2004-21-0063

Trends of Future Powertrain Development and

the Evolution of Powertrain Control Systems
Tatehito Ueda and Akira Ohata
Toyota Motor Corporation

Copyright © 2004 Convergence Transportation Electronics Association

ABSTRACT ENVIRONMENT SURROUNDING AUTOMOTIVE

High fuel efficiency and low emission technologies, such
as Direct Injection (DI) gasoline and diesel engines and
hybrid powertrains, have been developed to resolve
environmental and energy resource issues. The hybrid
powertrain system has achieved superior power
performance as well as higher system efficiency and is
expected to be a core powertrain technology because it
is compatible with various power sources including fuel
cells.
POWERTRAINS
ENERGY TRENDS
Currently, about 90% of the world’s primary energy
sources are dependant on coal, petroleum and natural
gas. Automobiles depend mostly on petroleum.
Therefore, the mid-term and long-term prospects of
petroleum highly influence powertrain development
strategies.

It becomes important to control complicated hybrid
systems that consist of not only a powertrain but also
vehicle systems such as regenerative braking. Model-
based control and calibration enables both control
strategy optimization and control system development
efficiency improvement.
INTRODUCTION
Through the 20th century, automobiles have greatly
contributed to humankind prosperity and they will
continue to be an important factor for sustained
development.
Fig.1 shows the forecast of petroleum reserves
announced by the oil industry.[1] In 1940, the forecasted
volume was around 0.6 trillion barrels but was recently
changed to 2.2 trillion barrels and now seems to be
stable. Assuming that the consumption keeps the same
pace, it is projected that the petroleum supply will be
exhausted around 2060. This means that petroleum will
probably be a leading automobile energy source for the
next couple of decades or more. However, there is no
doubt that petroleum resources are limited. Of course,
the enhancement of oil recovery capability can delay the
time of exhaustion.
(billion ton of oil equivalent) (trillion barrel)
Estimation of ultimate
Forecast of reserves, demand

On the other hand, in order to save energy resources

recoverable reserves
and prevent global warming, there has been a pressing 400 Enhanced Oil Recovery 3
need in recent years to reduce CO2 emission and to Heavy Oil
Ultimate recoverable reserves
improve the fuel consumption of automobiles. At the
2
same time, urban areas are facing a serious problem of
air pollution, prompting the enforcement of stricter 200 Extrapolation of
Accumulated products
automobile exhaust emission regulations all over the 1
world. Under these circumstances, various powertrains Major forecast range of demand
Accumulated products
have been developed and launched to improve fuel 0 0
economy and reduce exhaust emissions. These stricter 1950 2000 2050 2100
demands for automobiles make powertrains more
complicated and, therefore, highly sophisticated
Fig.1: Forecast of Reserves
powertrain control technology is required.
Natural gas is expected to remain longer than petroleum.
This paper describes the prospects and Toyota’s
Synthetic fuel (GTL and DME) produced from natural
challenges for future automotive powertrains and their
gas is thought to be a promising alternative energy
control technologies.
source in the future. Dividing the proven natural gas
reserves of approximately 910 billion barrels (oil FE standard of gasoline vehicle in 2010
equivalent) by the present annual production of 14.5 Japan →Discussion of green tax and
billion barrels (oil equivalent), it appears to remain for 63 environmental tax starts
years. [2] Natural gas could be used to diversify the ACEA 2008 140g/km voluntary agreement
automobile energy sources, but it is still uncertain if it is EU →Automotive tax based on CO2 emission
(UK, etc.)
market viable.
・National Energy Policy is announced
US ・Stricter CAFE for LDT(SUV,mini van,P/U)
Since the primary energy cost is controlled by the supply under study
and the demand in the market, the scarcity of energy
resources won’t cause price increases in the short-term.
However, consumption of the world’s primary energy Fig.3: CO2 Regulations
sources will increase every year and the price will surely
go up throughout the 21st century.[3]

