Throttle actuator control system for vehicle traction control

doi:10.1016/S0957-4158(99)00010-0

Mechatronics

Volume 9, Issue 5, August 1999, Pages 477-495

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0957-4158(99)00010-0 Get rights and content

Abstract

Accurate and quick positioning of the throttle valve in a gasoline engine is required to implement various systems such as traction control systems (TCS), cruise control systems and drive-by-wire systems. In this research, the throttle actuator system for TCS application was developed. Unlike other systems, this system consists of only one throttle body to obtain small volume and low manufacturing cost, and uses a DC servo motor for quick and accurate responses. In order to drive the DC motor, a PWM signal generator and PWM amplifier were built and interfaced to the motor and controller. This paper also presents the position control logic of the throttle actuator with the TDC (time delay control) scheme with a variable reference model. By varying the reference model based on the size of the step changes in the target throttle angle, the TDC scheme yields good transient response characteristics in that both overshoot prevention and a quick response time are achieved. Actual vehicle tests with this developed system incorporated with the TCS system show that it satisfies all the conditions required for the TCS operation.

Introduction

The throttle body mounted in a gasoline engine is used to control engine power by regulating the amount of air inflow into the engine. In normal driving situations, the throttle valve of a throttle body connected to the accelerator pedal is controlled by a driver through the mechanical linkage. However, recent advances in control and electronics technology have enabled the throttle valve to be operated by electric actuators and control systems. Some typical applications include traction control systems (TCS), cruise control systems and drive-by-wire (DBW) systems. In all of the systems listed above, the throttle valve needs to be operated by electronic control systems rather than by manual operation of the driver.

Although all the above applications require position control of the throttle valve, this research is focused mainly on TCS application. TCS, one of many vehicle active safety systems, improves the vehicle acceleration performance and stability, particularly on low-friction roads. When the vehicle starts off on low-friction roads such as snowy or icy roads, excessive slip between the driving wheels and the road usually occurs and thus makes the vehicle’s forward movement difficult. Since this slip is caused by the excessive opening of the throttle valve by the driver (thus excessive engine power), properly closing off the throttle valve in opposition to the driver’s intention greatly helps the vehicle to regain its acceleration capability. In this situation, it is very important to control the throttle actuator quickly and accurately to satisfy the requirement of the throttle movement determined by the TCS controller. Capability of accurate and quick positioning of the throttle valve is also required for cruise control systems and DBW (drive-by-wire) systems in which the traditional mechanical linkage between the accelerator pedal and throttle valve will be replaced by signal wires in the near future.

This research is divided into two parts. One is to design the mechanism and structure of the throttle actuator system for the TCS and the other is to develop the control logic capable of accurate and quick positioning of the throttle valve.

Some throttle actuator systems use a vacuum actuator to operate the throttle valve [1]. While this has the advantage of using the back pressure which can easily be obtained from the intake manifold, the response is not quick enough to successfully satisfy the TCS controller. Other throttle bodies consist of two throttle valves for the TCS purpose; a main throttle valve linked to the accelerator pedal by a mechanical cable, and a sub-throttle valve driven by separate actuators such as DC or step motors. These systems are simple in structure since an electric throttle actuator system is separated from the main throttle body, but the manufacturing cost and the volume of the system increase due to the twin body structure.

The throttle actuator system developed in this research has only one throttle valve, but provides both functions of the twin-throttle body systems mentioned above (see Fig. 1). That is, it is used as a normal throttle valve linked to the accelerator pedal when the TCS system is not activated, but is driven by the DC servo motor when the throttle actuation differs from the driver’s intention with the TCS function activated. Advantages of this type are small volume and low manufacturing cost (compared with the throttle bodies with two valves) and quick response characteristics (compared with some types which use vacuum actuators instead of electric motors).

With this type of throttle structure, however, precise positioning of the throttle valve for engine management is difficult to achieve for several reasons. One reason is the constantly varying load torque imposed on the throttle valve by the traction spring depending on the throttle valve position. Another reason is the friction of the four-bar linkage and the valve axis, which cannot be reduced by mechanical improvement due to consideration of manufacturing cost. Therefore, this research also aims at developing a simple but accurate position control system for this type of throttle actuator.

