The integration of a huge number of innovative technologies requested in the next generation of Internal Combustion Engines (ICEs) to comply with the future legislation limits produce a significant increase of the powertrain complexity. Consequently, the research area deals with advanced techniques to design robust and sub-optimal control systems for powertrain applications capable to exploit the data measured by new vehicle sensors, the constantly increasing performance of automotive control units, (e.g. in particular multi core systems of high computing power), and the emerging V2X technologies.
The task is carried out through experimental activities (performed at CARS@Polito lab and DENERG Advanced ICE Lab) as well as through high-fidelity digital twins of the vehicle (developed in GT-Suite and Simulink environments) which can be exploited in X-In-The-Loop (e.g. on ETAS platforms) for virtual calibration purposes. Collaborative research projects with major OEMs and powertrain engineering Companies (such as Stellantis, Iveco Group, AVL and FEV) are currently ongoing.
Examples of recent and currently on-going research activities:
- Combustion control for CO2 and pollutant emission reduction (NOx & PM) through innovative sensor-based and model-based controllers of the air path and fuel path of light-duty and heavy-duty diesel engines;
- Investigation of the potential of artificial intelligence techniques (such as artificial neural networks and deep reinforcement learning) for the prediction of combustion and emission metrics in ICEs, to be used for the development of fast combustion controllers.
- Development of digital twins to support the virtual calibration of Internal Combustion Engines.
Contacts:
Prof. Stefano d’Ambrosio: http://www.pt-erc.polito.it/
Prof. Luciano Rolando: https://areeweb.polito.it/ricerca/engines/