Patent ID: 7918083

Claim:
A method of controlling air intake flow of an internal combustion engine, comprising: controlling the air intake flow of the engine as a function of a reference air/fuel ratio ((A/F) REF ) to be obtained in the combustion chamber; controlling the air intake flow of the engine also as a function of the oxygen concentration (% O2) of the exhaust gas produced by the engine; calculating a reference airflow (A REF ) as a function of the reference air/fuel ratio ((A/F) REF ) and the oxygen concentration (% O2) of the exhaust gas; controlling the air intake flow of the engine as a function of the reference airflow (A REF ); wherein calculating the reference airflow (A REF ) comprises: calculating a feed-forward contribution (A FF ) to the reference airflow (A REF ) as a function of the reference air/fuel ratio ((A/F) REF ); calculating a feed-back contribution (A FB ) to the reference airflow (A REF ) as a function of the oxygen concentration (% O 2 ) of the exhaust gas; calculating the reference airflow (A REF ) as a function of said feed-forward contribution (A FF ) and said feed-back contribution (A FB ); and adding said feed-forward contribution (A FF ) and said feed-back contribution (A FB ).