Modeling priority analysis via Hybrid Petri Nets for an Internal Combustion Engine Management System

Nowadays, the Engine Management System is a collections of control strategies and adaptive corrections, necessary to uniform different algorithms, realized by various engineers in different periods. It results in a deep connection among the algorithms and a change in a portion of the code causes uncontrolled and undesired changes elsewhere. This paper examines the modeling and analysis priority of an Electronic Control Unit and proposes an innovative methodology to design an Engine Management System for Internal Combustion Engine using a Hybrid Petri Net based approach, it shows how the Petri Net elements used can be adopted and optimized to better design the algorithms structure so to highlight and manage the different levels of priority of the strategies and, at the same time, to have the possibility to modify a single control procedure monitoring the undesired effects. The proposed model consists of the interconnections of a discrete logic layer, modeled via Petri nets, with a continuous variable layer, described by differential algebraic equations. The state changes of the discrete logic layer drive the operation of continuous variable systems. Hybrid Petri Nets represent the system evolution and running process of an Electronic Control Unit.