6th IFAC Symposium Advances in Automotive Control

Munich, Germany, July 12-14, 2010

An Observer for Sensorless Variable Valve

Control in Camless Internal Combustion
Engines
Paolo Mercorelli

University of Applied Sciences Wolfsburg

Faculty of Automotive Engineering
Robert-Koch-Platz 12, 38440 Wolfsburg, Germany
Tel. +49-(0)5361-831615 Fax. +49-(0)5361-831602.
p.mercorelli@fh-wolfsburg.de

Abstract: Camless internal combustion engines offer improvements over traditional engines, in
terms of increased torque performance and fuel economy, and decreased emissions and pumping
losses. Theoretically, their control flexibility provides electromagnetic valve actuators with the
highest potential for improving efficiency. Sensorless control is one of the most important issues
with implementations of this new technology. The main contribution of this paper is the proposal
of a hysteresis hybrid observer that combines an extended Kalman filter and hybrid automation,
resulting in a sensorless control. The proposed hysteresis strategy allows the avoidance of not
only chattering problems but to trade with possible not observable sets. Current is measured
and position as well as velocity of the electromagnetic valve are estimated. Real measured data
are used to show the effectiveness of the proposed method.

Keywords: Hybrid observer, Kalman filter, actuators, estimation.

1. INTRODUCTION about 0.1 m/s. Recent investigations, for example as pre-

Variable engine valve control has attracted a lot of at-
tention recently, because of its ability to improve fuel
economy, reduce NOx emissions, and increase torque per-
formance over a wider range compared with a conventional
spark-ignition engine. In addition to purely mechanical or
electro-hydraulic variable valve train options, electrome-
chanical valve actuators have been described in past work
[S. Butzmann et al. 2000], [K. S. Peterson et al. 2003].
Theoretically, electromagnetic valve actuators offer the
highest potential for improving fuel economy due to their
control flexibility. In particular, these actuators provide
variable control of the superposition of intake and exhaust
trajectories which can improve the combustion phases
of the motor. A schematic of the proposed system is
provided in Fig. 1 and the accompanying phase dia-
gram. The control of such actuators is very challeng-
ing, since it usually involves a highly dynamic nonlin-
ear problem with widely fluctuating and unknown ex-
ternal disturbances. Highly dynamic control is needed,
since the valve opening and closing over a desired ve-
locity trajectory has to be performed within a few mil-
liseconds, leading to acceleration values of around 2500
m/s2 . Simultaneously, strong and varying disturbances
caused by the gas pressure in the combustion cham-
ber acting against the valves can significantly affect the
valve opening process and the achievable trajectory ac-
curacy. Furthermore, the ability to achieve a soft land-
ing is an important control issue; this requires that the
valve closing is performed with a seating velocity under
sented in [W. Hoffmann et al. 2001, C. Tai et al. 2003],
especially consider disturbance rejection in their control
systems, e.g., they apply a repetitive learning control based
on the position measurement. However, in real applications
it is often desirable to implement the control without need-
ing a position sensor, due to the very restricted mounting
space and the expense. In this case an estimator could be
the basis for a sensorless control, in which position and
velocity signals are reconstructed from electrical measure-
ments [J. Melbert et al. 2000, P. Mercorelli et al. 2005],
[C. Tai et al. 2003]. However, achieving a soft landing is
a difficult job which requires a highly precise state esti-
mation. The extended Kalman filter (EKF) is an optimal
estimator based on the least squares method for estimating
the states of dynamic nonlinear systems; thus, it is a viable
and computationally efficient candidate for the online de-
termination of the rotor position and speed of the electro-
magnetic valve. Digital implementations of the EKF have
been investigated in great detail [S. Bolognani et al. 2001].
The Mixed Logical Dynamical formulation of hybrid sys-
tems is given in [A. Bemporad et al. 2000].
In [G. Ferrari-Tracate et al. 2003], an algorithm based on
multi-parametric programming was proposed for comput-
ing the maximal observability region of a discrete time
hybrid system. Most of the contributions deal with piece-
wise systems. In general, since these control structures
avoid bulky and complicated measurement systems, they
are highly applicable to real world problems. The proposed
method is quite general and could be applied to all types of
problems in which position and velocity measurements are
not possible or are too expensive to be acquired. Overall,

978-3-902661-72-2/10/$20.00 © 2010 IFAC 306 10.3182/20100712-3-DE-2013.00005

AAC 2010
Munich, Germany, July 12-14, 2010

in parameter values, and (iii) the set points of regulations

determines actuator signals. As a result, online real-time
sensorless control requires appropriate model selection and
switching. The remainder of the paper is organized as
follows. Section 2 describes the mathematical model of the
considered system and its observability. In section 3 the
Hysteresis Hybrid Extended Kalman filter is presented.
Real measured results together with the conclusions and
outlook close the paper.

