the conditions to guarantee the stability of the proposed observer (10) is established. Theorem 1: Suppose that Assumption H1 holds. Then, for any positive constants kp and ki , the error system (11) is Lyapunov stable, and 0 as t . Furthermore, e e as t . Proof: Let = b , the error dynamics (11) become ) + kp Je = (, pm ) ( )sgn( (12) = ki Consider the candidate of Lyapunov function 1 2 1 2 + ) V = (Je 2 ki Then, along any trajectory of the error system, )] kp 2 V = [(, pm ) ( )sgn( = (, pm ) ( )| | kp 2 [|(, pm )| ( )]| | kp 2 (13)

are the estimated mean effective torque where e and and engine speed, respectively, = , kp , ki are the proportional gain and integral gain of the nonlinear PI compensation, respectively. dt, the error system of Eq.(10) is repreLet = ki sented by = (, pm ) + b kp ( )sgn( ) Je (11) = ki

(14)

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 kp V 2

Note that |(, pm )| ( ), we have (15)

This follows Lyapunov stability of the error system. Moreover, from Ineq.(15) and Eq.(12), we can conclude = 0 V = 0, = = 0, + b = (16)

By the LaSalles invariant set principle, and converge to the set where ( , ) = (0, ) as t . From Eq.(10), it is obvious that in the set = 0, + b = , the estimated torque e = e0 + = L0 ( )pm d0 ( ) + = L0 ( )pm d0 ( ) + + b = L( )pm d ( )

(17)

is shown as Fig.2, where ir is the indicated torque dei is the estimated indimand, e is from the observer, cated torque. To obtain fast response, a look-up table where indicated torque is input while throttle position is output is used to give a nominal value of the throttle position, represented by 0 . The torque PI feedback output is signied as . Because the torque demand is determined by off-line optimization, it will lead to the following problem: if the torque output can not track the demand exactly, an error between the actual and desired engine speed will arise and can not be eliminated. So an on-line modication is added to solve this problem. The modication is obtained by integrating the speed error and ki is the integral gain. ki should be a small number and only gives a slight adjusting to throttle angle.

This implies that in the invariant set e e as t .

4. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS
4.1 The Test Bench The test engine is provided by Toyota Motor Corporation and the specications are shown in Table 1. The engine was installed in a test cell and connected to a dynamometer, as is shown in Figs.34. Pressure sensors are installed in Cylinder 2, Cylinder 4 and Cylinder 6. The basic software of the engine control unit (ECU) was modied to allow the engine to run with the standard commercial controller, or to accept control commands from dSPACE, such as the throttle position, spark advance, fuel injection, etc. The measured torque is calculated from cylinder pressure, using the following equations: 4 z dV () d (21) p() i = 4 d 0 where p(), V () denote cylinder pressure and volume, which are functions of crank angle , z is the cylinder e are the mean indicated and number of the engine, i , effective torque in a cycle, respectively. In the following, all measured torque is obtained by this way. 4.2 Torque Observer Validation A rectangular signal input for throttle position is sent to the ECU while keeping the load torque at 30 Nm. The measured and estimated effective torque is compared in Fig.5. To show more details of engine states in the transient process, the intake pressure and engine speed are also measured and illustrated. The black solid line in the gure is the measured signal, the red dashed line and blue dotted line are the estimated values using closed loop observer (with a legend CO) and open loop observer (with a legend OO), respectively. Here the closed loop observer denotes the observer presented in the last section and the open loop observer means torque estimation using Eq.(7) directly with the identied parameters L0 ( ), d0 ( ). To verify that the proposed observer is insensitive to torque model uncertainty, a set of parameters deviated from the identied nominal values is used and e = i f ( ) (22)

3. TORQUE CONTROLLER DESIGN

3.1 Torque Demand The torque demand er is determined by solving an optimal speed tracking problem, as is shown in Fig.1, where denotes the throttle position, r denotes the desired engine speed in rad/s. Consider the following cost function tf 2 [( (t) r (t))2 + v e (t)]dt (18) J=
t0

where v denotes the weight factor, t0 and tf denote the starting and ending time, respectively. Notice that the cost function (18) only refers to engine speed and effective torque, which are directly related to the crankshaft dynamic. The discrete forms of (18) and the crankshaft dynamic equation are as following J=
N 2 [(k rk )2 + v ek ] ts

