Method and apparatus for controlling the fuel injection for internal combustion engines

Abstract: Disclosed is a fuel injection control apparatus and method for internal combustion engines comprising a con­ troller, which includes a microprocessor for executing a predetermined processing in response to fundamental para­ meters representing the operational condition of the en­ gine, produces a basic fuel injection pulse on the basis of a suction air quantity and a rotational speed of the engine and corrects the basic fuel injection pulse in accordance with the degree of the acceleration or decele­ ration required thereby to provide a fuel injection pulse applied to a fuel injector. The microprocessor is provi­ ded with membership functions (f₁ - f₄), each function varying with respect to the acceleration or deceleration, and determines by using the membership functions a cor­ rection coefficient (k₁, k₂) for correcting the basic fuel injection pulse on the basis of the required degree of acceleration or deceleration, said membership functions (f₁ - f₄) defining a driver's action in operating the engine.

Description: The invention relates to a fuel injection control method and apparatus for internal combustion engines according to the preamble portions of the independent claims. When an automobile is accelerated or decelerated, the degree of acceleration or deceleration is determined depending on an amount of manipulation of an accelerator pedal by a driver. If the driver wants to drive the automobile faster, he will further increase the depression amount of the accelerator pedal, and if he wants to slow down, he will decrease the depression amount. However, the amount of manipulation of an accelerator pedal is caused by the indefinite or fuzzy will of a driver. He usually has his will not so definitely that he wants to drive by 5 km/h or 20 km/h faster than the present speed, but so indefinitely that he wants to drive "somewhat" or "much" faster. On the other hand, when an automobile is accelerated, an engine thereof is supplied with air-fuel mixture, which is enriched by a predetermined quantity of fuel. This is known as a so-called acceleration enrichment. Further, in an engine which is subject to such an acceleration enrichment, it is also known that fuel is cut off, when an automobile is decelerated. The fuel supply control as mentioned above is described, for example, in the first column of US-A-4,589,389 issued to Kosuge et al in 1986 and assigned to the same assignee. By the way, in the conventional fuel supply control, the aforesaid acceleration enrichment has been always automatically carried out by increasing a certain amount of fuel, when an opening of a throttle valve exceeds a predetermined value. The amount of fuel to be increased is determined, definitely depending on the load of the engine (cf., for example, Japanese Patent laid-open publication JP-A-58/15725 (1983)). Similarly, the cut-off fuel has been done automatically when the deceleration is required. Therefore, a conventional control apparatus has not always been suited for reflecting the driver's fuzzy or indefinite will as mentioned above on the fuel supply control. The present invention is intended to cope with the fuzziness in the driver's will by applying a so-called fuzzy reasoning or fuzzy technique to a fuel injection control system for an internal combustion engine. Incidentally, the application of the fuzzy technique to a control device for automobiles has been known, for example, by the article "Application of A Self-Tuning Fuzzy Logic System to Automatic Speed Control Device" by Takahashi et al, Proc. of 26th SICE Annual Conference II (1987), pages 1241 to 1244. Briefly, this article discloses an automatic speed control device, in which the fuzzy technique is employed for the purpose of evaluating the difference between a target speed set and an actual speed detected and, on the thus evaluated speed difference, an opening of a throttle valve is controlled such that the actual speed follows the target speed set. In this article, however, there is no disclosure of the application of the fuzzy technique to the fuel injection control system. The EP-A-256 786 also shows the application of fuzzy logic for the cruise control of vehicles. For determining signals for the pulse motor control device which actuates the throttle valve, detected vehicle operating conditions are identified and used for retrieving control rules with membership functions and fuzzy labels. How to realize the control of the fuel injection during acceleration and/or deceleration of a vehicle for internal combustion engines with fuzzy logic, however, is not shown in this document. The object of the invention is to provide a fuel injection control method and apparatus for internal combustion engines, capable of adequately reflecting the driver's fuzzy or indefinite will on the determination