Granted Patent B2

US 8,346,449 · App. 12/236,410 · Granted Jan 1, 2013

Abstract

Claims (40)

1. Method for controlling a powertrain system in a motorized vehicle having an accelerator pedal and including an engine coupled to an electro-mechanical transmission selectively operative in one of a plurality of transmission operating range states and one of a plurality of engine states, wherein a control module performs the steps comprising:

determining a current transmission operating range state and engine state;

determining at least one potential transmission operating range state and engine state;

providing at least one operator torque request;

determining preferability factors associated with the current transmission operating range state and engine state, and potential transmission operating range states and engine states, wherein determining preferability factors associated with potential transmission operating range states includes assigning biasing costs to operator torque requests which reside within a pre-determined range of possible operator torque requests for at least two of said potential transmission operating range states;

preferentially weighting the preferability factors for the current transmission operating range state and engine state; and

selectively commanding changing the transmission operating range state and engine state based upon said preferability factors and said operator torque request.

2. The method according to claim 1 wherein said pre-determined range is bounded at one of the ends of said range by a torque request value that corresponds substantially to the maximum torque output possible for a selected engine operating point at a particular transmission operating range state under consideration.

3. The method according to claim 1 wherein said pre-determined range is bounded at one of the ends of said range by a torque request value that corresponds substantially to the minimum torque output possible for a selected engine operating point at a particular transmission operating range state under consideration.

4. The method according to claim 1 wherein the size of the pre-determined range over which biasing costs are assigned to operator torque requests is variable.

5. The method according to claim 1 wherein the size of the pre-determined range over which biasing costs are assigned to operator torque requests is selectively variable.

6. The method according to claim 4 wherein the size of the pre-determined range is dependent upon the output speed of said transmission.

7. The method according to claim 4 wherein the size of the pre-determined range is dependent upon the position of an accelerator pedal.

8. The method according to claim 4 wherein the size of the pre-determined range is dependent upon the rate of change of the position of an accelerator pedal.

9. The method according to claim 1 wherein assigning biasing costs to operator torque requests which reside within a pre-determined range of possible operator torque requests includes providing a function which defines the value of the biasing costs associated with different operator torque requests within said range.

10. The method according to claim 9 wherein said function is linear.

11. The method according to claim 9 wherein said function is non-linear.

12. The method according to claim 9 wherein the size of the pre-determined range of operator torque requests over which said function operates is dependent upon the output speed of said transmission.

13. The method according to claim 9 wherein the size of the pre-determined range of operator torque requests over which said function operates is dependent upon a position of the accelerator pedal.

14. The method according to claim 9 wherein the size of the pre-determined range of operator torque requests over which said function operates is dependent upon a rate of change of a position of the accelerator pedal.

15. The method according to claim 9 wherein said pre-determined range is bounded at one of the ends of said range by a torque request value for which no biasing cost value is assigned to said operator torque request.

16. A method for selecting a transmission operating range state from a plurality of potential transmission operating range states in a powertrain system including an engine coupled to an electro-mechanical transmission, a control module performs the steps comprising:

providing an operator torque request having a magnitude;

providing an on-board microprocessor having a search engine executed thereby;

selecting a first engine operating point from a search range space containing possible engine operating points associated with a potential transmission operating range state;

calculating maximum and minimum output torques that the powertrain system is configured to deliver that are associated with said engine operating point;

assigning a biasing cost to the difference between the magnitude of the operator torque request, and the torque deliverable by said transmission less a Torque Reserve, if operating said transmission at the parameters defined by said first engine operating point over a pre-determined range of possible operator torque requests;

summing power losses associated with operating said vehicle transmission at the parameters defined by said first engine operating point to provide a total power loss;

repeating said selecting, calculating, assigning and summation for a plurality of engine operating points in said search range space, to provide a total power loss associated with engine operating points in said plurality;

selecting at least one engine operating point from said search range space which has the lowest total power loss;

repeating said selecting, calculating, assigning, summing, repeating and selecting for at least two potential transmission operating range states; and

selectively commanding changing the transmission operating range state based upon as comparison of power losses associated with selected engine operating points.

17. The method according to claim 16 wherein said engine operating point used in selectively commanding comprises the transmission input speed associated with the point having the transmission input speed that was used as the basis for the selection of the particular transmission operating range state commanded.

18. The method according to claim 16 wherein biasing costs assigned are determined by a function which is dependent on said operator torque request.

19. The method according to claim 16 wherein the size of said pre-determined range of possible operator torque requests is selectively variable.

20. The method according to claim 16 wherein said pre-determined range is bounded at one of the ends of said range by a torque request value for which no biasing cost value is assigned to said operator torque request.

21. A system for controlling a powertrain system including an engine mechanically coupled to an electro-mechanical transmission selectively operative in one of a plurality of transmission operating range states and one of a plurality of engine states, comprising:

a microprocessor configured to receive data and provide an output, said data including a first set of preferability factors, a second set of preferability factors relating to desired operating range states of said transmission, a third set of preferability factors relating to current operating range states of said transmission, a fourth set of preferability factors, said fourth set of preferability factors comprising input speed trip preferability factors;

a control module configured to control shifting events in said transmission, said control module having inputs and outputs, wherein output from said microprocessor is provided as input to said control module, said control module being configured to provide said third set of preferability factors to said microprocessor as an input thereto; and

an electro-mechanical transmission in effective electrical communication with output from said control module; said system configured sufficiently that commanded changes of transmission operating range state are executed using biasing costs assigned to potential operating range states of said transmission based on at least one operator torque request, said biasing costs being determined by a biasing cost function which provides a torque reserve operative over a range of operator torque requests, wherein the size of the range of operator torque requests is selectively variable.

Assignments (18)