(19) (20)

k=0

k+1 = k +

ts (ek lk ) Je

where the subscript k is the index of discrete time, ts signies the sampling period. The torque demand is decided by solving the optimization problem for e with the cost function (19) subjected to (20), and the solution can be obtained by utilizing dynamic programming[17]. 3.2 Torque Control Since the optimal torque demand has been decided, the next task is to control the engine to realize this demand. Thus, a closed-loop torque control scheme should be designed, and the torque observer proposed in Sec.2 can be applied. As a case application of observer-based torque control, the simplest feedback control namely PI control is implemented here. The structure of the torque controller

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l r

Torque Demand Decision

er

Torque Control

Engine

Crankshaft

pm
Optimal Speed Controller Controlled Plant

Fig. 1 The architecture of optimal speed controller Table 1 Engine specications Type Injection Bore Stroke Displacement Maximum power Maximum torque
er r
^
e

dSPACE
CAN Block Matlab Simulink Encoder Block A/D Block D/A Block

V6 Direct-Injected 87.5mm 83mm 2.994L 160kW/(6200r/min) 315Nm/(3600r/min)

Look-up Table

ECU

Computer
Control Desk

Engine
Cylinder Pressure Recorder

Dynamometer

Friction Model

ir

Fig. 4 Sketch of the test bench

0
+ +

Friction Model

PI
ki +

4.3 Torque Controller Validation To show the optimum of the speed controller via torque control, a conventional PI speed controller is introduced to make a comparison. For the sake of simplicity, engine load is kept constant and remains at 30 Nm in the experiments. The speed trajectory for tracking control is obtained by ltering a square signal. Fig.6 shows the results of conventional PI speed controller and optimal speed controller. The black solid line with a legend Demand for effective torque gures denotes the torque demand determined by optimization methods. And the black solid line also with a legend Demand for engine speed gures denotes the given required speed trajectory. It can be seen that the engine speed using PI controller has the larger phase delay to the desired trajectory compared to optimal speed controller. That is because the produced torque using PI controller lags behind the optimal torque demand. From Fig.6 it can be noticed that the produced torque using optimal controller is more closed to the torque demand via torque control. Table 2 gives the cost values for different controllers, where the theoretic cost is gained by optimization methods. It is clear that the optimal speed controller cost less compared to the conventional PI speed controller. These results not only signify the validity of optimization theory in engine control application but more important, also demonstrate that observer-based torque control is effective by which the optimal torque demand is realized.

Fig. 2 The structure of torque controller

Fig. 3 The test bench

the result is shown in Fig.5 (b). Due to the deviation, the accuracy of estimated torque using open loop observer in Fig.5 (b) is worse than the one in Fig.5 (a). But the estimated torque using the closed loop observer under these two cases are nearly the same. Initial value different from the measurement is given in order to demonstrate the convergency of the observer. It is found that the observer is capable of following the real value and does not have a tendency to diverge.

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Throttle Position [o]
10 8 6 4 2 5 10 15 20 25

Table 2 Cost values for different controllers Controllers Theoretic Conventional PI Controller Optimal Controller Cost Value 346 1625 543

Load Torque [N m]

40 35 30 25 x 10 5
4

5. CONCLUSION
A nonlinear torque observer is given by a torque production model with an on-line modication based on the engine speed error between the measurement and the estimated value, which is determined by exciting the estimated torque on the crankshaft rotational model. Then a torque controller is designed based on the observer to follow the given torque demand which is obtained by solving an optimal speed tracking problem. Results show that the observer has acceptable accuracy and the speed tracking performance is improved by introducing torque controller.

10

15

20

25

Intake Pressure [Pa]

5 4 3 2 1

10 Measured

15 Estimated (CO)

20

25 Estimated (OO)

Egnine Speed [r/min] Effective Torque [N m] 

