Method and apparatus for adaptively controlling a device to a position

Abstract

A control system and method for controlling position of a device by replacing the combination of a feedforward term, a calibrated step, and an integration term in a control scheme with an adaptive feedforward term. An embodiment is provided including a flow control valve on an internal combustion engine. The invention includes characterizing the flow control valve, and determining an error term, based upon monitored position and commanded input to the flow control valve. The adaptive feedforward term is determined based upon the monitored position, the characterization of the flow control valve, and the error term. The flow control valve is controlled to a position, based upon the adaptive feedforward term and the error term. When an absolute value of a derivative term, i.e. a time-rate change of the monitored position, is less than a preset value, the control system updates the characterization of the flow control valve.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.