Control system with diagnostics monitoring for engine control

A configurable controller for controlling a physical plant having associated therewith a plurality of actuators for controlling operation of the physical plant and a plurality of sensors for observing a plurality of characteristics of the physical plant operations, the configurable controller comprising:

• a state observer configured to capture the current state of the physical plant using data from the plurality of sensors;
• and
• an operation optimizer configured to control the physical plant using at least the actuators and data from the state observer and the plurality of sensors;
• and
• a diagnostics optimizer;
• wherein at least one of the plurality of sensors is adapted to monitoring of a sensed parameter wherein the monitoring provides robust results only when operating parameters of the physical plant remain within a predefined robust monitoring region;
• wherein the diagnostics optimizer is configured to modify an output of the operation optimizer to adjust performance of the physical plant by minimizing a balancing term which increases with a distance of the operating parameters of the plant from the robust monitoring region.

A method of operating a configurable controller adapted to control a physical plant;

• the physical plant having associated therewith a plurality of actuators for controlling operation of the physical plant and a plurality of sensors for observing a plurality of characteristics of the physical plant operations, wherein at least one of the plurality of sensors is adapted to monitoring of a sensed parameter, the monitoring providing robust results only when operating parameters of the physical plant remain within a predefined robust monitoring region,
• the configurable controller being operably coupled to one or more of the plurality of actuators to thereby control the actuators, and operably coupled to one or more of the plurality of sensors to receive sensed data therefrom, the configurable controller comprising a state observer configured to capture a current state of the physical plant using the data from the plurality of sensors, and an operation optimizer configured to control the physical plant using at least the actuators and data from the state observer and the plurality of sensors, and a diagnostics optimizer configured to modify an output of the operation optimizer;
• the method comprising:
• the operation optimizer determining, using the current state of the physical plant, a first control solution for optimal performance;
• the diagnostics optimizer calculating an adjustment to the first control solution by determining:
• a current state of the system relative to a monitoring requirement;
• and
• a distance between the first control solution and a boundary of the robust monitoring region;
• the diagnostics optimizer determining a second control solution, different from the first control solution by no more than a predetermined deviation using the adjustment;
• and
• the configurable controller issuing control signals, using the second control solution, to the actuators to operate the physical plant.