100 50 0 5 3000 2500 2000 1500 5 10 15 20 25 10 15 Measured 20 Estimated 25

REFERENCES
[1] B. Mencher, H. Jessen, L. Kaiser and J. Gerhardt, Preparing for CARTRONIC-Interface and New Strategies for Torque Coordination and Conversion in a Spark Ignition Engine-Management System, in SAE World Congr., 2001, Paper 2001-01-0268. [2] T. Nagata, M. Tomizuka, Engine Torque Control based on Discrete Event Model and Disturbance Observer, Proc. IMECE 2007, ASME Int. Mech. Eng. Congress and Exposition, Seattle, Washington, USA, pp. 1-10. [3] Y. Chamaillard, P. Higelin, A. Charlet, A Simple Method for Robust Control Design, Application on a Non-linear and Delayed System: Engine Torque Control, Contr. Eng. Prac., Vol. 12, pp. 417-429, Apr. 2004. [4] N. Amano, Method of Calculating Engine Torque, U.S. Patent 6 704 639, March 9, 2004. [5] J.J. Moskwa, J.K. Hedrick, Modeling and Validation of Automotive Engines for Control Algorithm Development, J. Dynamic Systems, Measurement and Control, Vol. 114, pp. 278-285, 1992. [6] Y. Danno, K. Togai, T. Fukui and M. Shimada, Powertrain Control by DBW SystemStrategy and Modeling, in SAE World Congr., 1989, Paper 890760. [7] A. Stotsky, Computationally Efcient Filtering Algorithms for Engine Torque Estimation, Proc. IMechE, Part D: J. Automobile Engineering, Vol. 219, pp. 1099-1107, 2005. [8] A. Stotsky, New Filtering Technique for On-Board Torque Estimation, Int. J. Automotive Technology, Vol. 9, NO. 3, pp. 289-295, 2008. [9] M. Kao, J.J. Moskwa, Model-Based Engine Fault Detection Using Cylinder Pressure Estimates from

Time [s]
(a)

 Egnine Speed [r/min] Effective Torque [N m] 

Measured 100 50 0 5 3000 2500 2000 1500 10 15 Measured 20 Estimated 25 Estimated (CO) Estimated (OO)

10

15

20

25

Time [s] 

(b)

Fig. 5 Torque observer validation

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Throttle Position [o]

Throttle Position [o]

10

10

10

15

20

25

10

15

20

25

Load Torque [N m]

 34
32 30 28 26 5 x 10 5 4 3 2 1 5 10 15 Demand 100 0 20 Measured 25
4

Load Torque [N m] 

34 32 30 28 26 5 x 10 5 4 3 2 1 5 10 15 Demand 100 0 20 Measured 25

4

10

15

20

25

10

15

20

25

Intake Pressure [Pa]

Effective Torque [N m]

100

10

15 Demand

20 Measured

25

Effective Torque [N m] 

Intake Pressure [Pa]

100

10

15 Demand

20 Measured

25

Egnine Speed [r/min]

2500 2000 1500 1000 5 10 15 20 25

Egnine Speed [r/min]

2500 2000 1500 1000 5 10 15 20 25

Time [s]
(a)Conventional PI speed control

Time [s]

(b)Optimal speed control

Fig. 6 Speed controller validation Nonlinear Observers, in Proc. 33rd IEEE Conf. Dec. Control, 1994, pp. 2742-2747. S.J. Citron, J.E. OHiggins, Cylinder-by-Cylinder Engine Pressure and Pressure Torque Waveform Determination Utilizing Crankshaft Speed Fluctuations, US Patent 4 843 870, July 4, 1989. G. Rizzoni, Estimate of Indicated Torque from Crankshaft Speed Fluctuations: A Model for the Dynamics of the IC Engine, IEEE Trans. Veh. Technol., Vol. 38, NO. 3, pp. 168-179, Aug. 1989. E. Hendricks, Nonlinear Observer Control of Internal Combustion Engines with EGR, Proc. Nonlinear and Adaptive Control Network Workshop on Automotive Control, NACO2, Lund, Sweden, May 2001, pp. 1-17. E. Hendricks, S.C. Sorenson, Mean Value Modeling of Spark Ignition Engines, in SAE World Congr., 1990, Paper 900616. [14] E. Hendricks, A. Chevaiier, M. Jensen, S.C. Sorenson, D. Trumpy and J. Asik, Modeling of the Intake Maniod Filling Dynamics, in SAE World Congr., 1996, Paper 960037. [15] E. Grunbacher, P. Kefer and L. del Re, Estimation of the Mean Value Engine Torque Using an Extended Kalman Filter, in SAE World Congr., 2005, Paper 2005-01-0063. [16] M. Fam and E. Hendricks, A Load Torque Estimator, in SAE World Congr., 2004, Paper 2004-011372. [17] R. Bellman, The Structure of Dynamic Programming Processes, in Dynamic Programming. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press, 1957, ch.III, pp.81-115.

[10]

[11]

[12]

[13]

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