Advanced nonlinear engine speed control systems

Several subsidiary control problems have turned out to be important for improving driveability and fuel consumption in modern spark ignition (SI) engine cars. Among these are idle speed control and cruise control. In this paper the idle speed and cruise control problems will be treated as one: accurately tracking of a desired engine speed in the presence of model uncertainties and severe load disturbances. This is accomplished by using advanced nonlinear control techniques such as input/output-linearization and sliding mode control. These techniques take advantage of a nonlinear model of the engine dynamics, a mean value engine model.