of an amount of fuel to be supplied to the engine. The object is solved by the features of the independent claims. The dependent claims show advantageous developments and further embodiments of the invention. According to the invention, a microprocessor which is used as an engine controller stores in advance membership functions, each function varying with respect to acceleration or deceleration, and determines by using the membership functions a correction coefficient for correcting the basic fuel injection pulse on the basis of the degree of acceleration or deceleration required by the respective driver's action. The degree of acceleration/deceleration (acc/dec) required by the driver's action is advantageously detected by the change rate of the throttle valve position. Advantageously, the membership functions vary linearly with respect to the acceleration or deceleration. In a further advantageous development, the membership functions have a non-sensitive zone at least in the region where the acceleration or deceleration is small. According to a further advantageous development, there are provided various kinds of the membership functions and a set of the membership functions is selected in accordance with the temperature of the engine. In the following embodiments and examples of the invention will be discossed referring to the figures. Fig. 1 is a drawing schematically showing an overall construction of an engine control system including a fuel injection control apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention Fig. 2 schematically shows a construction of a controller used in the embodiment of Fig. 1 Figs. 3a and 3b are drawings for illustrating examples of membership functions used in the control apparatus according to the embodiment of Fig. 1 Figs. 4a to 4d and Figs. 5a and 5b are drawings for explaining the principle of determining a correction coefficient for a supply amount of fuel, using the membership functions, in the case where an acceleration is required Figs. 6a to 6d, similarly to Figs. 4a to 4d, are drawings for explaining the principle of determining a correction coefficient for a supply amount of fuel, when a deceleration is required Figs. 7a and 7b are flow charts for explaining the processing operation executed in the controller of Fig. 2. In Fig. 1 there is schematically shown an overall construction of an internal combustion engine, to which a fuel injection control apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention is applied. In the figure, air is introduced through an air cleaner 1 to a suction pipe 3. In the suction pipe 3, there is provided a throttle valve 5, which is manipulated by a driver by an accelerator pedal 7. Although not shown in the figure, an opening sensor is equipped to the throttle valve 5, which produces a valve opening signal. There is further provided an air-flow sensor 9 in the suction pipe 3, which detects the quantity Q a of air sucked into the engine to produce an air-flow signal. An Injector 13 is installed in the suction pipe 3 near an inlet valve 11. The injector 13 is coupled to a fuel tank 15 through a fuel pump 17 and a fuel pipe 19 and supplied with pressure-regulated fuel. An injection pulse signal, which will be described in detail later, is applied to the injector 13. The injector 13 opens its valve for time of a pulse width of the injection pulse signal applied and injects an amount of fuel in response thereto, whereby fuel mixture of a predetermined air/fuel (A/F) ratio is formed. When the inlet valve 11 is opened, the mixture is sucked into the combustion chamber 21 of the engine 23. The mixture is compressed and ignited to be burnt. The ignition is performed by an ignition spark plug (not shown), to which a high voltage is applied by an ignition unit 27 through a distributor 25, a shaft of which rotates associated with the rotation of a crank shaft (not shown) of the engine 23. There are provided two sensors within the distributor 25, that is, one of the sensors, called a rotation sensor, detects a rotational angle of the crank shaft of the engine 23 to produce a rotation signal for every predetermined rotational angle thereof and the other sensor, called a position sensor, detects a predetermined position of the crank shaft to produce a position signal. After the fuel mixture is burnt in the combustion chamber 21, exhaust gas is discharged to exhaust pipe 31, when an outlet valve 29 is opened. The exhaust pipe 31 is equipped with an oxygen sensor 33, which detects an air/fuel ratio of the supplied mixture from the concentration of residual oxygen remaining in the exhaust gas and produces an A/F-ratio signal. Accordingly, the oxygen sensor 33 functions as an A/F-ratio sensor and will be so called in the following description. To a side wall of a cylinder block of the engine 23 there is equipped a water temperature sensor 35, which detects the temperature