Monitoring the Functional Reliability of an Internal Combustion Engine

• US 20080140279A1
• Filed: 12/28/2005
• Published: 06/12/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 01/27/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Vitesco Technologies GmbH (Continental AG)
• Original Assignee: Continental Automotive GmbH (Continental AG)
• Inventors: Geyer, Dirk, Kraus, Markus, Kick, Marco
• Granted Patent: US 8,392,046 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/31
• CPC Class Codes: F02D 41/22 Safety or indicating devices for abnormal conditions in air/fuel ratio feedback systems F02D41/1495, in electric control linkage F02D11/107, in purge control systems F02M25/0809
• CPC Class Codes: F02D 41/266 the computer being backed-up or assisted by another circuit, e.g. analogue

Abstract

An internal combustion engine is controlled by a plurality of partially reliability-relevant functional units. Every reliability-relevant functional unit comprises at least one functional module and at least one monitoring module. The monitoring module is separate from the functional module associated therewith and monitors the functioning of the functional module. The control device also comprises a higher order monitoring functional group. The monitoring module has an entry point for communication with the higher order monitoring functional group. When an error is detected, the monitoring module signals the error to the higher order monitoring functional group using the entry point.

Claims

1-9. -9. (canceled)

10. A control device for a system, comprising:

a plurality of reliability-relevant functional units, wherein

each reliability-relevant functional unit has

at least one functional module, and

at least one monitoring module associated with the functional module, wherein each functional module is separate from the associated monitoring module, and wherein the monitoring module monitors the functional module, and

the reliability-relevant functional units are computed each on stand-alone hardware components;

a higher-order monitoring functional group; and

a distributed structure for error processing, wherein an error processing is initiated in the monitoring module if an error occurs in the functional module associated to the monitoring module.

11. The control device as claimed in claim 10, wherein the monitoring module has an entry point to communicate with the higher-order monitoring functional group.

12. The control device as claimed in claim 10, wherein a transmission path is between every monitoring module and the higher-order monitoring functional group.

13. The control device as claimed in claim 12, wherein data is transmitted between the stand-alone monitoring module and the higher-order monitoring functional group, wherein the data is selected from the group consisting of an error information, a functional command, a return signal, and a combination thereof.

14. The control device as claimed in claim 12, wherein a plurality of transmission paths form a transmission network.

15. The control device as claimed in claim 12, wherein the transmission path is a transmission link, wherein the transmission link is dynamically set up and cleared down.

16. The control device as claimed in claim 12, wherein the transmission path has a transmitter and a receiver, wherein the transmitter is related to a content of the transmission and the receiver is related to a plausibility check of the transmission path.

17. The control device as claimed in claim 16, wherein the transmitter is a stand-alone monitoring module, and wherein the receiver is the higher-order monitoring functional group.

18. The control device as claimed in claim 10, wherein the higher-order monitoring functional group has a structure for error processing.

19. The control device as claimed in claim 10, wherein at least two reliability-relevant functional modules an the monitoring module assigned to the at least two reliability-relevant functional modules are each computed on a stand-alone hardware component.

20. A control device of an internal combustion engine, comprising:

a plurality of reliability-relevant functional units, wherein

each reliability-relevant functional unit has

a functional module, and

a monitoring module, wherein each monitoring module is separate from the functional module associated with the monitoring module, and wherein the monitoring module monitors a function of the functional module, and

the reliability-relevant functional units are computed on stand-alone hardware components in each case;

a higher-order monitoring functional group; and

a distributed structure for error processing, wherein an error processing is initiated in the monitoring module if an error occurs in the functional module associated to the monitoring module.

21. The control device as claimed in claim 20, wherein a transmission path is between the stand-alone monitoring module and the higher-order monitoring functional group.

22. The control device as claimed in claim 21, wherein data transmitted between the stand-alone monitoring module and the higher-order monitoring functional group is selected from the group consisting of an error information, a functional command, a return signal, and a combination thereof.

23. The control device as claimed in claim 22, wherein the functional module has a single microcontroller.

24. The control device as claimed in claim 23, wherein the monitoring module has a single microcontroller.

25. A method for monitoring a functional reliability of a an internal combustion engine, comprising:

providing a control system;

providing a plurality of reliability-relevant functional units, wherein the reliability-relevant functional unit has a functional module and a monitoring module separated from the functional module;

computing each functional unit on stand-alone hardware components;

providing a higher-order monitoring functional group;

monitoring errors of the functional module based on the monitoring module; and

signaling an error detected by the monitoring module to the higher-order monitoring module.

26. The method as claimed in claim 25, further comprising implementing a structure of the distributed error processing, wherein an error processing is initiated in the monitoring module associated to the functional module, when an error in the functional module occurs.

27. The method as claimed in claim 26, wherein the monitoring module has an entry point for a communication with the higher-order monitoring functional group.

28. The method as claimed in claim 27, further comprising signaling an error detected by the monitoring module to the higher-order monitoring module using the entry point.