Denso Corporation

Nippondenso Co., Ltd.

Yukihiro Yamashita

Hisashi Iida

Jun Hasegawa

Shigenori Isomura

Yasuo Sagisaka

Kazuyoshi Obayashi

Keisuke Tani

Daisuke Kuroda

Noriaki Ikemoto

Yoshihiro Majima

Ryozo Kayama

Katsunori Tanaka

Toshihiro Suzumura

Kenji Ikuta

Daiji Isobe

Naoki Yoshiume

Yoshihiro Sakashita

Tomomichi Mizoguchi

Makoto Miwa

Satoshi Haseda

Masaaki Nakayama

Syujiro Morinaga

Wakichi Kondo

Hideyuki Maeji

Takeshi Shimoyama

Eiichi Kurokawa

Satoshi Hada

Keiji Wakahara

Toshiyuki Suzuki

Hiroshi Kishita

Tomoo Kawase

Yasuhiko Niimi

Toshiki Matsumoto

Takashi Senda

Yasuo Mukai

Akira Ichikawa

Hisashi Kadowaki

Masayuki Takami

Masakazu Yamada

Naoki Yamamoto

Kazuhiro Okazaki

Masahiko Yamaguchi

Tatsuya Oka

Kouichi Shimizu

Shujiro Morinaga

Atsushi Sugimura

Hidenobu Muto

Wataru Nagashima

Takanori Takahashi

Hideki Iwatsuki

Hiroyuki Katsuta

Keiji Honjoh

Misawo Shibata

Masayuki Tsutsumi

A NOx sensor includes a pump cell, a monitor cell, and a sensor cell, and the pump cell discharges an oxygen in an exhaust gas introduced into a chamber. The sensor cell outputs a detected signal depending on a concentration of a NOx according to a gas after the oxygen is discharged. A microcomputer of a sensor control circuit temporarily changes an amount of the oxygen discharged by the pump cell, and then calculates output change amounts &#x394;Ip, &#x394;Is, and &#x394;Im of the cells. The microcomputer performs a correction of the concentration of the NOx detected by the sensor cell and a deterioration diagnosis of the sensor cell, based on the output change amounts &#x394;Ip, &#x394;Is, and &#x394;Im of the cells. When the sensor cell current Is is smaller than the monitor cell current Im, the microcomputer determines that the NOx sensor has an abnormality.

Gas sensor control device

A gas concentration detection device includes a pump cell, a sensor cell, a monitor cell, a sensor current detection unit detecting a current outputted by the sensor cell, a monitor current detection unit detecting a current outputted by the monitor cell, a voltage adjustment unit adjusting a pump cell voltage applied to the pump cell, and a sensitivity determination unit determining a gas sensitivity of at least one of the sensor cell or the monitor cell. The voltage adjustment unit changes the pump cell voltage from a target voltage into a detection voltage where the concentration of the residual oxygen supplied to the sensor cell and the monitor cell is increased. The sensitivity determination unit determines the gas sensitivity based on a detection current detected by at least one of the sensor current detection unit or the monitor current detection unit in accordance with the concentration of the residual oxygen.

Gas concentration detection device

A heater control device for an exhaust gas sensor disposed in an exhaust gas passage of an internal combustion engine and including a sensor element having a plurality of cells, and a heater heating the sensor element includes: a heater power control unit configured to execute a temp rising control, in which an impedance of one cell to be measured, of the plurality of cells, is detected and a temperature of the sensor element is raised until the impedance of the one cell reaches a target impedance by setting a power control value of the heater as a heating power control value. The heater power control unit continues the temp rising control until an extension period elapses that is needed for the other cell other than the one cell to reach an activation temperature after the impedance of the one cell reaches the target impedance.

Heater control device for exhaust gas sensor

In an air-conditioning system for a vehicle, which has multiple heat sources (an evaporator and a heat accumulator), either one of the heat sources, for which the input energy amount for the unit cooling capacity is smaller than that for the other heat source, is preferentially used for performing the cooling operation, an energy amount for the air-conditioning operation can be reduced.

Multiple cooling sources for a vehicle air conditioning system

A power supply control apparatus for controlling an electric generator of a vehicle limits the rate of change of a power supply voltage to a predetermined variation rate range, when the change is caused by operations to control the charge condition of the vehicle battery, and controls the generated power to match the drive torque applied by the engine to the generator. When the electrical load demand changes, the generated power is controlled to limit a resultant momentary change in the power supply voltage caused by an engine response delay, while minimizing a resultant momentary amount of engine speed variation.