of the cooling water within a water jacket 37 to produce a water temperature signal as a signal indicative of an operating temperature of the engine 23. The control apparatus of the embodiment is provided with a controller 39 including a microprocessor, to which signals produced by the various sensors as mentioned above are applied. Signals from an ignition switch 41 and a starter switch 43 are also given to the controller 39. The controller 39 executes a predetermined processing in accordance with various programs stored therein on the basis of the signals applied, whereby the injection pulse signal and the ignition timing signal are produced to the injector 13 and the ignition unit 27, respectively. Referring next to Fig. 2, the construction of the controller 39 will be described further in detail. In the figure, the same parts as in Fig. 1 are indicated by the same reference numerals. Further, as already described, a valve opening sensor 45 is provided with the throttle valve 5, and a rotation sensor 47 and a position sensor 49 are provided in the distributor 25. The controller 39 is composed of a microprocessor and appropriate peripheral equipment. The microprocessor, as usual, comprises central processing unit (CPU) 51 for executing various predetermined processing, read-only memory (ROM) 53 for storing programs for the predetermined processing and various variables necessary for executing the programs and random access memory (RAM) 55 for temporarily storing various data. The microprocessor has another random access memory 57 called a backup RAM, which is backed up by a battery 59 and stores data which is to be maintained even after the stop of operation of the engine 23. These components of the microprocessor are coupled with each other through bus line 61. As the peripheral equipment, the microprocessor as mentioned above is provided with the following input/output equipment. First of all, there is coupled analog to digital converter (A/D) 63 to the bus line 61, which receives analog signals from the A/F-ratio sensor 33, the valve opening sensor 45, the water temperature sensor 35 and the air-flow sensor 9 and converts them into digital signals. The respective signals converted in the digital form are taken into necessary components of the microprocessor through the bus line 61. There is further provided a counter 65, which counts pulses supplied by the rotation sensor 47 for every predetermined period to produce a rotation signal proportional to the rotational speed of the engine 23. Also the rotation signal is taken into necessary components of the microprocessor through the bus line 61. Furthermore, there is coupled a latch 67 to the bus line 61, in which signals from the position sensor 49, the ignition switch 41 and the starter switch 43 are temporarily kept, until they are taken into the microprocessor. In addition to the input peripheral equipment as mentioned above, there is further coupled an output buffer register 69 to the bus line 61. The buffer 69 temporarily stores the result of the processing in the microprocessor and outputs it to an actuator 71 at an appropriate timing. The output signal from the buffer 69 is converted in the analog form to be supplied to the actuator 71, whereby the injector 13 is driven in response to the processing result of the microprocessor. Further, to brevity, there is omitted the ignition unit 27 in Fig. 2, because the present invention is not in relation to the ignition control system. Moreover, the operation of the input/output equipment as mentioned above is controlled by control signals, which are generated by the CPU 51 executing the predetermined processing and given to the respective equipment through control lines. In the figure, however, such control lines are omitted, too. In the following, description will be given of a principle underlying an injection pulse generating method according to the present invention. In the following description, the amount of fuel to be injected by the injector 13 will be indicated in terms of time (fuel injection time) of a pulse width of an injection pulse signal applied to the injector 13. The fuel injection time T i according to the present invention is determined in accordance with the following formula: wherein Q a : the quantity of the sucked air; N : the rotational speed of the engine (rpm); and k₁, k₂: constants. As is well known, a basic fuel injection time T i ′ is determined in proportion to the ratio Q a /N of the suction air quantity Q a to the rotational speed N. The constant k₁ is a proportional constant therefor. Usually, the thus obtained basic fuel injection time T i ′ is corrected in response to an A/F ratio detected, for example. Although the formula (1) above does not include a factor for such correction in order to simplify the description, it will be easily understood that such factor can be incorporated in the formula (1). Further, as is already known, the basic fuel injection time T i ′ as mentioned above can be determined by using other fundamental parameters indicative of the operational condition of the engine 23, such as the opening of the throttle valve 5, the negative pressure within the suction pipe 3 etc. as well as the rotational speed N of the engine 23. It is to be noted that the present invention is not subject to any limitation by the way of determining the basic fuel injection time T i ′. The constant k₂ is a coefficient, which is provided in accordance with the present invention, for the purpose of correcting the basic fuel injection time T i ' as obtained above. The correction coefficient k₂ is zero during the normal operating condition and assumes appropriate values determined by the present invention when the acceleration or deceleration of the engine 23 is required. Usually, the engine 23 is supplied with the amount of fuel determined according to the formula (1) twice for every one rotation thereof at predetermined timing. If, however, especially rapid acceleration is required, the engine 23 can be supplied with extra fuel by the interruption injection which is not synchronized with the predetermined timing, similarly to the conventional fuel injection control. The determination of the correction coefficient k₂ is performed by using the fuzzy reasoning. To this end, the following linguistic control rules are provided; (1) If the acceleration required is small, then k₂ is decreased to a small extent; (2) If the acceleration required is large, then k₂ is decreased to a large extent; (3) If the deceleration required is small, then k₂ is increased to a small extent; and (4) If the deceleration required is large, then k₂ is increased to a large extent. Indexes including the fuzziness, such as "small" or "large " in the "if" clauses of the linguistic control rules above, are defined by membership functions in the fuzzy technique. Figs. 3a and 3b show examples of such membership functions. In both figures, an abscissa indicates the degree of acceleration or deceleration required in terms Δϑ t (= dϑ th/dt ), which is the changing rate per unit time of the opening degree ϑ t of the throttle valve 5. A center of the abscissa represents a point of Δϑ t = 0. Since Δϑ t is in proportion to the acceleration or deceleration, the right-hand side of the abscissa with respect to 0, i.e., the positive side thereof, represents the acceleration region, and on the contrary, the left-hand side of the abscissa with respect to 0, i.e., the negative side thereof, represents the deceleration region. An ordinate in the figures is a non-dimensional axis. Further, although the abscissa in Figs. 3a and 3b is indicated in terms of the changing rate Δϑ t of the opening of the throttle valve, it is of course that there can be used other operational parameters indicating an acceleration or deceleration. In the examples of Figs. 3a and 3b, there are provided four membership functions f₁, f₂, f₃, f₄ and f₁', f₂', f₃', f₄', respectively. As shown in the figures, every membership function changes between 0 and 1 with respect to Δϑ t . The membership functions f₁, f₂, f₃, f₄ of Fig. 3a are all linear and therefore suited for universal use. The membership functions f₁', f₂', f₃', f₄' of Fig. 3b are composed of two continuing arcs of a quarter of a circle, respectively. As a result, there exists a non-sensitive zone in the region of the very small Δϑ t and in the region where the absolute value of Δϑ t is large. Although the kind of the membership function can be selected in accordance with the necessity of control, the determination of the coefficient k₂ will be explained here, using the membership functions as shown in Fig. 3a. Let us assume that, as shown in Fig. 4a, the acceleration corresponding to a point P is required and that it is detected from the changing rate Δϑ t of the opening of the throttle valve 5. At first, there are obtained cross points a and b, at which line r₁ of Δϑ t = P intersects the membership functions f₂ and f₄, respectively. Then, two lines r₂ and r₃ are drawn, which are parallel to the abscissa and pass through the points a and b, respectively. As a result, a first figure as indicated by a hatched portion in Fig. 4b is formed by the membership function f₁ and the line r₂, and then an area A₁ thereof is obtained by the calculation. Further, a second figure as indicated by a hatched portion in Fig. 4c is formed by the membership functions f₃ and f₄ and the line r₃, and an area A₂ thereof is calculated. If the two figures thus obtained are overlapped, a third figure as surrounded by a thick line and the coordinate axes in Fig. 4d can be formed. Further, if the areas A₁ and A₂ are added to each other and an area A₃ of an overlapped portion in the third figure is subtracted from the summation A₁ + A₂, an area A of the third figure can be obtained. Next, the