Automotive

Introduction
Subject: Automotive Electronics
Course Code: (18UECO632)
Semester: VI(A )
Academic Year: 2021-22
Course Instructor: Dr. Vyas R Murnal
Assistant Professor
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Dept of ECE, SDMCET, Dharwad
Role of Control systems in Automotives

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INSTRUMENTS
• An instrument (or instrumentation system) is a device for measuring
some specific quantity.
• Automotive instruments have traditionally been mechanical, pneumatic,
hydraulic, electrical

• Instrumentation systems are used to measure a variety of physical quantities like:

1. Vehicle speed
2. Total distance travelled
3. Engine angular speed (rpm)
4. Fuel quantity and/or flow rate
5. Oil pressure
6. Engine coolant temperature
7. Alternator charging current
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Issues
In any measurement made with any instrument there are several
important issues like:
1. Standards
2. Precision
3. Calibration
4. Accuracy
5. Errors
6. Reliability

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Displays and Actuators
• Displays, like sensors, are energy conversion devices. They have bandwidth,
dynamic range, and calibration characteristics, and, therefore, have the same
types of errors as do sensors.
• Automotive display devices, typically analog or digital meters, provide a
visual indication of the measurements made by the sensors.
• An actuator is an energy conversion device having an electrical input
signal and an output signal that is mechanical (e.g., force or displacement).
• Automotive actuators include electric motors and solenoid-controlled valves
and switches. Example: In throttle positioners for cruise control.

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• A control system should
1. Perform its function accurately.
2. Respond quickly.
3. Be stable.
4. Respond only to valid inputs (noise immunity).

• Accuracy determines how close the system’s output will come to the desired
output, with a constant-value input command
• Quick response determines how closely the output of the system will track or
follow a changing input command
• Stability describes how a system behaves when a change, particularly a sudden
change, is made by the input signal - output of an unstable control system will
diverge from its intended value based on its input
• A control system having small (ideally zero) response to noise inputs is said to
have good noise immunity
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• The relationship between the controller input and the desired plant
output is called the control law
• Desired value for the plant output is often called the set point
• Output of an electronic control system is an electrical signal that must
be converted to some mechanical (or other) action in order to
regulate the plant.
• Device that converts the electrical signal to the desired mechanical
action is called an actuator
• Electronic controllers can be implemented with either analog or digital
electronics, the trend in automotive control is digital.
• Two major categories of control systems: open-loop (or feed-forward)
and closed-loop (or feedback) systems
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Open-Loop Control
• Components of an open-loop controller include the electronic controller, which
has an output to an actuator, Example: fuel control in certain operating modes
• Command input is sent to the electronic controller, which performs a control
operation on the input to generate an intermediate electrical signal (i)
• This electrical signal is the input to the actuator which generates a control input
(u ) to the plant that, in turn, regulates the plant output to the desired value
• Output of the system is never compared with the command input to see if they
match.
• Drawback: Inability to compensate for changes that might occur in the controller
or the plant or for any disturbances.

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 Closed-Loop Control
• Actual system output is compared to the desired output value in accordance
with the input
• Measurement of the output variable being controlled is obtained via a
sensor and fed back to the controller

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• Measured value of the controlled variable is compared with the desired value
for that variable based on the reference input
• An error signal based on the difference between desired and actual values of
the output signal is created
• Controller generates an actuator signal (u) that tends to reduce the error to
zero. Example: Idle Speed control

