The choice of technology for automotive actuators is driven by the need of high power to size ratio. In general, electro-pneumatic actuators are preferred for application around the engine as they are compact, powerful and require simple controlling devices. Specially, Variable Geometry Turbochargers (VGTs) are almost always controlled with electro-pneumatic actuators. This is a challenging application because the VGT is an important part of the engine air path and the latter is responsible for intake and exhaust air quality and exhaust emissions control. With government regulations on vehicle pollutant emissions getting stringent by the year, VGT control requirements have also increased. These regulations and requirements can only be fulfilled with precise dynamic control of the VGT through its actuator. The demands on actuator control include robustness against uncertainty in operating conditions, fast and smooth positioning without vibration, limited number of measurements. Added constraints such as nonlinear dynamic behavior of the actuator, friction and varying aerodynamic forces in the VGT render classical control methods ineffective. These are the main problems that form the core of this thesis.In this work, we have addressed the above mentioned problems, using model based control complemented with robust control methods to overcome operational uncertainties and parametric variations. In the first step, a detailed physical model of an electro-pneumatic actuator has been developed; taking into account the nonlinear characteristics originating from air compressibility and friction. Means to compensate for aerodynamic force have been studied and implemented in the next step. These include model parametric adaptation and one dimensional CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) modeling. The complete model has been experimentally validated and a sensitivity analysis has been conducted to identify the parameters which have the greatest impact upon the actuator's behavior. The detailed simulation model has then been simplified to make it suitable for control purposes while keeping its essential behavioral characteristics (i.e. transients and dynamics). Next, robust controllers have been developed around the model for the control objective of accurate actuator positioning in presence of operational uncertainty. An important constraint in commercial actuators is that they provide output feedback only, as they are only equipped with low-cost position sensors. This hurdle has been overcome by introducing observers in the control loop, which estimate other system states from the output feedback. The estimation and control algorithms have been validated in simulation and experimentally on diesel engine test benches.

Les actionneurs électropneumatiques sont très utilisés dans l'industrie automobile car ils offrent de grands avantages, en termes d'encombrement, de puissance élevée et de simplicité de commande. Ces actionneurs sont utilisés plus particulièrement pour le contrôle des Turbocompresseurs à Géométrie Variable (TGV). Le TGV joue un rôle très important dans les performances de la boucle d'air du moteur, en particulier sur la qualité de l'air à l'admission et à l'échappement. Les nouvelles réglementations gouvernementales concernant les émissions polluantes des véhicules ont poussé les équipementiers automobiles à s'intéresser davantage au contrôle du Turbocompresseur à Géométrie Variable. Ces exigences ne peuvent pas être realisées à travers des techniques classiques de contrôle de type PID. En effet, le contrôle doit tenir compte de la complexité du modèle et de ses incertitudes ainsi que des exigences en termes de performances statiques et dynamiques et du nombre limité de mesures. De plus, il faut également tenir compte des conditions agressives dans lesquelles travaillent l'actionneur, notamment la température, les forces de frottement et les forces aérodynamiques à l'entrée du turbo. Dans le cadre de cette thèse, ce sont tous ces aspects qui ont motivé notre travail de modélisation et de commande robuste de l'actionneur électropneumatique du turbo. Dans un premier temps, nous avons établi un modèle de simulation de l'actionneur. Nous avons commencé par élaborer un modèle physique détaillé de l'actionneur, en prenant en compte les caractéristiques non linéaires provenant de la compressibilité de l'air et du frottement. Ensuite, deux modèles des forces aérodynamiques qui agissement sur l'actionneur ont été proposés. Le modèle global de l'actionneur a été validé expérimentalement et une analyse de sensibilité expérimentale a été menée sur plusieurs actionneurs afin d'identifier les paramètres ayant le plus d'impact sur les performances de l'actionneur. Dans un second temps, nous avons proposé une simplification du modèle obtenu dans le but de le rendre utilisable pour le contrôle, tout en préservant ses caractéristiques statiques et dynamiques. Enfin, nous nous sommes intéressés à la résolution du problème de commande robuste par retour de sortie de l'actionneur. Les algorithmes de contrôle et d'estimation élaborés ont été validés d'abord par des simulations, puis expérimentalement sur un banc d'essai moteur. / The choice of technology for automotive actuators is driven by the need of high power to size ratio. In general, electro-pneumatic actuators are preferred for application around the engine as they are compact, powerful and require simple controlling devices. Specially, Variable Geometry Turbochargers (VGTs) are almost always controlled with electro-pneumatic actuators. This is a challenging application because the VGT is an important part of the engine air path and the latter is responsible for intake and exhaust air quality and exhaust emissions control. With government regulations on vehicle pollutant emissions getting stringent by the year, VGT control requirements have also increased. These regulations and requirements can only be fulfilled with precise dynamic control of the VGT through its actuator. The demands on actuator control include robustness against uncertainty in operating conditions, fast and smooth positioning without vibration, limited number of measurements. Added constraints such as nonlinear dynamic behavior of the actuator, friction and varying aerodynamic forces in the VGT render classical control methods ineffective. These are the main problems that form the core of this thesis.In this work, we have addressed the above mentioned problems, using model based control complemented with robust control methods to overcome operational uncertainties and parametric variations. In the first step, a detailed physical model of an electro-pneumatic actuator has been developed; taking into account the nonlinear characteristics originating from air compressibility and friction. Means to compensate for aerodynamic force have been studied and implemented in the next step. These include model parametric adaptation and one dimensional CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) modeling. The complete model has been experimentally validated and a sensitivity analysis has been conducted to identify the parameters which have the greatest impact upon the actuator's behavior. The detailed simulation model has then been simplified to make it suitable for control purposes while keeping its essential behavioral characteristics (i.e. transients and dynamics). Next, robust controllers have been developed around the model for the control objective of accurate actuator positioning in presence of operational uncertainty. An important constraint in commercial actuators is that they provide output feedback only, as they are only equipped with low-cost position sensors. This hurdle has been overcome by introducing observers in the control loop, which estimate other system states from the output feedback. The estimation and control algorithms have been validated in simulation and experimentally on diesel engine test benches.

Engine control systems aim to ensure satisfactory output performance whilst adhering to requirements on emissions, drivability and fuel efficiency. Model predictive control (MPC) has shown promising results when applied to multivariable and nonlinear systems with operational constraints, such as diesel engines. This report studies the torque generation from a mean-value heavy duty diesel engine with exhaust gas recirculation and variable-geometry turbocharger using state feedback linearization based MPC (LMPC). This is accomplished by first introducing a fuel optimal reference generator that converts demands on torque and engine speed to references on states and control signals for the MPC controller to follow. Three different MPC controllers are considered: a single linearization point LMPC controller and two different successive LMPC (SLMPC) controllers, where the controllers are implemented using the optimization tool CasADi. The MPC controllers are evaluated with the World Harmonized Transient Cycle and the results show promising torque tracking using a SLMPC controller with linearization about reference values.