Electrical power supply system for motor vehicle

A base engine torque generated with an estimated intake air amount is estimated. An engine torque is corrected by correcting an ignition timing based on a difference between a required engine torque and the base engine torque. A torque correction amount is calculated based on a correction amount of the ignition timing. An actual engine torque is estimated based on the calculated torque correction amount and the base engine torque. A permitted component driving torque is a difference between the actual engine torque and the required vehicle driving torque. A component is controlled based on the permitted component driving torque.

Controller and controlling method for internal combustion engine

In a drive control system for a hybrid vehicle, the electric power generated by an alternator driven by an engine and the electric power regenerated by a motor-generator are stored in a battery. The battery discharges electric energy to drive the motor-generator. An ECU calculates fuel consumption of the engine and fuel consumption of the motor-generator, and determines a distribution of motive power between the engine and the motor-generator from the fuel consumptions. The ECU calculates fuel consumption contributing to the electric energy stored in the battery, and then calculates the fuel consumption of the motor-generator by reflecting the contributing fuel consumption in it.

Vehicle drive control system and method

An engine controller controls an engine, which drives a generator, an auxiliary device, and a vehicle. The generator generates electricity, and supplying the electricity to a battery and a plurality of current consumers. A generator controller controls the generator. An auxiliary device controller controls the auxiliary device. An electric power generation calculation unit calculates one of a requested power generation of the generator and a present power generation of the generator. An engine speed changing unit evaluates tendency of power generation on the basis of the one of the requested power generation and the present power generation. The engine speed changing unit requests increase or decreases in the engine speed when the engine speed changing unit determines the power generation to be inclined toward shortage or excess.

Engine controller and control method

An electric generator control apparatus of a vehicle sets respective target values of output voltage and output current for the electric generator of the vehicle, and selectively establishes a voltage control mode for holding the generator output voltage at the target voltage or a current control mode for holding the generator output current at the target current, with the mode selection and the setting of target values being performed based on criteria such as the level of charge of the vehicle battery, the electrical load of the vehicle equipment, etc.

Control apparatus for selectively controlling output current and output voltage of electric generator

A control unit uses upper and lower limit guard values to limit a power generation quantity of a power generator and thereby to maintain the current combustion mode during power generation of the power generator. The control unit computes a remaining electric charge of a battery. When the remaining electric charge drops to a predetermined value or below, the control unit cancels a combustion mode maintaining operation, which maintains the current combustion mode, is cancelled, so that priority is given to the power generation of the power generator to recover the remaining electric charge of the battery. Also, when an electric power consumption in a vehicle is equal to or greater than a predetermined value, the combustion mode maintaining operation is cancelled, and the power generation quantity of the power generator is controlled in a manner that does not cause overdischarge of the battery.

Power generation control system and method

An increment of a fuel consumption rate caused by power generation is determined from a difference in fuel consumption rate between a case of performing power generation of an alternator and a case of stopping the power generation. The increment of the fuel consumption rate is divided by a power generation amount of the alternator to determine an increment of a fuel consumption per unit power generation amount. A use-frequency of the electric consumption is determined and also a possible power generation amount and average consumption power are calculated. A target electric consumption is set based upon the use-frequency, the possible power generation amount and the average consumption power so that the charge and discharge balance of the battery becomes zero. The present electric consumption is compared with the target electric consumption to determine whether or not to perform the power generation of the alternator.

Power generation control apparatus for internal combustion engine

A generator control device controls a generator that is driven by an engine to charge a battery and supply electric power to electric loads. In the generator control device the following steps are carried out: calculating a required electric power; calculating a difference rate that is a difference in an amount of a hazardous gas component of engine exhaust gas between a first case in which the generator generates the required electric power and a second case in which the generator does not generate an electric power divided by the electric power and controlling the generator to generate the required electric power if the difference is equal to or smaller than a first reference value.

Vehicle generator control device

An air-fuel ratio sensor monitor is provided which is designed to monitor reactive characteristics or response rates of an air-fuel ratio sensor when an air-fuel ratio of a mixture to an internal combustion engine is changing to a rich side and to a lean side. The monitored response rates are used in determining whether the sensor is failing or not, in determining the air-fuel ratio of the mixture accurately, or in air-fuel ratio control of the engine.

Air-fuel ratio sensor monitor, air-fuel ratio detector, and air-fuel ratio control

Growing community of inventors

Takahama, Japan

Yukihiro Yamashita