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Due to the stringent emission standards modern engine concepts require special equipment for reducing exhaust pollutants and minimizing fuel consumption. Usually all those engine functions are managed by an electronic engine control unit (ECU). A good potential for emission reduction is dependent on a well optimized set of calibration maps, tables and constants, contained in the ECU. The time to evaluate an optimum data design strongly depends on the number of these calibration parameters. With an increasing number of such parameters, there is a need for sophisticated test systems which automatically initiate parameter variations, perform necessary measurements and search for an optimized engine calibration. VEGA is an automatic optimization system that controls the whole calibration process from the first basic mapping until the final programming of the ECU.

For the use in flexible fuel vehicles able to operate with mixtures of alcohol fuels and gasoline, an intelligent alcohol sensor has been developed. Based on the measurement of the dielectric constant, this sensor overcomes the problems with optical measuring principles; these problems are due to sensitivity to different contents of aromatics. To increase the accuracy, a microprocessor evaluates the input signals (dielectric constant and other parameters). Thus, a compensation of misdetection due to impurities can also be achieved. The output characteristic of the sensor can be chosen freely; the output voltage can correspond to the alcohol content as well as to the required correction factor for the injection time.