REDUCTION OF EXHAUST EMISSION

REDUCTION OF CO2 Although energy resources and CO2 reduction are

Due to the greenhouse effect, CO2 is considered to be
one of the most important factors affecting global
warming. The effect is not only to raise the average
global temperature but also to seriously influence
weather fluctuations.
Humankind has consumed a large amount of fossil fuel
and emitted a large amount of CO2 into the atmosphere.
Fig.2 shows the global CO2 emission forecast.[4]
Approximately 26 billion tons (=7000Mt-C) of CO2 are
emitted every year and about 17% is from road traffic.
1.6 times the current CO2 emission is anticipated in 2020.
According to the “Kyoto Protocol” adopted at the Third
Conference of the Parties (COP3) in December 1997,
considered global issues, air pollution has been viewed
as a regional issue, particularly in urban areas. Strict
regulations have been adopted in the U.S, Europe,
Japan and other countries. However, sufficient
improvement hasn’t been seen in urban areas and
stricter regulations are planned as shown in Fig.4. The
strictest regulation of them all is in California. LEV-II
requires almost zero level emissions with the Super
Ultra Low Emissions Vehicle (SULEV) regulation.
Developing countries typically adopt exhaust gas
emission regulations similar to those of developed
countries with a ten-year lag. From this point of view, low
emissions will become a global issue.
‘96 ‘97 ‘98 ‘99 '00 '01 '02 '03 '04 '05 '06 '07 ‘08 ～

developed countries are responsible for a 5.2% Gasoline vehicles

Diesel vehicle Post 53 regulations G new long-term regulations
(G short- term)
Japan
reduction (from 1990 levels) in average greenhouse gas Diesel vehicle
vehicles Long-term regulations D new short-term
regulations
D new long-term
regulations
emissions from 2008 to 2012. Accordingly, the LEV LEV-Ⅱ
California
movement to improve automobile fuel economy has U.S.
Federal NLEV Tier2
become very active throughout the world. Europe Step2/Euro2 Step3/Euro3 Step4/Euro4

CO2 emission is attributed to the energy consumption

that makes human life convenient. It is not easy to Fig.4: Emission Regulations
surrender the convenient lifestyle. Thus, the demand of
CO2 reduction will continue to increase all over the world
as shown in Fig. 3.
CUSTOMER DEMANDS OF POWERTRAIN

12000 It is needless to say that the keywords for the future

Other Developing Countries powertrain technologies are high efficiency and low
CO2 emission (Mt C)

