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14th ICSET-2017 IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 263 (2017) 062063 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/263/6/062063
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Model based design of electronic throttle control

Fenin Cherian1, Ashish Ranjan1, Pathikrit Bhowmick1 and A Rammohan2

1
School of Mechanical Engineering, VIT University, Vellore - 632014, India.
2
TIFAC-CORE, VIT University, Vellore - 632014, India.

E-mail: [email protected]

Abstract: With the advent of torque based Engine Management Systems, the precise control
and robust performance of the throttle body becomes a key factor in the overall performance of
the vehicle. Electronic Throttle Control provides benefits such as improved air-fuel ratio for
improving the vehicle performance and lower exhausts emissions to meet the stringent
emission norms. Modern vehicles facilitate various features such as Cruise Control, Traction
Control, Electronic Stability Program and Pre-crash systems. These systems require control
over engine power without driver intervention, which is not possible with conventional
mechanical throttle system. Thus these systems are integrated to function with the electronic
throttle control. However, due to inherent non-linearities in the throttle body, the control
becomes a difficult task. In order to eliminate the influence of this hysteresis at the initial
operation of the butterfly valve, a control to compensate the shortage must be added to the duty
required for starting throttle operation when the initial operation is detected. Therefore, a lot of
work is being done in this field to incorporate the various nonlinearities to achieve robust
control. In our present work, the ETB was tested to verify the working of the system.
Calibration of the TPS sensors was carried out in order to acquire accurate throttle opening
angle. The response of the calibrated system was then plotted against a step input signal. A
linear model of the ETB was prepared using Simulink and its response was compared with the
experimental data to find out the initial deviation of the model from the actual system. To
reduce this deviation, non-linearities from existing literature were introduced to the system and
a response analysis was performed to check the deviation from the actual system. Based on this
investigation, an introduction of a new nonlinearity parameter can be used in future to reduce
the deviation further making the control of the ETB more precise and accurate.

1. Introduction
Electronic Throttle Control is one of the ways of improving the performance of a vehicle along
with reduced emissions [2]. Due to mass production of automotive parts and related relatively low
technical quality, the dry friction is very significant in the throttle actuator. Even if the dry friction
is fully known, the dry friction can be guessed with difficulty [3]. The control of the ETB can be
perplexed due to the influence of the additional strong spring nonlinearities. Significant hysteresis
is induced by dry friction which offers strong non-linear shape to the spring stiffness. An additional
force is imposed by the return spring of butterfly valve against the motor torque in the opening
direction and provides an extra force that helps the valve to respond faster in the closing direction.
The summation of the motor torque, regulated by the motor drive controller, and the spring torque
actually indicates the total torque acting on the valve plate [4]. Therefore, in order to improve the
overall performance of the throttle body and to reduce the lag, the system should be designed in

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14th ICSET-2017 IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 263 (2017) 062063 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/263/6/062063
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such a way that their nonlinearities are compensated. The design parameters, control variables will
provide additional degrees of freedom to optimize the performance of the engine over its wide
range of operation [1].

The coupling of the electric motor of ETB and TPS with a capable electronic controller for
operation is required. Signal processing logics and some other components use the TPS signal of
valve angle as feedback when trying to drive the valve to the desired angle [5]. This setup is
actually the throttle controller which is basically made of purely electronic components such as
operational amplifiers, capacitors, and resistors. The controller is a solely analog architecture and
can also be used with a microcontroller, for attaining improved digital control architecture [6]. R.
Pursifull et al. [7] have developed an ETB model in Simulink MATLAB which gave an input to the
ETB’s motor H driver and generated an output in terms of TPS signal. ETB was modeled with
significant physical characteristics and was made to overcome numerical simulation issues. Finally,
an HIL testing was carried out. Results were obtained avoiding difficult measuring characteristics
which can affect the validity of the system. J. Ras et al. [8] have presented a paper on the problems
of a Toyota Electronic throttle controller (ETC). Their work was divided into two parts, i.e. firstly
considering the timing constraints in the ETC and secondly comparing the conventional throttle
designs with ETC using classical control theory. Results showed that by considering timing
constraints, safety requirements can be satisfied along with reduced errors in the design and lower
debugging cost. Comparison of the conventional system with ETC also provided system assurance
for all requirements of safety.

