Embedded Torque Estimator for Diesel Engine Control Application

To improve vehicle driveability in diesel powertrain applications, it is desirable to coordinate engine and transmission control functions. Transmission control algorithms in diesel powertrains can use torque information from the engine controller under a wide variety of powertrain operating conditions to improve shift quality. Unfortunately, direct engine torque measurement using powertrain sensors in production hardware is considered expensive. The aim of the work in this paper was to evaluate the feasibility of using an embedded torque estimation algorithm as an alternative to new sensor hardware in an off-road diesel application. The feasibility of estimating torque in a conventional engine control unit (ECU) was proven by developing and evaluating an engine torque estimator on an MPC555 processor using model-based design approaches.