A Rapid Calibration® tool for engine control software and its application to misfire diagnosis functions

Rigid legislation requirements on vehicle emissions and customer demands on comfort and efficiency have lead to a continuously increasing complexity of modern engine management systems, accompanied by a growing number of functions for engine control and component diagnosis, which all have to be calibrated. Nevertheless, for competitive reasons, time efficient methods for calibration are needed, where the accuracy of calibration is verified and well documented. For this purpose, the division of Powertrain Mechatronics Development Gasoline Engines (MD-G) of the IAV GmbH developed the idea of Rapid Calibration® (RC). In the RC tool environment in-vehicle measurements are automatically configured and executed, whereas the evaluation of the measurements, i.e. the calibration process, is mostly done on the basis of off-line optimization algorithms and simulation tools. Finally, documentation files, like for example slide presentation files, are automatically generated and statistical analyzing methods, which prove the quality of the calibration, are applied. This contribution describes, from an engineer's point of view, the use of the Rapid Calibration® tool environment for calibrating the misfire diagnosis function.