Patent ID: 7184877

Claim:
A multi-cylinder diesel engine that at times operates by an ADC process that causes diesel fuel to be injected into a cylinder in advance of engine TDC and mix with charge air to form an air-fuel mixture that is compressed to auto-ignition as the cycle approaches TDC, the engine comprising: a fuel management system for controlling fuel in an air-fuel mixture created in a cylinder during an engine cycle; an air management system for controlling charge air in each air-fuel mixture during an engine cycle; a processor-based engine control system controlling both the fuel management system and the air management system via a virtual controller that A) processes a particular set of values for certain input data useful in predicting the time of auto-ignition and resulting torque during an engine cycle according to a predictor algorithm model to develop a data value for predicted time of auto-ignition and a data value for resulting engine torque based on the particular set of values for the certain input data, and to also develop a data value for control of the fuel management system and a data value for control of the air management system that will produce the predicted time of auto-ignition and resulting torque based on the particular set of values for the certain input data, and that B) processes the data values developed by the predictor algorithm and data values for at least some of the input data according to a control algorithm that compensates the respective data values for control of the respective management systems for any disturbance that is introduced into any of the data values for at least some of the input data being processed by the control algorithm and consequently causes the respective management systems to be controlled by respective compensated data values that produce the predicted time of auto-ignition and resulting torque in the presence of any such disturbance.