Patent Number: 
Section: claims

1. A method for operating an internal combustion engine comprising:at least two cylinders each having a respective combustion chamber;at least one gas inlet valve;an intake duct fluidically coupled with the each of the respective combustion chambers via a respective cylinder inlet channel based at least in part on a switching position of the at least one gas inlet valve;at least one gas outlet valve;an exhaust section fluidically coupled with the each of the respective combustion chambers based at least in part on a switching position of the at least one gas outlet valve;an exhaust-gas recirculation valve; andan exhaust-gas recirculation line configured to recirculate exhaust gas from the exhaust section to the respective inlet channels based at least in part on a switching position of the exhaust-gas recirculation valve,the method comprising:measuring a temperature at each respective inlet duct when the exhaust-gas recirculation valve is in a closed position;determining a measurement offset for each respective inlet based on the measured temperature at each respective inlet duct;determining mixed-air temperatures in at least two of the respective cylinder inlet channels when the exhaust-gas recirculation valve is in an open position;one of adding and subtracting the determined measurement offset from at least one of the determined mixed-air temperatures to normalize the determined mixed-air temperatures in at least two of the respective cylinder inlet channels based on the measurement offset;comparing the at least two normalized determined mixed-air temperatures; anddetecting an uneven distribution of recirculated exhaust gas if a difference between the normalized mixed-air temperatures of the at least two of the respective cylinder inlet channels is greater than a predetermined threshold value. 2. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the threshold value is predefined as a function of at least one of a load, a cooling water temperature and a rotational speed of the internal combustion engine. 3. The method as claimed in claim 1, further comprising:determining at least one corrective value for a predefined operating state of the internal combustion engine; andaligning the determined mixed-air temperatures of the at least two of the respective cylinder inlet channels with one another in the predefined operating state based at least in part on the corrective value. 4. A device for operating an internal combustion engine comprising:at least two cylinders each having a respective combustion chamber;at least one gas inlet valve;an intake duct fluidically coupled with the each of the respective combustion chambers via a respective cylinder inlet channel based at least in part on a switching position of the at least one gas inlet valve;at least one gas outlet valve;an exhaust section fluidically coupled with the each of the respective combustion chambers based at least in part on a switching position of the at least one gas outlet valve;an exhaust-gas recirculation valve; andan exhaust-gas recirculation line configured to recirculate exhaust gas from the exhaust section to the respective inlet channels based at least in part on a switching position of the exhaust-gas recirculation valve,the device configured to:determine a measurement offset for each respective inlet based on a measured temperature at each respective inlet duct when the exhaust-gas recirculation valve is in a closed position;determine mixed-air temperatures in at least two of the respective cylinder inlet channels; when the exhaust-gas recirculation valve is in an open position;one of adding and subtracting the determined measurement offset from at least one of the determined mixed-air temperatures tonormalize the determined mixed-air temperatures in at least two of the respective cylinder inlet channels based on the measurement offset; anddetect an uneven distribution of recirculated exhaust gas if a difference between the normalized mixed-air temperatures of the at least two of the respective cylinder inlet channels is greater than a predetermined threshold value. 5. The device as claimed in claim 4, further configured to:determine at least one corrective value for a predefined operating state of the internal combustion engine; andalign the determined mixed-air temperatures of the at least two of the respective cylinder inlet channels with one another in the predefined operating state based at least in part on the corrective value. 6. The method as claimed in claim 2, further comprising:determining at least one corrective value for a predefined operating state of the internal combustion engine; andaligning the determined mixed-air temperatures of the at least two of the respective cylinder inlet channels with one another in the predefined operating state based at least in part on the corrective value.