• Benefits of Feedback:
• It can affect control system performance by improving system stability and
suppressing the effects of disturbances in the system
• Signal conditioning used in a closed-loop control, which transforms the
sensor output as required to achieve the desired measurement of the plant
output.
• Electronic control systems are classified by the way in which the error signal is
processed to generate the control signal. The major control systems include
proportional, proportional-integral, and proportional-integral-differential
controllers.
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PROPORTIONAL CONTROLLER
• Error signal is the input to the control electronics system, which, inturn,
generates an output called a control signal
• Controller that generates a control signal proportional to the error signal
is called a proportional controller
• Error signal e is obtained by subtracting xo from the desired value x: e= x-xo
• In a proportional control system, the error signal is amplified by an amplifier
to yield an output vc, which is the control signal:
vc=Ge where G is the amplifier gain.
• Actuator causes the plant output y to increase in proportion to vc
• In case the error signal e is negative. The amplified error signal is applied to
the actuator, causing the plant output to decrease.
• xo will decrease/increase until xo = x, at which point e is zero and the output
remains fixed at the desired value.
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Disturbance Response
• Poor response to a disturbance
• Disturbance is caused by factors that are outside of the plant or the
control system
• Instead of remaining at the set point xo following disturbance d, the
system response changes to a steady error e, which is given by

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Concept of Integration

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PROPORTIONAL INTEGRAL CONTROLLER (PI controller)
• PI Controller is one way of avoiding the steady disturbance response
error of a proportional (P) controller, where any steady disturbance leads
to a steady error in the output regulation
• This controller combines a term proportional to the error with the integral
of the error.

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• Error signal for a PI controller is generated the same way as for the P
controller.
• Controller then generates the integral of the error electronically
• Resulting control signal that is applied to the plant includes a part that is
proportional to the error as well as a part that is proportional to the
integral of the error.

where G is the proportional gain and k is the integral gain

• In case of a disturbance to the system that tends to produce a steady error

in a P controller, the integral part (which accumulates errors) continues to
increase (since the integral of a constant is ramp).
• This integral part of the control signal drives the plant in a direction to
reduce the error due to disturbance to zero.
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• The P controller response is shown in the dotted curve, which depicts the
steady error. The PI controller response is shown by the solid curve, for
which the error eventually is reduced to zero.

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Digital PI Controller
• Control signal is generated with a special-purpose digital computer.
• Operates in discrete time by representing the variables at sample times.
• Control electronics samples the error signal at multiples of the sample period.
• Proportional part is proportional to the most recent sample of the error
• Integral part includes a sum of several previous samples. (sum is zero if no
disturbance and large for any disturbance present)
• Control signal at sample time tk, which we denote vk, is given by

• Dynamic properties of a PI controller is also determined by the number (M) of

error samples included in the sum (S).
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PROPORTIONAL INTEGRAL DIFFERENTIAL (PID) CONTROLLER
• In a PID controller, the control signal is given by

• The final term in this expression for the control signal involves the
difference between the two most recent samples of the error. This term
represents the rate of change of the error, and its inclusion in the control law
often improves dynamic response greatly. This term represents the rate of
change of the error, and its inclusion in the control law often improves dynamic
response greatly.
• For the corresponding analog (continuous-time) controller, the control
signal is given by

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CLOSED-LOOP LIMIT-CYCLE CONTROL
• Limit-cycle control is a type of feedback control that monitors the system’s
output and responds only when the output goes beyond preset limits
• Often used to control plants with nonlinear or complicated transfer
functions
• When the output reaches the maximum limit the conditions of actuator
settings are reversed in the direction until output reaches its minimum limit
and visa-versa.
• This process is repeated continuously, so as to maintain an average value
close to the command input.
• Popular due to simplicity, low cost, and ease of application.

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 Example temperature-controlled oven
• Temperature inside the oven is controlled by the length of time the heating
coil is energized.
• The temperature of the oven is measured with a temperature probe, and
the corresponding electrical signal is fed back to the command to obtain an
error signal.
• If Oven temperature is below minimum, then relay is closed to energize the
heating element until the temperature rises above a maximum limit, after
that relay is switched of to let the temp come down to minimum

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MICROCOMPUTER APPLICATIONS IN AUTOMOTIVE SYSTEMS
• Microprocessors find applications in engine and driveline control,
instrumentation, ride control, antilock braking and other safety devices,
entertainment, heating/air conditioning control, automatic seat position
control, and many other systems.
• Microprocessor serves as the functional core of what can properly be called
a special-purpose microcomputer.
• Essential configuration (or architecture) has much in common for all
applications
• Microprocessor denoted as MPU is connected to the other components by
means of three buses: address bus (AB), data bus (DB), and control bus
(CB).
• Operation of each special-purpose microcomputer system is controlled by a
program stored in ROM
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Architecture for Typical Automotive Computer