To this end, some controllers are tested. Although a PID controller showed good performance, it was difficult to tune the gains for a wide operating range. Therefore, the time delay control (TDC) scheme is adopted for the main control scheme. Since the throttle valve movement contains both large and small changes in the set-point, even well-tuned TDC controllers cannot produce the best performance for the entire operating conditions. To cope with this problem, the variable reference model approach was suggested in this research. This idea is simple yet yields good control performance for all operating conditions. With this suggested control system, various tests including actual vehicle tests on the proving ground have been conducted. The test results show that the developed throttle actuator system incorporated with the time delay controller with variable reference model yields good performance for practical use.

Chapter 2 introduces the structure and functions of the throttle actuator systems developed in this research and PWM servo driver built for this actuator. Chapter 3 explains the time control law and proposes a new idea called the variable reference model to improve transient response characteristics of the position control system. Some simulation and experimental results are presented in Chapter 4.

Section snippets

Structure of throttle actuator

Fig. 1(a) shows the structure of the engine throttle actuator system developed in this research. As mentioned earlier, this system consists of only one throttle body while most throttle bodies for the TCS purpose consist of two throttle valves. During normal operation, the throttle valve rotates according to the driver’s intention through a mechanical cable connected to the accelerator pedal. When the TCS function is activated, the throttle valve rotates by means of the throttle actuator system

Time delay control law with variable reference model

As mentioned earlier, some requirements exist for successful control of the throttle actuator system. Though some advanced control methods may satisfy the above requirements, simple but robust algorithms are desirable for actual vehicle implementation. First, a PID controller was tested. Fig. 5 illustrates two experimental results with the PID controller whose gains are tuned to 7 and 77°, respectively. The well-tuned PID control system for some operating point yields the satisfactory

Simulations and experiments

Fig. 10 shows the block diagram of the position control system of the throttle actuator system with the TDC scheme with the variable reference model. In Fig. 10, the DC motor drive and the throttle actuator system are explained in detail in Fig. 3, Fig. 4, respectively. The TDC controller computes the control signal u(t) from the reference input signal from the TCS controller and the output is measured by the TPS.

Fig. 11, Fig. 12 illustrate the simulation and experimental results showing the

Conclusions

In this research, the structure and mechanism of the throttle system for the TCS application was developed. In addition, the position control system was also developed based on the TDC scheme with variable reference model. Considering the requirements for actual vehicle implementation, we attempted to build simple and cost effective hardware and achieve accuracy and quickness of the position responses. From this study, the following conclusions are obtained:

1.
The throttle actuator system

References (8)

W.B Ribbens
Understanding automotive electronics
(1992)
B.C Kuo et al.
DC motors and control systems
(1978)
C-M Ong
Dynamic simulation of electric machinery: using Matlab and Simulink
(1998)
Song JB, Kim HJ, Byeon KS. Position control system for engine throttle actuator. Proceedings of the 2nd Asian Control...

There are more references available in the full text version of this article.

Cited by (33)