10000
China and South Asia emissions. However, these keys are not sufficient for
8000 newly developed powertrains to widely penetrate the
6000 market.
4000
The energy infrastructure is very important and it must
2000 CEE* and Former Soviet Union be considered with the energy resource trends. At
OECD
0 present, the mainstream infrastructure supports gasoline
1990 2000 2010 2020 and diesel engines. Although Compressed Natural Gas
*CEE: Central and Eastern Europe Year (CNG), Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG), Methanol, and
Hydrogen powered powertrains offer efficiency and
Fig.2: Forecast of Global CO2 emission emissions improvements, they have not become
mainstream in the market because their infrastructure
support is lacking.
In addition, automobiles must be attractive for customers
with a reasonable price. This means that fundamental
performance characteristics, such as reliability, range,
space, safety, fun-to-drive, and so on, of an
environmentally friendly vehicle must match or exceed
those of a conventional vehicle.
In summary, the market penetration of new powertrain
technologies depends on the compatibility with
environmental technologies, the infrastructure and the
attraction with reasonable price.
TOYOTA’S APPROACH TOWARDS THE
ULTIMATE POWERTRAIN AND ITS KEY
TECHNOLOGIES
Fig.5 shows Toyota’s progression towards the ultimate
powertrain. It varies widely from current mainstream to
future technology.
The efficiency of CNG engines is similar to that of
gasoline engines but CO2 emission is lower by
approximately 26% (comparison with the same calorific
value). However, CNG engines have many drawbacks
including the infrastructure issues mentioned above.
The popularity of electronic vehicles (EV) faces great
barriers that include expensive battery cost, long
charging time, short cruising range and insufficient
infrastructure. It seems that EV are limited to niche
markets such as shared use.
Fig.5: Toyota’s Approach towards the future Powertrain
It is clear that gasoline and diesel engines will continue
to be the mainstream automotive power sources for the
next 20 to 30 years, because they meet customer
demands and have well-developed infrastructures.
Hybrid technology systems are attractive because they
offer high efficiency and low emissions and are
compatible with the mainstream infrastructure. Moreover,
these systems provide flexibility because various power
sources, including fuel cells, can be used.
The key technologies of gasoline and diesel engines and
hybrid vehicles will be described in this section.
GASOLINE ENGINES
An emission control system consisting of intake port
injection and a three-way catalyst is the current
mainstream for gasoline engines. Although it will be
easier to meet the future stricter exhaust emission
regulations with this system, it is behind other alternative
power sources in terms of fuel economy.
Toyota thinks the key technologies to improve fuel
economy are (1) variable valve timing (VVTi), (2) direct
fuel injection (D-4) and (3) engine down sizing by use of
the turbo charger. Toyota has developed VVTi and D-4
and made continuous efforts to reduce mechanical
friction losses.
Toyota widely adopted VVTi for the intake valvetrain first
and then extended the adoption to the exhaust
valvetrain to maximize fuel economy and engine
performance improvements. D-4 can improve the engine
performance by suppressing knock and increasing the
air charge efficiency. It is also widely recognized that the
lean combustion made possible by D-4 can dramatically
increase fuel economy. Boosting technology, which
allows engine down sizing, is the most important
direction to further fuel economy improvement.
Toyota launched a new Direct Injection V6 engine in
2003 (Fig.6). The new engine achieved 188kW
maximum power and 314Nm maximum torque. As
shown in Fig.7, the performance is at the top level of
3.0L naturally aspirated gasoline engines. Additionally,
this engine meets the Japanese ULEV exhaust emission
standard by using stratified-combustion fast-warm-up
technology. [5]
Fig.8 shows the control system schematically. The new
engine adopted the 2nd generation stoichiometric D-4
system and the intake and exhaust VVTi system to
obtain high performance and high thermal efficiency.
Thus, the control system is considerably complicated
and the calibration is very time consuming. It will be hard
to complete the calibration effort within reasonable time
and cost constraints if a few new devices are added.
 The main issues for diesel engines are to reduce
Particulate Matter (PM) and NOx emission. The
development of after treatment technologies such as a
lean NOx catalyst and a particulate filter are urgent
issues. Fig. 10 shows Toyota’s newly developed after
treatment system. The totally new catalyst system,
known as the Diesel Particulate NOx Reduction system
(DPNR system), can reduce both NOx and PM
simultaneously. Toyota thinks that DPNR is one of the
core technologies to make diesel engines sufficiently
clean.

The fuel injection control of a diesel engine is more

complex than gasoline engine control because it has
many more variables to control combustion. Controls to
Fig.6: New V6 3.0L Direct Injection Gasoline Engine reduce exhaust emissions and to recover the catalyst
(3GR-FSE) from sulphur poisoning are also necessary. Therefore, a
sophisticated control system is required to manage the
320
many variables. A reduction of the calibration effort is
300 also necessary.
280
Torque Nm

260 Improvement by
Direct Injection
240 Toyota CR-TDI
Improvement by Ex-VVT
220 99 00 01 02 03
CD(2L) 　　☆
200 DPNR
1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 7000
Engine Speed rpm KD(3L)

ND(1.4L)
Fig.7: Performance of New V6 3.0L Gasoline Engine 1ND- FTV Specification
Displacement ( cc ) 1363
Cylinder number L4
Bore / Stroke (mm) 73 / 81.4
1.Fuel Pump
9
2.Fuel Pump Regist er
1ND- FTV Compression ratio 18.5
3.Crank Angle Senser
17
4.Cam Angle Senser