Figure 1. Schematic Diagram of an Electronic Throttle Control [17]

Jiao et al. [9] have used a feedback compensator and an adaptive nonlinear compensator with a
PID controller to control the ETB. The nonlinear compensator was derived from values of friction,
limp-home and backlash conditions. Comparing the enhanced ETB with theoretical values showed
fast and accurate reference tracking. ETB results for test bench simulations demonstrated improved
and faster reference tracking without compromising transient conditions like settling time and peak
overshoot within the specified requirement. Several authors have highlighted that the comparison
of the implementation and flexibility of each throttle design can be achieved by both analog and a
digital throttle controller. Studies showed that the analog controller proved to be reliable and robust
in many applications, an inexpensive microcontroller such as an Arduino greatly decreases
implementation and setup time and effort, increases controller flexibility, all the while maintaining
reasonable performance and reliability.

This paper depicts the improvements and advancements in electronic development platforms,
such as the Arduino series, which have made programmable control of ETB as an excellent
alternative to pure analog control. With ETB, several advantages like easier programmable
development platform and reduced implementation time are obtained. The present study showed
improvement of the simulation model of the throttle body by introducing different nonlinearities

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IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 263 (2017) 062063 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/263/6/062063
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such as dead-zone and limp-home conditions. Thereafter designing of a nonlinear controller was
carried out which provides the robust performance of the ETB. Finally, HIL testing and validation
was performed on the hardware.

2. Design methodology
Firstly, the ETB was tested to verify the working of the system and the circuit used for the present
experiment. Calibration of the TPS sensors was carried out in order to acquire faster and accurate
throttle opening angle. The response of the calibrated system was then plotted against a step input.
A linear model of the ETB was prepared using Simulink in commercially available MATLAB
software. The model of the DC motor is illustrated in figure 3 followed by its governing equations
2.1 to 2.4 [16]. The input to the system is the voltage to the anchor side of the circuit denoted by u.
As the input voltage u is varied, the shaft angle of the motor 𝜑 and as a result there is torque
transfer to the spring set. The spring characteristics viz. spring constant K, dynamic damping D and
the total inertia J which also includes the motor inertia. Equation 2.1 describes the Ohm’s law for
the anchor circuit. There is a counter-directed emf induced when the motor rotates, represented by
equation 2.2. Equation 2.3 is the direct proportionality between the torque Md to the anchor current
I. Equation 4.4 is the mechanical torque equation acting on the springs. This model was used for
System Identification in MATLAB to identify the unknown parameters like inertia of the butterfly
valve and stiffness of the return spring. The Step Input response was plotted for the linear model of
ETB. The obtained response was then compared with the experimental data to investigate the initial
deviation of the model from the actual system. To reduce this deviation, nonlinearities were
introduced from existing literature into the system after which a response analysis was performed
to check the deviation from the actual system. Based on the investigation carried out with the
research, an introduction of a new non-linearity parameter further reduced the previous obtained
deviation.
Arduino Controller was used for designing the hardware circuit of the ETB because of its
flexible and easy to use software and hardware. The Arduino controller was equipped with various
digital and analog I/O pins which connected the ETB and other respective components. The
Arduino program was written in C language and fed into the controller for operating the ETB.
Figure 2 shows the entire ETB hardware setup along with Arduino Mega 2560 controller.

Figure 2. Experimental Setup for Electronic Throttle Control

MATLAB Simulink was selected for modeling the ETC system and its environment since it is
widely used in the automotive industry. A Simulink model and its environment comprise of

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IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 263 (2017) 062063 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/263/6/062063
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successive levels or layers of blocks whose input and output functions are stipulated by wires
drawn between blocks. The controller and the dynamics of the environment are part of the
simulation block. The sensors and the drivers present in the system helps the controller
communicates with the physical environment. They act as an interface of the controller software to
the physical world. When the code is generated from the controller model, it requires the same
interface to a set of sensors to measure plant states and drivers to run the actuators [10]. The focus
of the ETC case study is on the modeling of the controller.

