Method for adjustment of a throttle valve and/or injection quantity

• US 6,102,002 A
• Filed: 07/17/1998
• Issued: 08/15/2000
• Est. Priority Date: 07/18/1997
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Daimler-Benz AG (Mercedes-Benz Group AG)
• Original Assignee: Daimler-Benz AG (Mercedes-Benz Group AG)
• Inventors: Kuhn, Klaus Peter, Gimmler, Helmut, Heidinger, Andreas
• Primary Examiner(s): SOLIS, ERICK R
• Application Number:
  US09/118,235
• Time in Patent Office: 760 Days
• Field of Search: 123/396, 123/399, 123/675, 123/492, 123/493, 123/486, 701/110
• US Class Current: 123/399
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 16/0236 for economical driving
• CPC Class Codes: F02D 11/105 characterised by the function converting demand to actuation, e.g. a map indicating relations between an accelerator pedal position and throttle valve opening or target engine torque
• CPC Class Codes: F02D 2200/606 Driving style, e.g. sporty or economic driving
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 10/84 Data processing systems or methods, management, administration

Abstract

A method for adjusting the throttle and/or injection quantity of a motor vehicle combustion engine at the command of a vehicle driver, an adaption being made to the vehicle driver'"'"'s driving style, the curve of angle throttle position and/or injection quantity over accelerator pedal position angle exhibiting a progressive characteristic when there is driving behavior recognized as conservative and a degressive characteristic when there is driving behavior recognized as sporty.

Claims

1. A method for adjusting control of a motor vehicle internal combustion engine as a function of an input of a vehicle driver, the method comprising:

determining a driving style of the driver based on a driving behavior of the driver and adjusting a throttle valve position and/or injection quantity as a function of an accelerator pedal position and the driving style of the driver, a characteristic curve of the throttle position and/or injection quantity in relation to the accelerator pedal position having a progressive characteristic for a conservative driving style and a degressive characteristic for a sporty driving style.

2. The method as recited in claim 1 wherein at least one value exists corresponding to an intermediate driving style, the intermediate driving style being between the sporty driving style and the conservative driving style, the characteristic curve for the at least one intermediate value lying between the characteristic curve having the progressive characteristic for the conservative driving style and the characteristic curve having the degressive characteristic for the sporty driving style.

3. The method as recited in claim 2 wherein the driving style includes a graduation of driving styles between the conservative driving style and the sporty driving style, and a determination of the gradation being carried out continuously and the characteristic curve being assigned continuously as a function of the driving style.

4. The method as recited in claim 1 wherein the characteristic curve also is a function of vehicle speed.

5. The method as recited in claim 1 wherein a signal is formed corresponding to the accelerator pedal position, the signal being subject to low-pass filtering at least under specific conditions.

6. The method as recited in claim 5 wherein one of the specific conditions is that a variable corresponding to the driving style is less than a specific threshold value corresponding to the sporty driving style.

7. The method as recited in claim 5 wherein one of the specific conditions is that an accelerator pedal is not retracted at a vehicle speed greater than a specific threshold.

8. The method as recited in claim 5 wherein parameters of the low-pass filtering are adjusted as a function of the driving style.

9. The method as recited in claim 1 further comprising the step of forming a variable as a function of the accelerator pedal position.

10. The method as recited in claim 9 wherein the variable is also a function of a time derivative of the accelerator pedal position under certain conditions.

11. The method as recited in claim 10 wherein the certain conditions include when another variable corresponding to the driving style exceeds a threshold corresponding to the sporty driving style.

12. The method as recited in claim 10 wherein time derivative of the accelerator pedal position influences the variable more, the sportier the driving behavior.

13. The method as recited in claim 1 wherein when a spontaneous dynamic request from the vehicle driver is recognized, the throttle and/or injection quantity is adjusted as a function of the spontaneous dynamic response request, independently of the characteristic curve currently used.

14. The method as recited in claim 13 wherein when the spontaneous dynamic response is recognized, the characteristic curve is changed to a curve corresponding to an intermediate driving style.