Control device for internal combustion engine

A control device for an internal combustion engine comprising:

• a camshaft;
• a plurality of cams having different profiles;
• a cam switching mechanism configured to switch a drive cam as a valve-driving cam between the cams, the cam switching mechanism including a shift member, a pin, an actuator, and a position regulation mechanism, the shift member being configured to rotate with the camshaft, the shift member being configured to shift an axial position with respect to the camshaft in conjunction with the cams, the shift member being provided with a guide groove in an outer peripheral surface of the shift member, the pin being configured to be engaged with and disengaged from the guide groove, the actuator being configured to execute a pin drive operation for allowing the pin to protrude from a reference position toward the shift member, the position regulation mechanism being configured to cause the axial position of the shift member to be a first position or a second position as a result of regulation, the guide groove including a pin insertion section, a cam switching section, and a pin return section, the actuator being configured to execute the pin drive operation for driving the pin to protrude from the reference position toward the shift member at a pin drive timing for inserting the pin into the pin insertion section of the guide groove, the cam switching section being configured such that the shift member shifts from the first position to the second position as the shift member rotates when the pin is inserted into the pin insertion section, the pin return section being configured such that the pin returns to the reference position after the pin passes through the cam switching section, the drive cam being configured to be switched from a first cam to a second cam included in the cams as the shift member shifts from the first position to the second position in the cam switching section, and the cam switching mechanism being configured such that the pin returns to the reference position before arrival of the pin return section following the cam switching section arriving first after the pin drive timing in a case where the pin drive operation is executed when the shift member is at the second position;
• and
• an electronic control unit configured to
• execute, for a first cycle, first drive processing for controlling the actuator such that the pin drive operation is executed for switching from the first cam to the second cam,
• execute second drive processing for controlling the actuator such that the pin drive operation is executed again for a second cycle in which switching from the second cam to the first cam is not performed after the execution of the first drive processing, the second cycle being a cycle following the first cycle, and
• execute abnormality determination processing for determining that the cam switching mechanism has an abnormality that the drive cam is not switched from the first cam to the second cam by the first drive processing in a case where the pin returns to the reference position by using the pin return section following the cam switching section of the first cycle after the execution of the first drive processing and the pin returns to the reference position by using the pin return section following the cam switching section of the second cycle after the execution of the second drive processing.