Figure 3. Linear Model for Electronic Throttle Control [16]

The equations for the linear model of ETB are given as [16]:
𝑑𝑖
𝑢(𝑡) = 𝑅𝑖 + 𝐿 𝑑𝑡 + 𝑣(𝑡) (1)

𝑑𝜑(𝑡)
𝑣(𝑡) = 𝐾𝑢 . 𝑑𝑡
(2)

𝑀𝑑 (𝑠) = 𝐾𝑚 . 𝐼(𝑠) (3)

𝑑 2 𝜑(𝑡) 𝑑𝜑(𝑡)
𝐽. = 𝑀𝑑 (𝑡) − 𝐷. (4)
𝑑𝑡 2 𝑑𝑡

In order to find the various parameters of the Electronic throttle system, System identification
was used using MATLAB. This methodology helps for building mathematical models of dynamic
systems using measurements of the system's input and output signals [12]. In order to perform
system identification of the throttle body, a response analysis was done. A unit step input was given
to the throttle body in order to attain the Wide-Open Throttle (WOT) condition. The unit step input
was given with a delay of 0.1 seconds for the duration of 0.5 seconds.

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IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 263 (2017) 062063 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/263/6/062063
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Figure 4. Simulink Block Diagram designed in MATLAB for ETB

Figure 5. Step input plotted in MATLAB for ETB

The response was calibrated to get a percentage of throttle opening. The response does not
follow the unit step input due to various nonlinearities present in the system. This data is required
to perform the system identification in MATLAB.

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Figure 6. Percentage of Throttle Opening v/s Time plotted in MATLAB for ETB (Linear
Condition)

Figure 7. Percentage of Throttle Opening and Step input v/s Time plotted in MATLAB for ETB
(Linear Condition)

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IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 263 (2017) 062063 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/263/6/062063
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Figure 8. Percentage of Throttle Opening and Step input v/s Time plotted in MATLAB for ETB
(Linear Model)

Figure 8 shows the percentage of throttle opening of ETB v/s step input after performing
system identification using MATLAB. The measured curve differs from the linear signal due to
various nonlinearities in the system which has to be investigated.

Figure 9. Percentage of Throttle Opening and Step input v/s Time plotted in MATLAB for ETB
(Linear Model)

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IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 263 (2017) 062063 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/263/6/062063
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3. Results and discussions

After performing parameter estimation for the linear model, the nonlinearities were included. The
first nonlinearity that arises is due to the torsional spring. In order to overcome that the motor has
to apply extra torque which results in a delay in the response of the system as shown in Figure 9.
With the new mathematical model of the system after including the nonlinearities, we obtained a
closer approximation of the experimental data. Further, we included nonlinearity due to friction
between the shaft of the butterfly valve and the needle roller bearing present in the housing of the
throttle body. The improved mathematical model can then be used to design a linear PID controller
using MATLAB. The gain parameters can then be tuned through software in loop techniques rather
than hardware-in-loop [13]. Figure 10 shows the improved simulated curve v/s percentage of
throttle opening after the addition of spring stiffness nonlinearity. It can be observed that the
simulated curve is closer to the experimentally measured data with slight variations and overshoot.

Figure 10. Percentage of Throttle Opening and Step input v/s Time plotted in MATLAB for ETB
(Model using single nonlinearity)

Figure 11. Throttle Opening and Step input v/s Time plotted in MATLAB for ETB (Model using
two nonlinearity)

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IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 263 (2017) 062063 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/263/6/062063
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Figure 12. Convergence plot of the estimated parameters

By using the system identification tool in MATLAB, the unknown parameters of ETB
mathematical model were obtained. Figure 12 shows the number of iterations required for
convergence and the values of the unknown parameters as well.

4. Conclusions
The response of the throttle body was investigated successfully and the mathematical model was
improved by introducing nonlinearities such as limp-home and dry friction. These results were
found to be in concordance which previous studies. This mathematical model can be used to design
an improved controller which can produce faster and precise throttle control. Further work can be
achieved by considering the nonlinearity due to the break-away torque of the needle roller bearing
present in the throttle body.

5. Acknowledgements
We thank Prof. Rammohan A. for his continuous support throughout this project. We also extend
our sincere gratitude to Prof. Ashok B for supporting us with his knowledge and resources in the
subject.

References
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[3] T Abe, Y Asada, M Tsuyuguchi, R Yamazaki, K Hotta 2009 Research of Electronically
Controlled Throttle System for Large Motorcycles SAE International 2009-01-1047

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IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 263 (2017) 062063 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/263/6/062063
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[4] R Chen, L MI and W Tan Adaptive Fuzzy 2012 Logic Based Sliding Mode Control of
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[14] Jansri, Anurak, T Pongsuttiyakorn, P Sooraksa 2012 On practical control of electronic
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