Mimo Control for Automotive Coldstart

The problem of controlling combustion engine emissions during the coldstart period is addressed by designing a MIMO sliding mode controller. The task of the controller is to track a given set of desired profiles of engine-out hydrocarbon emissions and catalyst temperature using spark timing and fuel injection rate as the inputs. This is an important step in solving the coldstart problem. The throttle is not used as a control input. Different profiles of desired engine-out hydrocarbons and catalyst temperatures are used to analyze the coldstart problem. Simulation results indicate that the controller tracks the desired profiles as long as the inputs are not saturated. The controller presented here could be used as a tool to investigate the optimal input profiles. Experiments are being carried out to validate the simulations. Submitted to Fifth IFAC Symposium on Advances in Automotive Control