correction coefficient k₂ is determined on the basis of the thus obtained third figure. Referring to Figs. 5a and 5b, the way of determining it will be explained below. It is to be noted that the abscissa in Fig. 5a is represented as the correction coefficient k₂, which is converted from the changing rate Δϑ t of the opening of the throttle valve 5 simply in the proportional relationship. At first, a centroid M of the third figure is obtained as shown in Fig. 5. If coordinates of the obtained centroid M is expressed by (x m , y m ), x m on the abscissa affords the correction coefficient k₂. In the case as shown in Fig. 5a, a negative value is obtained as the correction coefficient k₂. If this value is applied to the formula (1), the basic fuel injection time T i ′ is corrected so as to increase accordingly. The aforesaid x m of the centroid M is obtained as follows. As shown in Fig. 5b, the base (abscissa) of the third figure is divided into plural segments at equal intervals. Values y₁, y₂, y₃, y₄,....., y i of the ordinate for every segment are added one after another from the right end of the figure. If the intervals of the segments are selected to sufficiently small, the summation of this addition becomes substantially equal to an area S Ri of a portion of the figure, which is on the right-hand side with respect to y i . Similarly, values y₁′, y₂′, y₃′, y₄′,....., y j ′ of the ordinate for every segment are added, whereby an area S Lj of a portion of the figure, which is on the left-hand side with respect to y j ′, can be obtained. These additions of y₁, y₂, y₃, y₄,....., y i and y₁′, y₂′, y₃′, y₄′,....., y j ′ are performed, always comparing the respective summations with each other, whereby a segment, at which both areas S Ri and S Lj become equal to each other, is found. A value of the abscissa of the thus obtained segment becomes the value x m of the abscissa of the centroid M, which affords the correction coefficient k₂. The foregoing has been concerned the case where it was detected that the acceleration is required. The correction coefficient k₂ when it is detected that the deceleration is required can be determined in the analogous manner. This will be explained briefly, referring to Figs. 6a to 6d. Assuming that, as shown in Fig. 6a, it is detected from the changing rate Δϑ t that the deceleration corresponding to point P′ is required, there are at first obtained cross points a′ and b′, at which line r₁′ of Δϑ t = P' intersects the membership functions f₁ and f₃, respectively. Then, two lines r₂′ and r₃′ are drawn, which are parallel to the abscissa and pass through the points a′ and b′, respectively. Then, there is calculated an area A₁′ of a first figure, which, as shown in Fig. 6b, is formed by the membership function f₂ and the line r₂′. There is further calculated an area A₂′ of a second figure, which, as shown in Fig. 6c, is formed by the membership functions f₃, f₄ and the line r₃′. By overlapping the two figures thus obtained as shown in Fig. 6d, a third figure as surrounded by a thick line and the coordinate axes in the figure is formed. After that, in the same manner as the foregoing case, the centroid M of the thus obtained third figure is obtained and the correction coefficient k₂ can be determined on the basis of a value of the abscissa of the centroid M. Referring next to flow charts of Figs. 7a and 7b, the processing operation of the microprocessor of the controller 39 will be explained below. In the same manner as a conventional fuel injection control, this processing operation is executed for every 2 to 10 msec. Thereafter, at first, the suction air quantity Q a , the rotational speed N, the valve opening ϑ t and the water temperature T W are taken into the microprocessor from the respective sensors at step 701, and they are temporarily stored in appropriate areas of the RAM 55. At step 702, the basic fuel injection time T i ′ is calculated on the basis of the suction air quantity Q a and the rotational speed N. As already described, the consideration of the correction based on the A/F ratio is omitted here. Then, at step 703, the changing rate Δϑ t of the valve opening ϑ t is calculated. This is obtained on the basis of the difference between the value of ϑ t stored in the execution cycle of last time and that read this time. Then, it is judged at step 704 whether or not Δϑ t is positive. If Δϑ t is discriminated to be positive, this means that the acceleration is required. This is the case that has been explained with reference to Figs. 4a to 4d. In this case, the processing operation goes to step 705. When Δϑ t is discriminated to be not positive, the processing operation goes to step 721 of Fig. 7b, since the deceleration is required. The processing operation of step 721 and the following will be described later. At step 705, a set of membership functions is selected in accordance with the water