Data processing: vehicles – navigation – and relative location – Vehicle control – guidance – operation – or indication – With indicator or control of power plant
Patent
1997-11-10
2000-09-26
Dolinar, Andrew M.
Data processing: vehicles, navigation, and relative location
Vehicle control, guidance, operation, or indication
With indicator or control of power plant
123350, 123397, F02D 4122
Patent
active
061253227
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates to a method and an arrangement for controlling a drive unit of a vehicle.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
A method and an arrangement of this kind are disclosed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/836,018, filed Apr. 29, 1997, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,880,568. There, a control unit is provided which includes a microcomputer. The microcomputer carries out the control of the power of the drive unit (in the case of an internal combustion engine, via air supply, fuel metering and/or ignition angle) as well as the monitoring of the correct function of these control programs. The program structure of this microcomputer includes essentially three mutually separated levels (compare also the description with respect to FIG. 1). In a first level, the control functions are computed. In a second level, the correct operation of the control functions of the first level is checked based on selected input and output signals. In a third level, a check of the monitoring carried out in the second level is realized in the context of a sequence control. This sequence control checks the correct processing of the monitoring steps in cooperative relationship with a monitoring module (watchdog or safety computer). For this purpose, the monitoring module poses a question, which is selected from predetermined questions. This question is answered by the second level by forming a part answer of the programs. The second level sends the question back to the monitoring module for detecting faults. In the preferred embodiment, the second level monitors the air adjustment of the engine and, in the case of a fault, switches this air adjustment off or initiates an emergency operation. In this embodiment, the monitoring module intervenes in the output stage for the actuator, which controls the air supply, as well as in the output stages for the metering of fuel and in the ignition. Measures for monitoring the computations, which are carried out in the context of the function monitoring in the second level, in addition to the control of the program sequence are not described in this known solution.
It is an object of the invention to provide measures for checking the computations in the context of the function monitoring.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The solution according to the invention permits the detection of faults of the microcomputer which operates in the same manner on the computation of the control functions as well as on the computation of the monitoring functions. For this reason, and in an advantageous manner, also quiescent faults are detected, for example, a monitoring function which does not compute correctly quantitatively.
Here, it is especially advantageous that operations are not used in the context of the solution of the invention which would be present separately from the programs to be monitored; instead, the program codes to be monitored are used. In this way, the solution according to the invention permits an almost one-hundred percent check of the function monitoring of a control for a drive unit.
It is especially advantageous that representative tests can be carried out for a suitable selection of sets of test data in all relevant value ranges. In this way, a bit-precise check of a monitoring function of a power control of a drive unit is provided.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
The invention will be explained in greater detail with respect to the embodiments shown in the drawing. Here,
FIG. 1 shows a structural diagram of a control arrangement for a drive unit; whereas, in
FIGS. 2 and 3, a first embodiment of the solution of the invention is shown with reference to flowcharts.
FIGS. 4a-4e shows signal traces for this embodiment.
In FIGS. 5, 6 and 7, a second embodiment of the solution according to the invention is shown as a block circuit diagram or as flowcharts.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS OF THE INVENTION
In FIG. 1, a control unit 10 is shown for the control of a drive unit (preferably an internal combustion engine) of a motor vehicle. The control un
Bischof Hubert
Streib Martin
Dolinar Andrew M.
Ottesen Walter
Robert & Bosch GmbH
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