Calibration of catalyst temperature in automotive engines over coldstart operation in the presence of different random noises and uncertainty: Implementation of generalized Gaussian process regression machine

Abstract

The main scope of the current study is to develop a systematic stochastic model to capture the undesired uncertainty and random noises on the key parameters affecting the catalyst temperature over the coldstart operation of automotive engine systems. In the recent years, a number of articles have been published which aim at the modeling and analysis of automotive engines’ behavior during coldstart operations by using regression modeling methods. Regarding highly nonlinear and uncertain nature of the coldstart operation, calibration of the engine system’s variables, for instance the catalyst temperature, is deemed to be an intricate task, and it is unlikely to develop an exact physics-based nonlinear model. This encourages automotive engineers to take advantage of knowledge-based modeling tools and regression approaches. However, there exist rare reports which propose an efficient tool for coping with the uncertainty associated with the collected database. Here, the authors introduce a random noise to experimentally derived data and simulate an uncertain database as a representative of the engine system’s behavior over coldstart operations. Then, by using a Gaussian process regression machine (GPRM), a reliable model is used for the sake of analysis of the engine’s behavior. The simulation results attest the efficacy of GPRM for the considered case study. The research outcomes confirm that it is possible to develop a practical calibration tool which can be reliably used for modeling the catalyst temperature.

Key words： automotive engine; calibration; coldstart operation; Gaussian process regression machine (GPRM); uncertainty and random noises

Acknowledgment

The authors would like to thank their colleagues at University of California (UC), Berkeley, Professor Karl Hedrick and Dr. Pannag Sanketi, for their help in conducting experiments and collecting the coldstart data.

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