Centralized and distributed coupling traction control of electric vehicles on split ramps
2023, Mechanism and Machine Theory
Citation Excerpt :
However, the centralized drive cannot solve the problems of high drive torque demand and energy waste during anti-skid control. The distributed drive systems can control the torque of each drive wheel individually, which is not only a good solution to the energy waste problem of the centralized drive system on split ramps, but also allows better traction control of EVs compared to the centralized drive system [16], but most of the power of the drive wheels on low adhesion road cannot be fully used, resulting in the limited climbing ability [17]. Therefore, the drive wheels on high adhesion road need to have enough power to ensure the demand for driving torque.
The pass ability on split ramps is an important dynamics performance of electric vehicles (EVs). However, the current traction control system (TCS) requires the vehicle to have a high-intensity driving capability and sometime the braking assistance control is required, which is a waste of cost and energy. To improve the traction control ability and reduce the power demands, a centralized and distributed coupling TCS based on the designed dual-mode coupling drive system is proposed. The coupling traction control mechanism is analyzed, the TCS based on S-line control and optimal slope-seeking algorithm is designed, and the traction control effect is verified by the co-simulation and real vehicle road test. The research results show that adopting coupling traction control can give full play to system power to improve the pass ability, the optimal slip rate control can be realized and the control difficulty also be reduced. It laid a theoretical basis for the pass ability improvement of EVs on split ramps and the new application of dual-mode coupling drive system.
Trends and future perspectives of electronic throttle control system in a spark ignition engine
2017, Annual Reviews in Control
Citation Excerpt :
Therefore every change required by driver is accomplished in a direct approach (Prince, 1998; Wang, Lin, Feng, Wang, & Jin, 2010; Wengert, Rommel, & Krzok, 2007). Whereas, the EMS has only limited means to influence the air flow into the engine and it only controls the idle air control (IAC) bypass valve using a stepper motor (Karagiorgis, Glover, & Collings, 2007; McKay, Nichols, & Schreurs, 2000; Song & Byun, 1999; Stewarta, Zavala, & Fleming, 2005). Hence in the case of mechanical throttle, internal and external system requirements such as fuel efficiency, road or weather conditions, etc. are not considered in the throttle angle opening (Pan, Ozguner, & Dagci, 2008).
Electronic throttle control (ETC) system has turned into an extremely prominent system with a specific end goal to vary the intake airflow rate to provide a better fuel economy, emissions, drivability and also for integration with other systems in spark ignition engines. ETC system consists of mechatronic device called as electronic throttle body (ETB) which is located in the intake manifold of an engine after the air filter and also has a separate control system in the engine management system (EMS). The throttle angle has to be precisely maintained based on the driver and other system requirements to provide an enhanced throttle response and drivability. However, existence of nonlinearities in the system, such as limp-home position, friction, airflow and aging, affects the position accuracy of the throttle valve. A control system strategy is employed in EMS to handle the other system requirements in throttle opening angle estimation and the nonlinearities in position control. This work features developments within the electronic throttle control system and reviews about the various research work carried in this area. This work will not enforce any new results rather than it will discuss the trends followed in past and also proposes some of the future perspectives in the electronic throttle control process.
A review on control system architecture of a SI engine management system
2016, Annual Reviews in Control
Citation Excerpt :
