Throttle actuator swapping modularity design for idle speed control

Swapping modularity refers to the use of common units to create product variants. As companies strive to rationalize engineering design, manufacturing and maintain processes, modularity is becoming a priority. Component swapping modularity in control systems can be achieved by utilizing ldquosmartrdquo components which can perform control actions within the module, and bidirectional network communication. In this paper we analyze an engine speed control system from the perspective of achieving swapping modularity of the throttle actuator. Specifically, we analyze approaches to distribute the optimal controller transfer function between a throttle actuator time constant dependent portion (which is swappable with the actuator) and throttle actuator time constant independent portion (which does not need to be changed when the actuator is swapped). Two distributed controller architectures, with unidirectional and bidirectional communications, are considered.