Interrelated power delivery controls – including engine control – Transmission control – Engine controlled by transmission
Reexamination Certificate
2000-07-05
2001-12-04
Marmor, Charles A (Department: 3681)
Interrelated power delivery controls, including engine control
Transmission control
Engine controlled by transmission
C123S399000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06325741
ABSTRACT:
INCORPORATION BY REFERENCE
The disclosure of Japanese Patent Application No. 11-208277 filed on Jul. 22, 1999 including the specification, drawings and abstract is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a throttle valve control apparatus and to a throttle valve control method for an internal combustion engine, wherein a throttle valve is opened and closed by an actuator.
2. Description of Related Art
In a vehicle control apparatus described in, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 10-299546, a throttle valve is opened and closed by an actuator. In this apparatus, a target throttle opening amount is set based on the accelerator operation amount and the revolution speed of an internal combustion engine. The degree of opening of the throttle valve is controlled so as to become equal to the target throttle opening amount. Furthermore, based on the position of the throttle valve in the opening/closing direction, the apparatus determines whether the engine is idling. If the engine is in the idle state, the apparatus substantially fixes the throttle valve in position, thereby stabilizing the revolution speed of the engine in the idle state.
In the apparatus described above, however, if the accelerator is depressed, even if depressed slightly, during the idle state, the throttle valve is opened, that is, the throttle valve is shifted away from a completely closed position. As a result, the apparatus determines that the engine is not in the idle state. Once it is determined that the engine is not in the idle state, the apparatus increases the target throttle opening amount with increases in the engine revolution speed, so that the throttle valve is further opened and, therefore, the engine revolution speed further increases. If the load on the engine is small in this situation, the throttle valve is gradually opened so that the engine revolution speed greatly increases, thus discomforting a driver of the vehicle.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Accordingly, it is an object of the invention to provide a throttle valve control apparatus for an internal combustion engine that is capable of preventing an unnecessary increase in the revolution speed of the engine by curbing the opening of the throttle valve when there is no need to greatly increase the engine revolution speed (that is, for example, when a transmission connected to a crankshaft of the engine is in the NEUTRAL state, or when the vehicle is in a stopped state, or the like).
To achieve the aforementioned and/or other objects, a throttle valve control apparatus for an internal combustion engine in accordance with one aspect of the invention includes a throttle opening amount controller that sets a target throttle opening amount of a throttle valve based on at least one of an accelerator operation amount and a revolution speed of the internal combustion engine, a shift position detector that detects a shift position of a transmission connected to a crankshaft of the internal combustion engine, and a vehicle speed detector that detects a vehicle speed of a vehicle equipped with the internal combustion engine.
The throttle opening amount controller sets the target throttle opening amount based only on the accelerator operation amount, in at least one of a case where the shift position detected by the shift position detector is a neutral position and a case where the vehicle speed detected by the vehicle speed detector is zero.
Therefore, even if an accelerator pedal is depressed so that the revolution speed of the internal combustion engine increases while the vehicle is in the stopped state or while the transmission is in the neutral state, an increase in the target throttle opening amount in response to the increase in the engine revolution speed is prevented. Hence, unnecessary increases in the engine revolution speed can be curbed.
In this aspect of the invention, the target throttle opening amount may be gradually changed from a target throttle opening amount based only on the accelerator operation amount to a target throttle opening amount set based on the accelerator operation amount and the revolution speed of the internal combustion engine, if the vehicle speed is less than a predetermined value (e.g., at the time of transition from the stopped state to a running state of the vehicle, and the like).
Therefore, the throttle valve opening amount is gradually changed, so that a sharp change in the output of the engine can be curbed.
REFERENCES:
patent: 4461254 (1984-07-01), Pfalzgraf et al.
patent: 4881428 (1989-11-01), Ishigawa et al.
patent: 01244140-A (1989-09-01), None
patent: 7-26581 (1995-03-01), None
patent: 10-299546 (1998-11-01), None
Marmor Charles A
Oliff & Berridg,e PLC
Parekh Ankur
Toyota Jidosha & Kabushiki Kaisha
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