2. MATHEMATICAL MODEL OF THE PROPOSED

VALVE AND ITS OBSERVABILITY

Fig. 2 illustrates the operational principle of the engine

valves to be controlled. Valves are critical to engine op-
eration. The intake valve permits air and fuel to rush
into the cylinder so that combustion can take place. The
exhaust valve subsequently releases the spent fuel and air
mixture from the cylinder. It is obvious that the timing of
Fig. 1. 4 Cylinder system motor with electromagnetic valve the valves’ opening and closing has a significant influence
on the engine efficiency and fuel economy. The optimal
camless internal combustion engines offer many improve- timing depends on the concurrent operating conditions of
ments over traditional engines, including increased torque the engine, and the two valves should therefore be con-
performance and fuel economy, and reduced emissions and trolled individually. In conventional spark-ignition engines,
pumping losses. The main contributions of this paper are: the valves are driven by the camshaft and their timing
is fixed to the engine speed. The use of electromagnetic
• the introduction of an observer for a sensorless control valve actuators decouples the valve timing from the en-
scheme gine speed and allows for complete timing variability. As
• the use of an extended Kalman Filter based on two
switching models combined with hysteresis automa-
tion.
This paper provides an extensive description of an appli-
cation that combines a hysteresis hybrid observer with an
extended Kalman filter and hysteresis automation, result-
ing in sensorless control. The hybrid observer scheme is
designed to expand upon the continuous extended Kalman
filter. The proposed structure consists of two models that
each embed two functions. Hysteresis is introduced to
avoid chattering problems when the velocity is close to
zero, and to handle unobservable sets or to find a working
compromise at those points where the observability func-
tion of the system assumes small values. Through a change
in variables, the authors in [G. Zhu et al. 2001] obtained
a nonlinear system which consisted of an observable linear
part and a Lipschitz nonlinear part. This approach is not
feasible here since the system does not satisfy the condi-
tion in [F. E. Thau 1973]. The current is measured, and
the position and velocity of the electromagnetic valve are Fig. 2. On the left: detail of the cylinder. On the right:
estimated. The behavior of the plant evolves continually, cross-section view of the perpendicular linear actua-
governed by the physical parameters of the plant compo- tor.
nents and their interconnections. Despite the continuous
nature of the physical system, its mathematical model an example of the valve operating conditions, consider
includes a parameter which changes its sign dependent on a frequency of 6000 rpm. During the valve opening and
the observed velocity (see Section 2). As a consequence, closing, a distance of 8 mm must be covered within a time
the behavior analysis and the estimation of the entire state interval of about 4 ms (6000 cycles per minute). Thus,
require the modeling of multiple systems. Moreover, corre- high accelerations up to 4000 m/s2 have to be achieved,
sponding to the state of the art of the Volkswagen project even though large disturbances may result due to the
[S. Braune et al. 2006], the controller generates actuator strong cylinder pressure acting against the exhaust valve
signals at discrete time points that are influenced by var- opening. Thus, the actuator design must account for high
ious factors: (i) the operational control mode of the plant forces coupled with low moving mass. Furthermore, cop-
requires turning components ON and OFF (for instance, per loss and the physical size of the actuator are also
switching from a feedback to a feedforward mode), (ii) the very important parameters that must be considered. Most
nonlinear characteristic of the valve motor affects changes of the electromechanical valve actuators that have been

