How many angels can dance on the head of a pin? Development of next generation turbodiesel controls

This paper covers several aspects of the emerging problems faced in diesel engine control development. In particular the interaction of three issues will be considered: (i) increasingly stringent regulation on diesel engine emissions is leading to the introduction of additional hardware subsystems and tighter control performance requirements; (ii) diesel engine powertrains are highly nonlinear plants, with significant multivariable interactions among subsystems, and many different engine layouts are encountered in practice; and (iii) the computing environment in modern automotive electronic control units (ECUs) is very restricted with a processor speed is typically slower than 60 MHz and only a few MB of flash memory. The convergence of these three issues is creating control engineering requirements and development opportunities. While the emissions requirements must be met according to law, the market demands require fuel efficiency, drivability, and low cost. The paper provides automotive control engineers with intuitive tools for the design of advanced controllers.