Closed loop adaptive fluid control system and method

A fluid control system for a vehicle transmission, comprising:

• at least one electrically-operated valve;
• a transmission control unit that controls operation of said at least one electrically-operated valve according to a command characteristic signal;
• at least one clutch fluidically coupled to said at least one electrically-operated variable control valve;
• and
• at least one sensor that senses an actual fluid characteristic supplied to said at least one clutch,
• wherein said at least one sensor sends a sensed characteristic signal to the TCU, wherein the sensed characteristic signal corresponds to the actual fluid characteristic of the fluid being input to said at least one clutch, and wherein the control unit compares the sensed characteristic signal with a command characteristic signal and iteratively controls operation of sold at least one control valve based on a difference between the sensed characteristic signal and the command characteristic signal to cause the difference to converge toward zero.

A fluid control method for a system having at least one electrically-operated variable control valve, a control unit that controls operation of said at least one control valve according to a command characteristic signal, at least one hydraulically-actuated device fluidically coupled to said at least one electrically-operated variable control valve, and at least one sensor that senses an actual fluid characteristic supplied to said at least one device, the method comprising:

• sensing an actual fluid characteristic of fluid being sent to said at least one device;
• sending a sensed characteristic signal to the control unit, wherein the sensed characteristic signal corresponds to the actual fluid characteristic of fluid being input to said at least one hydraulically-actuated device;
• comparing the sensed characteristic signal with a command characteristic signal;
• and
• controlling operation of said at least one electrically-operated variable control valve based on a difference between the sensed characteristic signal and the command characteristic signal;
• and
• repeating the sensing, sending, comparing and controlling steps to cause the difference to converge toward zero.