5 6 12 18
5.Air Cleaner
6.Int ake Air Temp.Senser
Fig.9: Toyota CR-TDI engine
7.Air Flow Met er
7
11 24 8.Water Temp.　Senser
9.32bit 　ECU
(Electronic Control Unit)
16 10.Accelerater Pedal Position Senser
15 4 4 15
16 25
27 25 11.Throttle Position Senser
4 EGR control valve Common rail fuel NOx storage reduction catalyst
10 12.Throttle Controller
16 16
13.Injector injection system
4
13
14.Knock Senser EGR cooler Direct injection
26
19
15.Elect ronic Ignition diesel engine
14 19
16.Oil Cont rol Valve
20 20
(for VVT-i Control) Inter-
8 17.VSV cooler DPNR Fine porous ceramic structure
23 (for EVAP. Purge Control) catalyst
21
18.Rotary Solenoid Valve Intake Exhaust
22
3 ( for Acoust ic Cont rol Induction Sy stem ) Air gas Enlarged view of
1 Exhaust exhaust gas flowing
19.A/F Senser gas substrate wall
21 2 20.Warm Up -ThreeWay Catalytic Converter
Turbo charger Thermo sensor
21.Oxgen Senser Structure　of DPNR catalyst
22. ThreeWay Catalytic Converter 23.Charcoal Canister 24. EDU(Electric Driver Unit)
25.SCV(Swirl Control Valve)　　　 26.Fuel Pressure Senser 27.High Pressure Fuel Pump
Fig.10: DPNR System
Fig.8: System Diagram of Engine Control

POWERTRAIN PACKAGE (CVT)

DIESEL ENGINES
It is equally important to improve the drivetrain. Toyota
High-pressure direct injection and the Common Rail introduced a new powertrain package consisting of a D-
(CR) fuel system are becoming the mainstream for 4 engine and a Continuously Variable Transmission
diesel engines. The line-up of Toyota CR direct injection (CVT) into the market in 2000. The right figure of Fig. 11
engines is shown in Fig. 9. shows the engine operating strategy. As shown in the
figure, the engine is operated along the optimum fuel
economy line of the D-4 engine. This is a good example
to show that the coordinated control of an engine and a parallel hybrid system in order to maximize the benefits
transmission can dramatically improve fuel economy. of both systems. [7][8]

Generator Voltage
Power Split
Device Inverter Booster
Gasoline M/ G I B Battery
Engine

P/G Motor
M/ G

Electricity Path
Reduction
Gear Transmission Mechanical Path
C V T U nit　

Fig.11 D-4 + CVT Fig.13 System Configuration of ‘03THS

Fig.14 shows the progress of THS performance.

Generally with conventional powertrains, the better
HYBRID VEHICLE (HV) power performance is, the worse fuel economy is.
Hybrid systems can be configured to enhance the fun-to-
Market Penetration drive performance while retaining better fuel efficiency.

The Toyota Hybrid System (THS) consists of a gasoline

engine and two motor-generators. It was installed in
Prius, the first mass-production hybrid vehicle in the
world, and introduced into the market in December 1997.
Prius has gained the reputation as a highly innovative
vehicle and the cumulative worldwide sales have
exceeded 140,000 units through 2003 (Fig.12).
Variations of THS include the THS-C, which adopts a
CVT and is installed in Estima, and THS-M, which is a
mild hybrid system installed in Crown. THS continues to
evolve and the new generation THS was installed in
New Prius in 2003. The new THS achieved higher Fig14: Progress of Toyota Hybrid System
compatibility between high efficiency, low emission and
80
high performance. The new THS also boosted sales US Comb.
70 Hybrid A
volume ensuring that hybrid vehicles will achieve ‘03 THS
Fuel Economy (MPG)

significant market penetration. 60 ‘00 THS

50 Hybrid B

40

30

20

10
1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 7000
Vehicle I.W. (LBS)

Fig. 15 Fuel Economy in the US Market (Comb. mode)