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• MPU generates addresses for the ROM in sequence to obtain each
instruction in corresponding sequence
• Each automotive subsystem has a specific program that is permanently
stored (electronically) in the ROM.
• Changes in the system operation can be achieved by replacing the ROM
chip(s) with new chip(s) that contain the appropriate program for the
desired operation
• RAM memory is used for a variety of purposes, including storing
temporary results, storing the stack, storing all of the variables, etc
• The input/output (I/O) device serves as the interface connection of the
microcomputer with the particular automotive system
• Standard commercial I/O devices are available from the manufacturers

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 Block diagram of a typical
commercial I/O device
• These ports can be configured to act
as either input or output, depending
on the data in the data direction
register.

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INSTRUMENTATION APPLICATIONS OF MICROCOMPUTERS
• In instrumentation applications, the signal processing operations are
performed numerically under program control

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• Analog sensor provides a continuous-time voltage, Vo, that is proportional to
the quantity being measured
• Continuous-time voltage is sampled at times determined by the computer
• Sampled analog voltage is then converted to digital format (e.g., 8 to 16 bits)
using an ADC.
• Digital data are connected to port A of the I/O device of the computer to be read
into memory.
• EOC ( End of Conversion) signal provides an interrupt signaling the computer
that data are ready
• After the signal processing is completed, digital data are sent through I/O to port
B to the DAC.
• The sampled data are “smoothed” to a suitable continuous-time voltage by
means of a special filter known as a reconstruction filter.
• The continuous-time output of this filter drives the continuous-time display.
• In case the display is digital (e.g., automotive speed measurement), the
conversion from digital to analog is not required 26
 MICROCOMPUTERS IN CONTROL SYSTEMS
• Microcomputers are able to handle inputs and outputs that are either digital or
converted analog signals
• With the proper software, they are capable of making decisions about those
signals and can react to them quickly and precisely.
Closed-Loop Control System
• A microcomputer can replace the error amplifier and the control logic.
• The computer can compare command input and plant output and perform the
computation required to generate a control signal.
Limit-Cycle Controller
• Upper and lower limit can be determined from the command input by using a
lookup table
• Plant output is compared against these two limits. If the plant output is above the
higher limit or below the lower limit, the microcomputer outputs the appropriate
on/off signal

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Typical Digital Control System

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• The specific plant variable being controlled is denoted X
• Error e = S – X, where S is set point
• error signal is sampled, yielding samples en (where n represents sample
number; i.e., n = 1, 2, . .)
• Output

• Where P is the proportional gain, I is the integral gain, T is the time

between successive samples
• digital version of yn is transmitted through the I/O to the DAC,, where it is
converted to analog format, providing a control signal to the actuator (A),

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Table Lookup
• applications include: 1. Linearization of sensor data 2. Multiplication
3. Calibration conversion
• If the value for Vo is known, then the corresponding value for X can theoretically
be found using the tabulated values
• the nearest two tabulated values for Vo (V1,V2) are located, and the
corresponding values for X (X1, X2) are read from the table.

• value for X corresponding to Vo

is found by linear interpolation
using Microcomputer

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Portion of the microcomputer that is involved in the table
lookup process

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• Relationship Vo (X ) is stored in ROM
• These data are stored using Vo values as addresses, and corresponding
values of X as data.
Operation of the table lookup
• The sensor S has output voltage Vo.
• computer reads the values of Vo (using an ADC to convert to digital format)
through the I/O device
• MPU under program control (program ROM) calculates the addresses for
the two nearest values to Vo, which are V1 and V2 (V1 < Vo < V2).
• The computer, under program control, reads values X1 and X2 and then
calculates X using the preceding formula.

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