In recent years, many control theories have been successfully applied to engine control systems. For example, PID control, recurrent neural network, trainable fuzzy control, adaptive control, optimal control, H∞ control, hybrid control and nonlinear control have been used to control the different control modules such as engine torque control (Gafvert, Arzen, Bernhardsson, & Pedersen, 2000, Gafvert, Arzen, Pedersen, & Bernhardsson, 2004; Heintz, Mews, Stier, Beaumont, & Noble, 2001; Jurgen et al., 1998; Le Solliec, Berr et al., 2007, Le Solliec et al., 2007; Petrovich, 2000), air–fuel ratio (Al-Himyari, Yasin, & Gitano, 2014; Alain, Vigild, & Hendricks, 2000; Alexander & Kolmanovsky, 2002; Anurak & Sooraksa, 2012; Behrouz et al., 2012; Bin, Shen, Kako, & Ouyang, 2008; Dickinson, 2009; Feng et al., 2006; Ferdinando & Lavorgna, 2006; Franceschi, Muske, Peyton Jones, & Makki, 2007; Franchek Matthew, Mohrfeld, & Osburn, 2006; Grizzle, Cook, & Milam, 1994; Guo, Baiyu, Yunfen, & Hong, 2013; Haiping & Qian, 2010; Hajime et al., 2002; Holzmann, Halfmann, & Isermann, 1997; Ivan, Marotta, Pianese, & Sorrentino, 2006; Kahveci Nazli & Jankovic, 2010; Kwiatkowski, Werner, Blath, Ali, & Schultalbers, 2009; Mayr Christian, Euler-Rolle, Kozek, Hametner, & Jakubek, 2014; Nicolo, Corti, & Moro, 2010; Per, Olsen, Poulsen, Vigild, & Hendricks, 1998; Rajagopalan et al., 2014; Roberto, Villante, & Sughayyer, 2005; Rui, Li, Dong, & Tang, 2009; Sardarmehni, Keighobadi, Menhaj, & Rahmani, 2013; Shuntaro, Kato, Kako, & Ohata, 2009; Sei-Bum, Won, & Hedrick, 1994; Seungbum, Yoon, & Sunwoo, 2003; Stroh David, Franchek, & Kerns, 2001; Tseng & Cheng, 1999; Winge, Andersen, Hendricks, & Struwe, 1999; Yildiray, 2009; Yildiray, Annaswamy, Yanakiev, & Kolmanovsky, 2010; Yildiray, Annaswamy, Yanakiev, & Kolmanovsky, 2008; Zhai & Yu, 2009; Zhai, Yu, Tafreshi, & Al-Hamidi, 2011), throttle control (Al-samarraie & Abbas, 2012; Alt et al., 2010; Andreas & Eriksson, 2009; Aono & Kowatari, 2006; Chen & Ran, 2009; Chen, Lin, & Wei, 2012; Chen, Tsai, & Lin, 2010; Chen, Tsai, & Lin, 2010; Chris & Watson, 2003; Danijel, Deur, Jansz, & Peric, 2006; Deur, Pavkovi, Peri, Jansz, & Hrovat, 2004; Devor & Sun, 1997; Di Bernardo, Montanaro, Santini, di Gaeta, & Giglio, 2009; Eiji, Ishiguro, Yasui, & Akazaki, 2003; Feru et al., 2012; Giulio, Corno, & Savaresi, 2013; Grepl & Lee, 2010; Griffiths, 2002; Jae & Byun, 1999; Lars & Nielsen, 2000; Mercorelli, 2009; Montanaro et al., 2014; Nakano et al., 2006; Shugang, Smith, & Kitchen, 2009; Takeru, Asada, Tsuyuguchi, Yamazaki, & Hotta, 2009; Thomasson & Eriksson, 2011; Thornhill & Sindano, 2000; Toshihiro & Kowatari, 2001; Umit, Hong, & Pan, 2001; Wang et al., 2010; Wang & Huang, 2013; Yang, 2004; Yurkovich & Li, 2005; Xiaofang & Wang, 2009; Yildiz, Annaswamy, Yanakiev, & Kolmanovsky, 2007; Yuan, Wang, & Wu, 2008; Zeng & Wan, 2011; Zhang, Yang, & Zhu, 2014), idle speed (Chamaillard et al., 2004; Danijel, Deur, & Kolmanovsky, 2009; di Gaeta, Montanaro, & Giglio, 2010; Feng-Chi, Chen, & Wu, 2007; Howell & Best, 2000; Jacek, 2010; Jingshun & Kurihara, 2003; Jiangyan, Shen, & Marino, 2010; Josko, Ivanovi, Pavkovi, & Jansz, 2004; Kong, Yuhua, Xiaoguang, & Xigeng, 2006; Luigi, Santini, & Serra, 1999; Manivannan, 2011; Nicolo et al., 2003; Scillieri, 2002; Singh, Vig, & Sharma, 2002; Stefan & Eriksson, 2006; Subramaniam, Dessert, Sharma, & Yasin, 2002; Yildiray, Annaswamy, Yanakiev, & Kolmanovsky, 2011Yildiz et al., 2007), ignition timing (Arno, Layher, & Däschner, 2012; Baitao, Wang, & Prucka, 2013; Bhot & Quayle, 1982; Czarnigowski, Wendeker, Jakliński, Boulet, & Breaban, 2007; Desheng, Yunfeng, & Hong, 2014; Enrico et al., 2014; Eriksson & Nielsen, 1997; Go-Long, Wu, Chen, & Chuang, 2004; Herbert & Ploeger, 2007; Huang & Chen, 2006; Masatake et al., 2001; Raducanu, Arotaritei, & Dimitriu, 2001; Saravana Prabu & Naiju, 2009; Yankun & Liu, 2010; Zhengmao, 2001; Zhang et al., 1999; Zhihu & Run, 2008), etc. in the engine management system (EMS). As there are different types control approaches and complexity are involved in the engine control system, this review paper aims to summarize the some of the basic engine control modules, in a collective approach.
Engine management systems (EMS) has become an essential component of a spark ignition (SI) engine in order to achieve high performance; low fuel consumption and low exhaust emissions. An engine management system (EMS) is a mixed-signal embedded system interacting with the engine through number of sensors and actuators. In addition, it includes an engine control algorithm in the control unit. The control strategies in EMS are intended for air-to-fuel ratio control, ignition control, electronic throttle control, idle speed control, etc. Hence, the control system architecture of an EMS consists of many sub-control modules in its structural design to provide an effective output from the engine. Superior output from the engine is attained by the effective design and implementation of the control system in EMS. The design of an engine control system is a very challenging task because of the complexity of the functions involved. This paper consolidates an overview of the vital developments within the SI engine control system strategies and reviews about some of the basic control modules in the engine management system.