temperature T W from among various membership functions prepared in advance. In the following explanation, it is assumed that the membership functions f₁ to f₄ as shown in Fig. 3a are selected. At step 706, a value of the function f₂ in response to Δϑ t obtained at step 703 is calculated. This value corresponds to a value of the ordinate of the cross point a as shown in Fig. 4a. Next, the area A₁ of the first figure as shown in Fig. 4b is calculated at step 708. At step 709, a value of the function f₄ in response to Δϑ t obtained at step 703 is calculated. This value corresponds to a value of the cross point b as shown in Fig. 4a. Then, the area A₂ of the second figure as shown in Fig. 4c is calculated at step 710. After that, the area A₁ is added to the area A₂ to obtain the summation A₀ at step 711. At step 712, the area A₃ of the overlapped portion of the third figure as shown in Fig. 4d is calculated. Then, at step 713, the area A₃ of the overlapped portion is subtracted from the summation A₀ to thereby obtain the area A of the third figure. At step 714, the centroid of the third figure is obtained, and the correction coefficient k₂ is determined on the basis of the centroid obtained. Finally, the basic fuel injection time T i ′ obtained at step 702 is corrected by using the correction coefficient k₂ as determined above, and the processing operation ends. Next, description will be made of the case where it is discriminated at step 704 that Δϑ t is not positive, referring to Fig. 7b. This is the case that has been explained with reference to Figs. 6a to 6d. In this case, the processing operation branches to step 721 of Fig. 7b from step 704 of Fig. 7a. At first, at step 721, a set of membership functions is selected in accordance with the water temperature T W . Then, at step 706, a value of the function f₁ in response to Δϑ t obtained at step 703 is calculated. This value corresponds to a value of the ordinate of the cross point a′ as shown in Fig. 6a. Then, the area A₁′ of the first figure as shown in Fig. 6b is calculated at step 723. At step 724, a value of the function f₃ in response to Δϑ t obtained at step 703 is calculated. This value corresponds to a value of the ordinate of the cross point b′ as shown in Fig. 6a. Then, the area A₂′ of the second figure as shown in Fig. 6c is calculated at step 725. After that, the area A₁′ is added to the area A₂′ to obtain the summation A₀′ at step 726. At step 727, the area A₃′ of the overlapped portion of the third figure is calculated. Then, at step 728, the area A₃′ of the overlapped portion is subtracted from the summation A₀′ to thereby obtain the area A′ of the third figure. At step 729, the centroid of the third figure is obtained, and the correction coefficient k₂ is determined on the basis of the centroid obtained. Thereafter, the processing operation goes to step 715 of Fig. 7a, at which the basic fuel injection time T i ′ obtained at step 702 is corrected by using the correction coefficient k₂ as determined above, and the processing operation ends. It is to be noted that as further criteria for selecting a specific set from the stored membership functions a suction air temperature, an atmospheric pressure, etc. may be used. In general, every factor which gives an influence on determination of the amount of fuel to be injected can be used as the criterium for selecting the respective set of membership functions. It is further to be noted, that the present invention is applicable to fuel supply means with or without direct coupling of an accelerator pedal with the throttle valve.

Claims: Method of controlling the fuel injection for internal combustion engines, comprising the following steps: (A) determining the desired acceleration/deceleration (acc/dec) of the vehicle requested by the driver (701, 703), (B) determining a basic fuel injection pulse width (Ti') on the basis of detected engine parameters (702) and (C) determining a fuel injection pulse width (Ti) by correcting the basic fuel injection pulse width (Ti') with a correction coefficient (k₂) on the basis of the desired acceleration/deceleration (714, 715), characterized by (D) selecting predetermined sets of membership functions (f₁-f₄) on the basis of detected engine parameters, the membership functions (f₁-f₄) are used in a fuzzy reasoning (705) and vary with respect to the desired acceleration/deceleration, (E) determining functional values (a, b) of the membership functions (f₁-f₄) on the basis of the desired acceleration/deceleration of the vehicle (706, 709), (F) determining a closed area (A) defined by the membership functions (f₁-f₄) and the functional values (a, b) (708, 710-713), the closed area (A) is defined by a) parallels to the ordinate running through a maximum desired deceleration and a maximum desired acceleration value, b) parallels to the abscissa running through the determined functional values (a, b) and