Delta air-charge anticipation for mass air flow and electronic throttle control based systems

Cylinder air charge estimators, that account for the air flow dynamics of the engine, are an essential feature to engine emission control systems. These estimators must be further augmented to anticipate the air charge several cylinder events beyond the current estimate due to practical fuel injector limitations. The delay between the commanded and measured throttle position of an electronic throttle controller (ETC) can be used to improve the air charge anticipation algorithms. We develop an air charge algorithm that exploits a one cylinder event ahead prediction of the throttle position to determine air charge one or two cylinder events in the future. We explore a practical method of obtaining the prediction of throttle using an ETC as well as more sophisticated methods to determine the extent of throttle prediction accuracy that is possible over a range of prediction times.