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 AAC 2010
Munich, Germany, July 12-14, 2010

reported in the literature are based on the principle of
electromagnets [S. Butzmann et al. 2000], and they use
Maxwell attracting forces at both ends of the motion
range. This operation principle is easy to implement, but
it is difficult to control and it particularly lacks the ability
to influence the valve motion in the middle range. Thus,
variable opening strokes, which recently have been proven
to be efficient for engine operation, are hardly possible.
In [S. Braune et al. 2006], a combination of a linear motor
and a reluctance motor was presented. The same principal
was used in [S. Braune and K.-D. Kramer 2007] in which
a rotational geometry for the actuator was used to achieve
a more compact structure and a larger resulting moment.
The force characteristics are shown in Fig. 3 and it can
be clearly seen that the controllability of the motor in the
central part of the characteristic is lost. In any case, the
compact structure of the valve and its relative large value
moment at the starting point (valve closed) make this
structure very attractive. The presented electromagnetic
0.8
2 corresponds to 4000 rpm.
0.6 20 A/mm
2
0.4 10 A/mm
5 A/mm2
Force (kN)
constants, and ϕP ol is the angular position of the stator
poles. J is the inertia of the moving part of the actuator-
valve system, and Mf ric is the friction torque modeled by
Mf ric = kd1 sign(ω(t)) + kd2 ω(t), (7)
with the damping coefficients kd1 and, kd2 . The spring
torque is represented by
Mk = kf ϕ(t), (8)
and at the end, Md indicates the disturbance torque (gas
pressure) acting on the armature. The main goal of the
control system is to move the valve from the fully-closed to
the fully-opened position (and vice versa), while avoiding
noisy and wearing collisions against the hard mechanical
stops. Furthermore, closed loop position control is neces-
sary to prevent unpredictable valve movement. Thus, one
of the key factors is the availability of a proper position
measurement.
The variable stroke must be between 0 and 8 mm, and is
to be realized typically within a time interval of 4 ms (6000
rpm). In our work we consider a trajectory of 6 ms, which
~ 4 ms

0.2

0 0 A/mm2

−0.2 2
−5 A/mm
−0.4 −10 A/mm
2 0 – 8 mm
−0.6 −20 A/mm2

−0.8
−30 −20 −10 0 10 20 30
Valve 2 Angular position ( ° ) Valve 1
8 4 0 0 4
Stroke (mm)

Fig. 3. Combined physical characteristics of the intake and Fig. 4. Opening and closing loop for valve operation
exhaust valve for different current values.
actuator can be modeled mathematically as follows: 2.1 Some heuristic considerations on the observability
∂iCoil (t) RCoil uin (t) − uq (t) A heuristic criterion is to check where the physical con-
=− iCoil (t) + (1)
∂t LCoil LCoil nection between the mechanical and electrical system de-
ϕ̇(t) = ω(t) (2) creases or goes to zero. Although this criterion does not
M (ϕ(t), iCoil (t)) Mf ric + Mk + Md guarantee any conclusions about observability, it could be
ω̇(t) = + (3) useful in an initial analysis of the system. In fact, it is
J J well known that the observability is an analytic concept
Equation (1) represents the electrical system of the actua- connected with the concept of distinguishability. In the
tor. Equations (2) and (3) describe the mechanical behav- presented case the following two terms
ior of the actuator as shown in Fig. 2, and equation (3) also
πϕ(t) π
includes the magnetic system. The state is represented by uq (t) = k1 sin( + )ω(t) and M (ϕ(t), iCoil (t))
the coil current iCoil (t), the valve angular position ϕ(t), ϕP ol 2
and its angular velocity ω(t). The following expression are responsible for the feedback mentioned above. If the
M (ϕ(t), iCoil (t)) = M0 (ϕ(t)) + Mi (ϕ(t), iCoil (t)), (4) term uq (t) → 0, and M (ϕ(t), iCoil (t)) 6= 0 when ω(t) → 0,
then the above tests result in unobservability. In fact, since
describes the torque generated by the actuator, where equation (2) for ω(t) → 0 is satisfied by more than one
angular position ϕ(t), this yields the indistinguishability of
2πϕ(t) the states and thus the unobservability. If ϕ(t) → ϕP2ol , it is
M0 (ϕ(t)) = k2 sin(π + ) (5)
ϕP ol noticed that both terms uq (t) → 0 and M (ϕ(t), iCoil (t)) →
πϕ(t) π 0; nevertheless, equation (2) is unequivocally satisfied and
Mi (ϕ, iCoil (t)) = iCoil (t)k1 sin( + ). (6) yields observability. Despite this result, at point ϕP2ol the
ϕP ol 2
Kalman gains assume large values and the estimation loses
In equation (1) uq (t) = k1 sin( πϕ(t) π
ϕP ol + 2 )ω(t) represents the its precision. In fact, if the observability is calculated as a
induced electromagnetic voltage, k1 and, k2 are physical function at this point, it assumes a minimum. In Section

