Systems and Devices for Setting the Demanded Torque of Internal Combustion Engines in Vehicles and Machinery

The increasing integration of electronic control, powertrain management, and autonomous functions has diversified the methods used to set and determine demanded engine torque in vehicles and machinery. This study systematizes these solutions and identifies their functional differences with respect to signal origin, operator involvement, and control autonomy. A structured narrative review was conducted using scientific and technical literature covering road vehicles, agricultural, construction, forestry, material handling, industrial, and stationary machinery, with sources available up to September 2026. The analyzed solutions were classified into four groups: Direct Operator Input, Indirect Operating State Input, Automatic Determination of Demanded Torque, and Predictive or Autonomous Determination of Demanded Torque. The review shows a progressive transfer of responsibility for torque determination from the operator to increasingly integrated control systems. It also indicates that classification should be based on the function and semantic meaning of the control signal rather than solely on the physical form of the input device. Predictive and autonomous systems extend conventional automatic control by incorporating information on future operating conditions, predicted load, environment, and process state. The proposed framework provides a consistent basis for comparing heterogeneous control architectures and highlights the transition toward integrated, adaptive, and predictive powertrain management.