Fig.12 Sales Volume of Toyota Hybrid Vehicles

Potential of Hybrid Vehicle
Fig.13 shows the configuration of the THS. THS consists
of the high expansion ratio cycle (Atkinson cycle) engine,
the high power AC asynchronous motor with inverter,
the high performance Nickel-Metal Hydride (Ni-MH)
battery, the high voltage booster, and the planetary gear.
This system combines the series hybrid system with the
Fig. 15 shows the fuel economy versus vehicle inertia
weight in the US combined mode for several vehicles.
Hybrid vehicles have superior fuel economy when
compared with conventional vehicles.
Fig.16 shows the CO2 emission of production vehicles in
the European market. It is obvious in this figure that THS
has the advantage to reduce CO2 even when compared
with diesel vehicles.
 Fig.19 shows the regeneration brake system of THS-C
300
Gasoline known as the Electronically Controlled Brake system
Diesel
CO2 Emission (g/km)

250 (ECB). In this system, the brake system cannot be

independent of the powertrain and coordinated control is
200
needed. [9]
150
Brake-ECU
'00 THS
100
Front
'03 THS Brake actuator
Stroke
50 simulator
500 1000 1500 2000 2500 Friction Solenoid valve
brake Hydraulic pressure control unit Solenoid
Vehicle I.W. (kg) valve
Regenerative
Fig. 16 CO2 Emission in European market (EC mode) brake
CVT Engine

Front motor Rear motor

At present, the gasoline vehicle is the mainstream in Inverter Inverter

Battery
Japanese and US markets because of its low emission
Powertrain-ECU
potential. In Europe, the diesel vehicle prevails because
of its fuel economy benefit and higher torque. As Fig. 19 Regeneration Brake System of THS-C
mentioned earlier, it is becoming more important to have
increased compatibility between fuel economy and ECB is a good example of the integration of the
emission. Fig. 17 shows the comparison of emission powertrain and the vehicle control system. Such a
potential between a gasoline hybrid vehicle and a diesel coordinated control becomes very important to take full
vehicle. The gasoline hybrid vehicle has the potential to advantage of the potential arising from the integration
drastically reduce NOx, and PM while realizing with Vehicle Stability Control (VSC), electronically
compatibility with fuel economy. controlled power steering, navigation and air
conditioning systems.

FUTURE POWERTRAIN CONTROL

Electronic controls of current powertrain systems have

been become more accurate and sophisticated to meet
the stricter emission regulations and the increasingly
diverse customer demands. Recently, the hybrid vehicle,
which requires the integration of various control systems,
has been introduced to the market. The various actions
Fig. 17: Comparison of Emission Potential to improve combustion and the cylinder gas exchange
processes in order to address the global warming issue
Correlation between Powertrain and Vehicle are described above. These actions require changes in
automotive engine mechanical structures, additional
Hybrid vehicle technology involves not only the electronic devices and highly complicated controls.
powertrain but also vehicle total control. Fig. 18 shows Therefore, increasing execution speed and memory size
the breakdown of the improved fuel economy of THS. of powertrain controllers will be inevitable as shown in
The effect of regeneration while braking is a relatively Fig.20.
large part of the improvement. (MIPS)

400
CPU speed

City
City Mode
Mode Highway
Highway Mode
Mode
100 Engine
100
Consumption [%]