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AAC 2010
Munich, Germany, July 12-14, 2010
4, this topic is discussed further and measurement results
are presented. The unobservable sets should be avoided
in the observer design; thus, a thorough analysis of the
observability is important. Sensorless operations tend to
performs poorly in a low-speed environment, since non-
linear observer-based algorithms work only if the rotor
speed is high enough. In the low-speed region, an open
loop control strategy must be considered. One of the first
attempts to develop an open loop observer for a per-
manent motor drive is described in [R. Wu et al. 1991].
In more recent work [G. Zhu et al. 2001], the authors
proposed a nonlinear state observer for the sensorless
control of a permanent magnet AC machine, which
is based to a great extent on the work described in
[R. Rajamani 1998] and [F. E. Thau 1973]. The approach
presented in [R. Rajamani 1998] and [F. E. Thau 1973]
consists of an observable linear system and a Lipschitz
nonlinear part. The observer is basically a Luenenberger
observer, in which the gain is calculated through a Lya-
punov approach. In [G. Zhu et al. 2001], the authors used
a change of variables to obtain a nonlinear system consist-
ing of an observable linear part and a Lipschitz nonlinear
part. In the work presented here, our system does not
satisfy the condition in [F. E. Thau 1973]; thus, a Lue-
nenberger observer is not feasible. Instead, an approach
using a hysteresis hybrid EKF is proposed to: (i) work
in the state sets where the system is unobservable or the
observability level does not guarantee a good detection of
the state variables, and (ii) minimize the noise effect due
to the measurements.
3. TRACKING HYBRID BEHAVIOR
Our state estimation architecture tracks the nominal sys-
tem dynamics using a robust observer scheme implemented
as a combination of an Extended Kalman Filter (EKF)
and a hysteresis automation. The hybrid observer has
to track: (i) continuous behavior in individual modes of
operation, and (ii) discrete mode changes (controlled and
autonomous). At mode changes, the new state space model
and the initial state of the system are recomputed, and
the error covariance matrix is updated. The hybrid ob-
server scheme is designed to expand upon the continu-
ous extended Kalman filter. Hysteresis is introduced to
avoid chattering problems when the velocity is close to
zero. Model uncertainty and measurement noise are imple-
mented as white noise, using uncorrelated Gaussian distri-
butions with zero mean. The model discussed in Section 2
can be rewritten as:
ẋ = f(x(t)) + Bm u(t) + w(t),

1
 In Fig. 6 the measured current is depicted. Fig. 7 directly
iCoil
" #
where x(t) = ϕ(t) , Bm =  LCoil 0 ,
 
ω(t)
0
function f represents the nonlinearities, and w(t) is the
model uncertainty. The measured output can be written
as:
y(t) = Hm x(t) + ζ(t),
where Hm = [1 0 0], and ζ(t) is the measurement
noise covariance. According to [S. Bolognani et al. 2001],
the discrete extended Kalman filter is defined as follows.
In the prediction mode q, the predicted state is:
309


x(k + 1/k) = x((k/k)) + Ts fq (x(k/k)) + Bm u(k) (9)
and the predicted error covariance matrix is
P(k + 1/k) = P(k/k) + Ts Fq (x(k/k))P(k/k)+


P(k/k)Fq (x(k/k)) + Rw , (10)
where Rw is the process noise covariance matrix, P(k/k)
is the error covariance matrix, Fq (x(k/k)) is the Jacobian
matrix of the system calculated for the estimated state,
and Ts is the sampling time.
In particular the Jacobian matrix Fq (x(k/k)) can be de-
fined as follows:
Fq (x(k/k)) =
 RCoil 1 ∂uq (t) 1 ∂uq (t)

−
LCoil
−
LCoil ∂ϕ(t)
−
LCoil ∂ω(t) 

 0 0 1 ,

1 ∂M (ϕ(t), iCoil (t)) 1 ∂M (ϕ(t), iCoil (t)) kd1 (−1)q−1 + kd2

J ∂iCoil J ∂ϕ J
with variable q = 1; 2. In the correction mode:

