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US 7,849,835 B2Granted
Internal combustion engine control for improved fuel efficiency
AssigneeTula Technology, Inc.
InventorsAdya S. Tripathi, Chester J. Silvestri
Life of this patent
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AssigneeTula Technology, Inc.
InventorsAdya S. Tripathi, Chester J. Silvestri
Estimating the term…
A variety of methods and arrangements for improving the fuel efficiency of internal combustion engines are described. Generally, an engine is controlled to operate in a skip fire variable displacement mode. Feedback control is used to dynamically determine the working cycles to be skipped to provide a desired engine output. In some embodiments a substantially optimized amount of air and fuel is delivered to the working chambers during active working cycles so that the fired working chambers can operate at efficiencies close to their optimal efficiency. In some embodiments, the appropriate firing pattern is determined at least in part using predictive adaptive control. By way of example, sigma delta controllers work well for this purpose. In some implementations, the feedback includes feedback indicative of at least one of actual and requested working cycle firings. In some embodiments, the appropriate firings are determined on a firing opportunity by firing opportunity basis. Additionally, in some embodiments, an indicia of the current rotational speed of the engine is used as a clock input for a controller used to selectively cause the skipped working cycles to be skipped.
An engine controller for controlling the operation of an internal combustion engine having at least one working chamber, each working chamber being generally arranged to operate in a succession of working cycles, wherein the engine controller is arranged to:
An engine controller arranged to control working chamber firing in an engine, the engine controller comprising:
A method of controlling the operation of an internal combustion engine having a plurality of working chambers, each working chamber being generally arranged to operate in a succession of working cycles, the method comprising operating the engine in a variable displacement mode that includes:
A method as recited in clam 13 wherein the predictive adaptive control is provided at least in part by a sigma delta controller.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.