Predicting cylinder pressure for on-vehicle control

An apparatus for predicting cylinder pressure for on-vehicle control of an internal combustion engine comprising:

• a piston sensor coupled to a piston located in said engine, said piston sensor detecting a piston position and generating a piston position signal during a combustion event;
• a cylinder pressure sensor coupled to a cylinder located in said engine, said cylinder pressure sensor detecting a cylinder pressure and generating a cylinder pressure signal during said combustion event;
• and
• a controller coupled to said piston sensor and said cylinder pressure sensor, said controller receiving said piston position signal and said cylinder pressure signal, said controller having a trained classifier predicting an undesirable cylinder pressure during a future combustion event based upon a plurality of past piston position signals correlated with a plurality of past cylinder pressure signals, said controller modifying said future combustion event in response to said undesirable cylinder pressure, wherein said controller predicts an undesirable cylinder pressure during a future combustion event based upon an angle formed by a trajectory of cylinder pressure during two combustion events plotted versus piston position during said two combustion events in time.