Ford Motor Company Limited

Ford Global Technolgoies, LLC

John V James

Kenneth A Marko

James M Dosdall

Gintaras Vincent Puskorius

Timothy Mark Feldkamp

Lee Albert Feldkamp

Ryan Lee Baker

John Michael Miller

Margherita Zanini-Fisher

Bruce David Bryant

Raoul Tawel

Nathan R Soderborg

John L Bomback

Dennis Carl Krzyske

Nazeeh Aranki

Charles C Wang

A method for estimating a cylinder specific performance parameter for a specific cylinder of an internal combustion engine for each firing attempt, which relies on production sensors commonly equipped onboard production vehicles, is disclosed.

Cylinder specific performance parameter computed for an internal combustion engine

An engine diagnostic system includes a bit-serial based recurrent neuroprocessor for processing data from an internal combustion engine in order to diagnose misfires in real-time and reduces the number of neurons required to perform the task by time multiplexing groups of neurons from a candidate pool of neurons to achieve the successive hidden layers of the recurrent network topology.

Automotive engine misfire detection system including a bit-serial based recurrent neuroprocessor

An engine cylinder firing event is intentionally defeated by clipping the flyback voltage of the ignition system primary coil winding under the control of a misfire generator that develops a misfire logic signal from ignition dwell events and user inputs and also develops a signal indicative of which cylinder firing event was defeated.

Method and apparatus for generating and identifying misfires

A method of automating the calibration of lookup tables containing correction values to be used in an on-board vehicle system is disclosed. The method includes training a neural network to model engine behavior by outputting cylinder specific crankshaft acceleration correction values in response to any engine speed and load input conditions. The correction values generated are stored in a memory device. The training takes place off-board the vehicle, using a data set previously obtained from operating a representative engine under normal operating conditions.

Method of generation correction tables for misfire detection using

A method for identifying engine combustion failure of an internal combustion engine having a plurality of cylinders, a crankshaft and a crankshaft position sensor includes the steps of operating the internal combustion engine to rotate the crankshaft, measuring rotational quantities of the crankshaft corresponding to events created by each of the plurality of cylinders during operation of the internal combustion engine, correcting the rotational quantities measured to remove periodic position irregularities to generate a corrected temporal signal, generating an acceleration signal of the crankshaft using the corrected temporal signals, and identifying combustion failures as a function of the acceleration signal. A time-lagged recurrent neural network utilizes the acceleration signal, along with other engine parameters to identify the cylinder-specific misfire events.

Method for identifying misfire events of an internal combustion engine

Misfiring of individual cylinders in an internal combustion engine 70 is detected based on simultaneous use of two or more different methods of misfire detection which examine different combustion-related parameters of engine operation, such as crankshaft acceleration and exhaust gas pressure. An analyzer 76 produces a final misfire determination M.sub.f (i) based on the simultaneously obtained misfire determinations in order to provide greater coverage of the speed-load range of engine 70 and to provide increased confidence and accuracy in calling misfires in the portion of the speed-load range where both misfire methods are presumed to function.

Fuzzy logic method for detecting misfiers in internal combustion engines

The invention estimates baseline acceleration expected from normal (i.e., non-misfiring) cylinders in an internal combustion engine even when the misfire rate reaches 50%. An offset median value is used to derive an average or gross acceleration value to provide a baseline rather than a true median. The offset median is the next largest value greater than the true median, so that the presence of 50% misfires does not degrade the determination of the baseline.

Misfire detection in an internal combustion engine using modified median

A crankshaft based misfire detector for an internal combustion engine detects and identifies misfire over a broad range of engine operating conditions by establishing correction factors to compensate for crankshaft torsional oscillations and static wheel profile errors which corrupt the acceleration signals used to detect misfire. The correction factors are adaptively determined during in-use engine operation and are updated in one manner for most firings but in another manner for any cylinder firing which had the relatively lowest corrected acceleration within an engine cycle.

Adaptive correction of torsional and wheel profile position

A system and method compensates for systematic irregularities in measured engine velocities caused by torsional flexing in the crankshaft during rotation to improve the accuracy of misfire detection. A set of generated correction factors is stored in a table that are derived empirically using a test engine. The correction factors are adjusted during on-board operation of the engine whenever a safe adaptation time is determined.