c) the selected membership functions (f₁-f₄), and (G) determining the correction coefficient (k₂) on the basis of the centroid (M) of the closed area (A) (714). Method according to claim 1, characterized in that the desired acc/dec of the vehicle is determined by detecting the throttle valve opening (ϑ th ) (701) and determining the changing rate (dϑ th/dt ) thereof (703). Method according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the predetermined set of membership functions (f₁-f₄) are selected on the basis of the cooling water temperature (T w ) of the engine (705). Method according to claims 1 - 3, characterized in that the detected engine parameters include the intake air amount (Q a ), the engine rotational speed (N), the throttle valve opening (ϑ th ) and the cooling water temperature (T w ) (701). Method according to claims 1 - 4, characterized in that the basic fuel injection pulse width (T i ') is determined on the basis of the intake air amount (Q a ) and the engine rotational speed (N) (702). Method according to claims 1 - 5, characterized in that the injection pulse width (T i ) is determined by T i = T i ' x (1 - k₂) (715). Method according to claims 1 - 6, characterized in that the predetermined set of membership functions (f₁-f₄) is selected on the basis of values influencing the determination of the fuel amount to be injected including the suction air temperature and the atmospheric pressure. Apparatus for controlling the fuel injection for internal combustion engines, including a throttle valve (5) with a sensor for detecting the throttle valve opening (ϑ th ), an air-flow sensor (9) for detecting the intake air amount (Q a ), a rotation sensor for detecting the engine rotational speed (N), a cooling water temperature sensor (35) for detecting the cooling water temperature (T w ), a fuel injector (13) and a control unit (39) which (A) determines the desired acceleration/deceleration (acc/dec) of the vehicle requested by the driver (701, 703), (B) determines a basic fuel injection pulse width (Ti'), on the basis of detected engine parameters (702), and (C) determines a fuel injection pulse width (Ti) by correcting the basic fuel injection pulse width (Ti') with a correction coefficient (k₂) on the basis of the desired acceleration/deceleration (714, 715), characterized in that the control unit (39) (D) selects predetermined sets of membership functions (f₁-f₄) on the basis of detected engine parameters, the membership functions (f₁-f₄) are used in a fuzzy reasoning (705) and vary with respect to the desired acceleration/deceleration, (E) determines functional values (a, b) of the membership functions (f₁-f₄) on the basis of the desired acceleration/deceleration of the vehicle (706, 709), (F) determines a closed area (A) defined by the membership functions (f₁-f₄) and the functional values (a, b) (708, 710-713), the closed area (A) is defined by a) parallels to the ordinate running through a maximum desired deceleration and a maximum desired acceleration value b) parallels to the abscissa running through the determined functional values (a, b) and c) the selected membership functions (f₁-f₄), and (G) determines the correction coefficient (k₂) on the basis of the centroid (M) of the closed area (A) (714). Apparatus according to claim 8, characterized in that the control unit (39) determines the desired acc/dec of the vehicle by detecting the throttle valve opening (ϑ th ) (701) and determining the changing rate (dϑ th/dt ) thereof (703). Apparatus according to claim 8 or 9, characterized in that the control unit (39) selects the predetermined membership functions (f₁-f₄) on the basis of the cooling water temperature (T w ) of the engine (705). Apparatus according to claims 8 - 10, characterized in that the control unit (39) detects engine parameters including the intake air amount (Q a ) the engine rotatinal speed (N), the throttle valve opening (ϑ th ) and the cooling water temperature (T w ) (701). Apparatus according to claims 8 - 11, characterized in that the control unit (39) determines the basic fuel injection pulse width (T i ') on the basis of the intake air amount (Q a ) and the engine rotational speed (N) (702). Apparatus according to claims 8 - 12, characterized in that the control unit (39) determines the injection pulse width (T i ) by T i = T i ' x (1 - k₂) (715). Apparatus according to claims 8 - 13, characterized in that the control unit (39) selects the predetermined membership functions (f₁-f₄) on the basis of values influencing the determination of the fuel amount to be injected, including the suction air temperature and the atmospheric pressure.

Inventors: ITAKURA TOMIYA, KAMIFUJI HIROSHI, ITAKURA, TOMIYA, KAMIFUJI, HIROSHI
Applicants: HITACHI AUTOMOTIVE ENG, HITACHI LTD, HITACHI AUTOMOTIVE ENGINEERING CO., LTD., HITACHI, LTD.
Application year: 1989
Main classification: F02D41
IPC codes: F02D41