An experimental study on time delay control of actuation system of tilt rotor unmanned aerial vehicle
2012, Mechatronics
Citation Excerpt :
More specifically, the gains of PID need to be tuned in the variation of the payload to obtain satisfactory performance, and PID control, which is designed at the nominal operating point, can be unstable in the presence of wind disturbances. The authors in [26] also addressed these problems of PID control that occurred in the experiment of the throttle actuator control system, whereas the TDC scheme was accurate enough to ensure control performance in the presence of disturbances with one set of gains in the entire operating range. In our study, the robustness of PID and TDC was confirmed through simulation for the actuation system of the SUAV under external disturbances.
This paper presents an actuation control system for the Smart Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (SUAV), a tilt rotor aircraft that is being developed by the Korea Aerospace Research Institute. The actuation system, which consists of flaperon, rotor, and nacelle tilt, should be controlled to track the position command sent from the flight controller. However, substantial variations in the aerodynamic load on the actuation system make it difficult to achieve the desired level of control performance. In this study, the actuation system was controlled using the Time Delay Control (TDC) law. The experimental results show that the following control performance specifications are completely satisfied under load variation from 0 to 455 kgf: bandwidth of 4 Hz, overshoot of 2.5%, and steady state error of 1% for flaperon and rotor actuation system. Especially, the accuracy was within the noise level of the steady state position error over broad ranges of the load. In addition, the command filter was applied to the TDC command to mitigate the effects of the phase delay that occurs when a sinusoidal command is applied. Furthermore, an actual flight test was performed, which clearly showed the effectiveness of the proposed control scheme. This promising control performance shows that TDC is an effective alternative for controlling the actuation system of the SUAV with substantial load variation.
Analysis, modeling, identification and control of pancake DC torque motors: Application to automobile air path actuators
2012, Mechatronics
Citation Excerpt :
The automotive industry is rapidly moving towards the replacement of mechanical systems with electronic or mechatronic actuators, turning cars into drive-by-wire systems [1,2].
This article is focused on the working, modeling and control of pancake DC torque motors, used in automobile engine air path actuators. These motors, with a limited working angle, provide high torque which makes them suitable for use in actuators without any additional gear reduction. The torque is a nonlinear function of the motor angle. This article provides a modeling scheme, suitable for control purposes, which takes into consideration nonlinearities arising from friction and operating temperature. Comparison between simulation and experiments shows the effectiveness of the proposed model. Second order sliding mode control has been applied to the actuators for robust control under the influence of nonlinearities and uncertainties. The effectiveness of the control algorithm has been proven experimentally.
State observation and friction estimation in engine air path actuator using higher order Sliding Mode observers
2011, IFAC Proceedings Volumes (IFAC-PapersOnline)
This paper presents the application of higher order Sliding Mode observers (SMO) for state observation and friction estimation of an engine air path actuator. The actuator model incorporates LuGre Friction Model for dynamic friction modeling. The study has two objectives, to observe the system dynamics and the friction dynamics, and to use the equivalent output injection to estimate the parameters of the LuGre model. Cascaded sliding mode observers have been used to observe system and friction dynamics separately. Friction force has been estimated using the Equivalent output injection of the observer, considering friction as an unknown external input. Through this estimation, identification of the LuGre model parameters becomes simplified. Simulation and experimental results show the effectiveness of the proposed observation and identification scheme.

View all citing articles on Scopus

View full text