Electricity: motive power systems – Positional servo systems – With protective or reliability increasing features
Patent
1997-04-29
1999-03-09
Ip, Paul
Electricity: motive power systems
Positional servo systems
With protective or reliability increasing features
3185681, 318139, 36442404, 36442604, B60K 3104
Patent
active
058805680
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates to a method and an arrangement for controlling the drive unit of a vehicle.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
A control method of this kind and a control arrangement of this kind are disclosed in German patent publication 4,220,247. There, a first microprocessor or computer is provided to control the drive unit. In the preferred embodiment, the microprocessor or computer executes computations for metering fuel, adjusting ignition time point and for controlling the air supply to the engine in dependence upon the command of the driver. Most importantly, this computing element has the possibility to increase the power of the engine by computing the air supply. For this reason, a second computing element is provided to monitor the correct function of this computing element. The second computing element monitors the operation of the first computing element and, in the case of a fault, switches off the power control by the first computing element or initiates an emergency operation. In the preferred embodiment, the monitoring of the operation of the first computing element is performed by a comparison of the driver command to the position of the element influencing the air supply.
Even though this known system guarantees a reliable operation of a drive unit with high availability, it is associated with high complexity and therefore high cost because of the second computing element so that this solution can be unsatisfactory for other embodiments.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is therefore an object of the invention to provide a method and an arrangement for controlling the drive unit of a vehicle which requires a significant lesser complexity while providing high availability and operational reliability.
This is achieved in that only one computing element (conventional microprocessor or microcomputer) is provided which performs the functions or computations for power control as well as the monitoring thereof. Operational reliability and availability are ensured in that two levels are provided in the single computing element. These levels are independent of each other at least outside of a fault situation. In a first level, the functions of the power control are computed and, in the second level (if required, in combination with a watchdog), these functions and therefore the operability of the computing element itself are monitored.
A control system for a vehicle having a microcomputer and a monitoring module is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,436,837. The monitoring module is preferably configured as a gate-array which executes a sequence control of the microcomputer. For this purpose, the microcomputer and the monitoring module both process signal values in the context of a query/reply interplay. The monitoring module determines the correct or defective operation of the microcomputer from a comparison of the results of this processing. With this sequence control by means of a simply configured monitoring device, the complexity for such a control system is considerably reduced; however, a complete monitoring of the functions computed by the microcomputer cannot take place.
The procedure of the invention leads to a control unit for controlling the drive unit of a motor vehicle which requires a significantly lesser complexity and therefore is of greater cost effectiveness. Especially the number of components is reduced so that a lower probability of disablement and also a lower susceptibility to fault of the system is obtained.
It is especially advantageous that two channels are provided within the computing element which are mutually not influenced as to their function, at least outside of a defect. These two channels are provided by the provision of at least two levels, namely, a function level and a monitoring level. In this way, an operational reliability and availability comparable to a control system having two computing units is achieved.
It is of a special significance that the control system, which comprises only one computing element, can be adapted with greater e
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Bederna Frank
Zeller Thomas
Ip Paul
Ottesen Walter
Robert & Bosch GmbH
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