Engine diagnostic monitor with on-board adjustment of correction factors

An apparatus for identifying the power stroke of a particular cylinder in a multi-cylinder engine which utilizes a wasted spark electronic distributorless ignition system but lacks a camshaft driven cylinder identification sensor, wherein a single sensor can be placed in a coil pack adjacent to and substantially equidistant from the ignition coil towers. The sensor will produce a signal reflecting the difference in voltage drops between corresponding pairs of spark plugs who share the same coil and which utilizes this signal to determine the power stroke of individual cylinders to produce a resulting synthetic cylinder identification signal. This apparatus can further be used as a permanent on-board sensor, thereby negating the need for a separate camshaft driven sensor, to determine the cylinder identification.

Cylinder number identification on a distributorless ignition system

A control system and control method are described for an engine (12) having a valve controller (42) for controlling exhaust valves (EV.sub.1-4) and intake valves (IV.sub.1-4) of each of the cylinders. Misfire detectors (210-302) provide an indication of ignition misfire in each of the cylinders each engine cycle. In response to a misfire detection, the valve lift of the exhaust valve for that cylinder is set to zero. If the misfire was absent during the cylinder's previous ignition cycle, the intake valve lift is also set to zero. After two successive misfire detections, the intake valve lift is set to a predetermined lift in order to refreshen the air/fuel charge which has been trapped in the cylinder from the previous engine cycles (402-428).

Method to reduce engine emissions due to misfire

The time needed to verify proper operation of a fault detection system or to verify the impact of the replacement of a component in the system being monitored is reduced without substantial increase in the possibility of false indication of failure or false indication of proper operation by employing a geometric moving average with a variable time constant reset to a minimum value upon initialization and gradually increasing to a maximum value. Motor vehicle systems and components are monitored and a diagnostic indicator annunciates faults to alert the vehicle operator to malfunctions.

Fault detection using averaging filter with variable response time

A system and method compensates for systematic irregularities in measured engine velocities caused by torsional flexing in the crankshaft during rotation to improve the accuracy of misfire detection. The present invention compensates for irregularities in 'Profile-Ignition-Pick-Up interval' (PIP interval) timing. These irregularities are systematic with respect to different engine cylinders. The present invention is configured to function with a processor unit. Correction factors for each of the n PIP intervals of an engine cycle are generated for each of a multitude of engine operating conditions, where n is the number of cylinders in the engine. Each set of n generated correction factor is stored in a table (a 'look-up table' located in a memory unit) having a corresponding unique address location. This table is typically determined empirically in the calibration of the engine type by a test engine. The correction factors are generated while the test engine is rotated at a fixed steady state operating point with combustion, where the operating point is typically a particular speed and load.

System and method to compensate for torsional disturbances in measured

System and method for filtering a misfire data stream having numerical values that indicate whether a firing of a cylinder was a misfire or a proper firing, to yield an optimum measurement misfire-rate for accurate and rapid determination of whether an engine is misfiring beyond a threshold level. The method includes measuring firings of the cylinder during operation of the engine to produce measured cylinder firing signals, processing the measured cylinder firing signals received to produce a current misfire detection data stream of first and second logic signals, wherein the first logic signals indicate a current misfire condition and the second logic signals indicate a current normal firing of the engine, combining the current misfire detection data stream with previously detected and stored measured data representing an engine misfire rate, replacing the previously stored measured data by the combined current and previously stored data to produce a misfire rate output measurement, storing threshold values, comparing the combined current and previously stored data and the stored threshold values, generating an actuation signal if the combined current and previously stored data signal exceeds the stored threshold values, and indicating a misfire condition in the engine upon receiving the actuation signal.

System and method for filtering a misfire detecting data stream to yield

Systematic errors in manufacturing of position markers of an internal combustion engine position sensing system are corrected by a procedure which detects nonuniformities in the placement of the position markers using an engine coastdown without combustion in the cylinders. Since the coastdown comprises a smooth deceleration, any nonuniformities detected in the velocities calculated for individual firing intervals during the coastdown are a manifestation of nonuniformities in the position marker placement. These nonuniformities are used to calculate correction factors which are stored for use when calculating velocities during engine combustion.

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Walled Lake, MI, United States of America

John V James