INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINE CONTROL FOR IMPROVED FUEL EFFICIENCY
First Claim
1. A method of 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, the method comprising operating the engine in a variable displacement mode that includes firing the at least one working chamber in a firing pattern dynamically determined during operation of the engine that skips the firing of selected skipped working cycles and fires selected active working cycles, wherein the firing pattern is determined at least in part using predictive adaptive feedback control to provide a desired engine output.
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Accused Products
Abstract
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. Predictive Adaptive control is used to dynamically determine the working cycles to be skipped to provide a desired engine output.
141 Citations
18 Claims
- 1. A method of 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, the method comprising operating the engine in a variable displacement mode that includes firing the at least one working chamber in a firing pattern dynamically determined during operation of the engine that skips the firing of selected skipped working cycles and fires selected active working cycles, wherein the firing pattern is determined at least in part using predictive adaptive feedback control to provide a desired engine output.
- 8. 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 dynamically determine a firing pattern that fires selected active working cycles and that causes selected passive working cycles not to be fired based at least in part on predictive adaptive control.
Specification