Idle speed control using linear time varying model predictive control and discrete time approximations

This paper addresses the problem of idle speed control of hydrogen fueled internal combustion engine (H2ICE) using model predictive control (MPC) and sampled data control (SDC) theories. In the first step, results from SDC theory and a version of MPC are collectively employed to obtain a rigorously developed new generic control strategy. Here, a controller, based on a family of approximate discrete time models, is designed within a previously proposed framework to have guaranteed practical asymptotic stability of the exact (unknown) discrete time model. Controller design, accomplished using MPC theory, is facilitated by successive online linearizations of the nonlinear discrete time model at each sampling instant. In the second step, the technique is implemented in the idle speed control of hydrogen internal combustion engine (H2ICE). Various conditions under which this theory can be implemented are presented and their validity for idle speed control problem are discussed. Simulations are presented to illustrate the effectiveness of the control scheme.