Excavating
Patent
1989-07-13
1991-07-09
Smith, Jerry
Excavating
371 164, 36443111, 364580, G06F 1100
Patent
active
050311778
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
The invention is directed to a method for controlling a computer-controlled final full injection control element during a self-test of the computer.
Computer-controlled final control elements are used in many areas of technology where the manipulated variable depends on numerous other marginal conditions, including reference variables and controlled variables.
Computers are required to have a high computing speed and the ability to process extensive data records reliably. This requires a high memory requirement on the part of the computer.
Although the failure rate of computer systems has been successfully reduced to an increasing degree in spite of increasing complexity, the possibility of a circuit technology related error must still be taken in account. While circuit technology related errors were, as a rule, immediately recognizable in formerly conventional analog circuits, this is often not the case with errors in digital computer systems. In the latter, an error, e.g. in a memory location for a program routine which is seldom called, can remain undetected for a longer period of time and can then occur in a completely surprising manner. This can result in control commands which trigger considerable consequential damages.
In order to recognize such errors at an early stage, it is conventional in complex safety related computer-controlled final control elements to subject the computer to a self-test from time to time. In so doing, a test program is run through in which all components are actuated one after the other with predetermined data and a main program is started after the termination of the self-test only when the data is correctly processed. In complex computer systems, such a self-test claims a certain period of time during which the computer is not available for exercising its actual task. In order to avoid an unmonitored controlling of the final control element during this time, it is kept in a defined reference position and only released again, or for the first time, for control signals of the computer after the execution of the self-test.
An area of application for computer-controlled final control elements is e.g. an electronic diesel injection for diesel engines. For this purpose, the computer-controlled final control element is arranged in a control device which actuates the control rod for an injection apparatus. The required position of the control rod can be a function of the engine temperature, the fuel temperature, the air temperature, the torque and the speed.
The self-test of the computer is advisably carried out at the beginning of every starting process. However, it has become apparent that the time required for this can have disadvantageous consequences. Thus, the long starting process can cause impatient drivers to become uncertain and can invite the assumption that there is a problem. Drivers who are already familiar with the starting process will be less ready to turn off the engine for reasons relating to environmental loading in order to avoid the delay time in backed-up traffic, at traffic lights or stops at railroad crossings. During frequent short-distance trips, a high loading of the starter and battery also occurs. When extreme cold or a weak starter battery are added to this, the long self-test can result in that the energy supplied by the battery for starting the engine is prematurely exhausted.
In other areas as well, long self-test times can have disadvantageous consequences, e.g. in computer-controlled final control elements in production plants or in drive technology of track-bound public means of transportation, watercraft or aircraft.
The invention has the object of improving a method for controlling a computer-controlled final control element in such a way that the disadvantageous consequences of a long self-test for the control of a final control element are avoided without limiting the security achieved by means of the self-test.
This object is met in a method wherein the control element is first locked in a defined reference position during the self-test a
REFERENCES:
patent: 4310888 (1982-01-01), Furuhashi
patent: 4409635 (1983-10-01), Kraus
patent: 4456831 (1984-06-01), Kanegae
patent: 4541050 (1985-09-01), Honda
patent: 4649537 (1987-03-01), Rosswurm
patent: 4726024 (1988-02-01), Guziak
Beausoliel Robert W.
Robert & Bosch GmbH
Smith Jerry
Striker Michael J.
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