Optimization and scheduling for automotive powertrains

Addition of devices intended to improve performance, fuel economy, and emissions of automotive engines makes the tasks of finding optimal settings for the engine parameters and implement the optimal schedules in the engine control unit more difficult. We present an integrated approach intended to simplify these tasks. The components of the integrated process are: 1) engine parameter separation into constrained, dynamic, and instantaneous, 2) extremum seeking, and 3) inverse distance interpolation. The approach is illustrated on the problem of optimizing fuel consumption of a dual-independent variable cam timing engine.