−1
K(k) = P(k/k − 1)HTm Hm P(k/k − 1)HTm + Rζ (11)


x(k/k) = x(k/k − 1) + K(k) y(k) − Hm x(k/k − 1) (12)
P(k/k) = P(k/k − 1) − K(k)Hm P(k/k − 1), (13)
where K(k) is the Kalman gain, and Rζ is the mea-
surement noise matrix. The Mode change calculations are
based on the system mode at time step k, q(k), and the
state of the system x(k). The appropriate mode transition
is made at time step (k + 1), to q(k + 1). Fig. 5 shows the
embedded hybrid EKF algorithm with hysteresis. From
this diagram, it is possible to see a threshold level defined
by a velocity equal to trp1 > 0. The interpretation of
this diagram is quite intuitive. Two models are built to
represent two states; the first one applies to ω(t) > −trp1 ,
and the second one applies to ω(t) > trp1 . The hysteresis
interval is [−trp1 , trp1 ]. Each state consists of two internal,
or embedded, functional modes which are related to the
correction terms for the EKF: ”switching on” and ”switch-
ing off”. In particular, when the velocity does not guaran-
tee enough observability, the correction term is deactivated
in order to avoid large Kalman gains values. The embedded
switch state structure is regulated with conditions on the
same hysteresis interval [−trp1 , trp1 ].
4. EXPERIMENTAL TESTS WITH MEASURED
DATA
shows the results about the estimation of the position.
In particular, it is easy to notice how the estimation
suffers from the lack of observability in most parts of
the trajectory. In fact, in these points the Kalman gains
become very big and the observer is not able to estimate
the state variables. By introducing a Hysteresis in the
EKF, according to the algorithm shown in scheme (5), the
estimation is improved as shown in Fig. 8. The strategy
consists of switching off the Kalman correction terms from
the observer algorithm in the sets where a low observability
level is assumed. In these sets the Kalman gains and the
covariance matrix are calculated even though their values
AAC 2010
Munich, Germany, July 12-14, 2010

Position (mm)
−2

−4
Measured Valve Position
−6 Estimated Valve Position
with EKF without Hysteresys
−8 → Kalman Corrections
always Active
−10
0 0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04 0.05 0.06
Time (sec.)

Fig. 7. Estimated trajectory position with EKF but with-

Fig. 5. Scheme of the proposed EKF with Hysteresis. out Hysteresis compared with measured trajectory
position.
are not utilized for the correction. Outside of the possible
non observable sets the corrections terms are switched on.
Fig. 8 shows the points where the observer is active with 0
and without correction terms. The introduced hysteresis
Level high:
is able to avoid chattering problems when the velocity is Kalman corrections deactivated
close to zero as well as to trade possible not observable −2
Position (mm)

sets. Fig. 10 shows how after one cycle an improvement Measured valve position
of the estimation is possible. In fact, at the beginning Estimated valve position
−4
of the second cycle the values of the covariance matrix Activation of Kalman
are well set. Fig. 11 shows the experimental setup which corrections
we are using to test the proposed algorithm in real work −6 Level low:
conditions. One of best results are achieved with the Kalman Corrections Activated
following matrices:
ζ(t) = 1; −8
0 0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04 0.05 0.06
Time (sec.)
Matrix
1.1e4 0 0
" #
Fig. 8. Estimated trajectory position with EKF but with
Rw = 0 0.3e − 5 0 Hysteresis compared with measured trajectory posi-
0 0 1.1e3 tion.
and
1 0 0
" #
P0 = 0 4e − 3 0 .
0 0 4e3 4

2
Velocity (m/sec.)

0
20
−2

10 −4
Current (A)

Measured Velocity
−6
Estimated Velocity
0
−8
0 0.02 0.04 0.06
Time (sec.)
−10
Fig. 9. Estimated trajectory velocity compared with mea-
sured trajectory.
−20
0 0.02 0.04 0.06 5. CONCLUSIONS AND FUTURE WORKS
Time (sec.)
5.1 Conclusions
Fig. 6. Measured current.
This paper describes a hysteresis hybrid observer that
combines an extended Kalman filter and hybrid automa-
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AAC 2010
Munich, Germany, July 12-14, 2010

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−6
−8
0 0.05 0.1 0.15 0.2
Time (sec.)
Fig. 10. Estimated trajectory position compared with
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Fig. 11. Experimental setup.
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