improvement
Index of Fuel

Engine
operating area 10
Idle stop (Bytes)
V8 Engine
Regeneration 1M
ROM size

50
500

L4 Engine

Gasoline AT THS vehicle 200

00 02 04 06 08
=100%
year
Fig. 18 Effect of Engine Improvement
Fig.20 Trend of automotive engine controller
Fig. 20 also implies an increasing effort for control
system development. The complexity of powertrain
controls is bringing Non Polynomial (NP) difficulty as test
cases exponentially increase. This means that the
improvement of the control system development
productivity is also strongly required. Future powertrain
control systems will require not only sophisticated
control technologies but also highly productive
development environments.
MODEL BASED DEVELOPMENT
There are a lot of iteration paths in the current
powertrain control system development process.
Changing hardware that strongly affects control software
development causes some of the iterations. Those
iterations could be removed if the system designers
could know the closed loop system behaviors in the
early design stage. Model Based Development (MBD) is
expected to provide this knowledge in the development
environment. Fig. 21 is the concept of the MBD process.
There are two models, powertrain and controller, in the
process.
Fig.21 Concept of model based development
EMBEDDED CODE DEVELOPMENT
Requirements&
Validation
Constraints Analysis
System Design
System Specification Verification
Software Design
Software module Verification
Specification
Auto-C Generation
Fig.22 V process for embedded control system
development
Almost all carmakers have activities to realize the V
process (Fig.22) that consists of cascaded specification /
verification procedure pairs with the verification set
according to the specification. The purpose of the
process is to check the quality of each procedure
outcome and to avoid iteration paths.
Computer Aided Control System Design (CACSD) tools
and real time simulation technologies will support the
process. Automatic Code Generation (ACG) is emerging
and about to be deployed in production development.
Recently, diagrams drawn in Simulink and Stateflow1
are commonly used in the automotive industry. Simulink
describes data transfers with block diagrams and
Stateflow mainly describes when a task should be
performed with state transition diagrams and flow charts.
So, it is said that Simulink describes data flow and
Stateflow describes control flow. Stateflow was initially
developed by the cooperation of The MathWorks Inc.
and Toyota and Stateflow’s capability to describe the
specification has been widely accepted. The code
generated automatically from the diagrams is becoming
acceptable for production usage. The increase of
memory size is about 1.25 times as shown in Fig.23.
This efficiency is acceptable for many OEMs.
The remaining issue is the reliability of the tool-chain for
production usage. To ensure reliability, the Matlab
Automotive Advisory Board (MAAB) and Japan-MAAB
have developed style guidelines to describe a
specification of automotive controls. However, there is
consensus that a lot of experience is still needed in each
OEM and supplier. Automatic code generation can
reduce the software development period by 20% as
shown in Fig. 24. When we can remove the verification
process, it can be reduced by 50% also as shown in Fig.
24.
1.4
(Auto code gen /Hand code)
1.2
Increase of Memory size
System 0.8 P roject A
(Engine +ECU)
P roject B
0.6
P roject C
Combining
0.4
Electronic Control Unit 0.2
Assembling modules 0
RO M RAM
Software modules
Fig. 23 The memory size increase of automatically
generated code
1
Simulink and Stateflow are registered trademarks of
The MathWorks, Inc., Natick, MA.
 Development time controller and the closed loop behaviors are observed
as shown in Fig. 25. However with this method, a vast

Modification
Before number of data and tests are necessary to guarantee

Verification

Verification

Integration
Software

Coding
Coding
Software
Verification
introducing design
& Validation sufficient reliability.
ACG
“Formal method” is a very interesting emerging
technology that promises to reduce verification and

Modification
After
Verification

Verification

Integration
Software

introducing
Software
design
Verification 20% validation time. Improvements and applications of
& Validation
ACG methods in this area are highly encouraged. Toyota is
keen to have methodologies and good tools that make
verification and validation processes remarkably efficient.
Modification
Verification

Verification
Integration

Future Software Software 50%

design V&V
(Target)

Test Tested car

Fig. 24 The effect of automatic code generation on the condition
software development productivity
Test Controller
scenario

There are applicable standardization activities like Fig. 25 The current paradigm of verification method
OSEK/VDX, Automotive Open System Architecture
(AUTOSAR) and The Motor Industry Software Reliability
Association (MISRA). OSEK/VDX is the combination of
the abbreviation of German meaning “Open Systems MODEL BASED CONTROL
and the Corresponding Interfaces for Automotive
Electronics” and “Vehicle Distributed Executive”. The Model based control offers the potential to derive an
former was an activity in Germany and the latter was an accurate controller rapidly and systematically. It is
activity in France. Both activities were merged in 1995. especially useful for developing a coordinated control
OSEK/VDX introduced the open architecture in the system like those present in a hybrid vehicle. The model
following three areas. can provide a good interface among the relevant
engineers who have different technical fields and the
Communication (Data exchange within and between required knowledge can be shared through the model.
Control Units)
Model based control is characterized by a plant model
Network Management (Configuration determination and that describes the dynamics of the system to be
monitoring) controlled and allows closed loop simulation. The
number of the model based control applications, which
Operating System (Real-time executive for ECU can be often derived heuristically, has been increasing.
software and basis for the other OSEK/VDX modules) This indicates that model based control has a potentially
big advantage. A high fidelity powertrain model can
AUTOSAR intends to provide a common software make it easy to introduce advanced control technologies
infrastructure for automotive systems in order to achieve including recent developments in robust, adaptive and
the modularity, scalability, transferability and re-usability nonlinear control. Advanced, high-speed data
of functions based on standardized interfaces from processing will provide sophisticated filtering
controller hardware to application software modules. technologies to extract important information from
MISRA guidelines can be interesting for safe and measured signals.
reliable software development. These activities will
spread widely in the automotive industry. However, fundamental questions remain for the current
control theories. For an example, control designs are
VERIFICATION AND VALIDATION often subject to unrealistic restrictions such as the need
to neglect time delays and manipulation constraints, the
In Fig.22, “verification” means to certify the equivalence linearization of plants and so on. Even so, recent
of a developed code to its specification and “validation” advances in control theories combined with CACSD
means to guarantee the quality in the market. tools continue to encourage us to apply them for
Verification and validation procedures are very important automotive control designs.
to ensure the reliability of a developed system but
awfully time consuming processes. The current
paradigm of the process reuses critical test scenario and
expected results data. These data are fed to the
MODEL BASED CALIBRATION

Model based calibration means the use of plant models

for calibration purposes. There are over 15,000 control
parameters determined by experiments in a typical
gasoline engine controller. The reduction of calibration
effort has become one of the most serious concerns.
Plant models are categorized into physical model and
statistical models. Statistical engine models expressed
by the linear combinations of basis functions can
remarkably reduce the number of experiments because
the model parameters can be determined from fewer
experimental data. Such methods can be also applied to
transient calibration by introducing dynamic models,
such as the Auto Regressive Mean Average (ARMA)
model.

Numerical optimization methods become very important
to yield the best model and calibrated map. They are
usually time consuming calculations. Grid computing,
which realizes distributed computations on the network,
can be expected to reduce calculation times in the near
future.
The integration of statistical models and physical models
is expected to reduce the number of experiments
dramatically. The integration with automated calibration
facilities including high-speed data transmission and
management systems is another direction to increase
productivity. Standardization efforts like Association for
Standardization of Automation and Measuring Systems
(ASAM) are the desired direction to efficiently establish
more productive calibration environments.
Fig. 26 An example of desirable engine modeling
Thus, a co-simulation environment with seamless
integration of calibration tools, simulation tools and a
model repository is required.
The V process should be extended to include powertrain
hardware development. The data exchange between the
hardware design and control software design could
improve the development productivity. Therefore, the
data and model sharing system and development
process management systems are highly required.

FUTURE PROSPECT OF POWERTRAIN

POWERTRAIN MODELING ENVIRONMENT WELL TO WHEEL EFFICIENCY

As mentioned above, vehicle and powertrain models
play an important role to improve the control system
development productivity. Rapid modeling is especially
key. Powertrain modeling requires fully integrated
physical domain models including mechanical dynamics,
fluid dynamics, heat transfer, chemical reaction and so
on. There are a lot of Graphic User Interface (GUI) tools
designed to model specific physical domains. But it is
difficult to find a tool capable of constructing a fully
mixed physical domain model. The engine model in the
Fig. 26 shows a desirable feature of engine modeling. It
is constructed by assembling model elements that
correspond to the physical hardware components. Each
model element is modeled in multi physical domain.
From the viewpoint of saving energy resources, the
“Well to wheel efficiency” that captures all of the energy
efficiency (the mining, the transportation, the refinement,
the distribution and the vehicle efficiency) is very
important.
Fig.27 shows the well to wheel efficiency of various
powertrains operated in the Japanese 10-15 mode. The
well to wheel efficiency of the ‘03 THS exceeds the
current fuel cell vehicle. Thus, the development of
production hybrid vehicles forces fuel cell vehicle targets
to be set higher. A hybrid vehicle and a fuel cell vehicle
are good competitors in pursuing ultimate efficiency and
emission.
 Well to Tank to
Tank Wheel Total Efficiency(%) Future powertrain control systems will be highly
(%) (%) 0 10 20 30 40
Current
integrated with other control systems and networking
Gasoline AT 88 16 14%
technology will be deployed rapidly. Data processing
1st Gen. 22%(Ref. THS with
conventional engine)
THS 88 28
25%
technology will expand beyond the car area network and
'03 88 37 32%
link with outside infrastructure. Each individual control
THS
'02
system will also become more sophisticated. These
FCHV 58*1 50 29%
changes are exponential and it is difficult to completely
FCHV
(Target) 70 60 42% foresee the future. On the other hand, we have already
Toyota Data: Japanese 10-15 mode
*1 Natural gas to hydrogen
encountered the limitations caused by the NP difficulty.
To address this difficulty, the control system
development process revolution is an urgent issue.
Fig. 27 Well to Wheel Efficiency
It will be possible for hybrid vehicles to achieve 40%
FUTURE PROSPECTS system efficiency in a city-driving mode, which means its
well to wheel efficiency will approach that of a future fuel
From a viewpoint of energy supply, conventional cell vehicle. Moreover, it is feasible for a fuel cell vehicle
gasoline and diesel engine vehicles are the mainstream to adopt hybrid technologies, which is why Toyota
in the future. And it will be necessary to make design believes that the hybrid system with sophisticated
modifications to diesel and gasoline engine systems to control system is the core technology in the coming
adopt hybrid functions such as idle stop and future.
regeneration.

Furthermore, limiting the operating area or relaxing the

CONCLUSION
response requirements of the engines used in hybrid
vehicle systems seems to have possibilities for improved
(1) The keywords for the future powertrain technologies
efficiency and emissions that could not be achieved in
are high efficiency and low emissions. However, The
conventional vehicles. In other words, a hybrid system’s
penetration of new powertrains depends on the
flexibility can be a powerful tool to improve engine
compatibility with the environmental technologies, the
performance. Homogeneous charged compression
infrastructure and the attraction with reasonable price.
ignition, fully variable valve train and heat loss recovery
are some examples that could be exploited. In the future,
(2) Toyota’s approach towards the ultimate powertrain
it may be more important to optimize internal combustion
varies widely from current mainstream to future
engines for cooperation with hybrid systems.
technology. Gasoline and diesel engines will be the
mainstream power sources for the next 20 – 30 years.
Fig. 28 shows the technical relationship between the
hybrid vehicle and the fuel cell vehicle, which has a
(3) Model based control is one of the essential
promising future. Even though the power sources differ
technologies for managing the rapidly increasing
widely from each other, in that one is engine and the
powertrain control complexity. It is also useful to
other is fuel cell based, it is possible for hybrid vehicle
efficiently develop coordinated control systems that
technologies such as battery, motor, inverter, and
integrate powertrain control and other automotive control
regeneration, to evolve into fuel cell vehicle application.
systems.
From this perspective, hybrid vehicles and their
technologies have great possibilities in the future.
(4) Model based development of control software
including automatic embedded code generation is about
Hybrid Vehicle Fuel Cell Vehicle to be deployed in production development to improve
the control system development productivity. Model
based verification and validation is highly required to
further improve the development process.

Good Competitor (5) The hybrid vehicle system is promising as one of the
Engine Tech. FC Tech.
systems capable of realising compatibility between fuel
Common Tech. economy and emissions. Toyota believes that the hybrid
system with a sophisticated control system is the core
>Motor >Vehicle >Regeneration
>Inverter power brake
technology in the coming future.
>Battery management

Fig. 28 Evolution of Hybrid Technologies

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