a process and device for controlling the heating of the glow plugs of a diesel engine . to be able to take into consideration the thermal behavior of the glow plugs while controlling the current supply of the glow plugs of a diesel engine , the thermal behavior of the glow plugs is emulated via a physical model . formed on the corresponding output signal of the model , which is proportional to the glow plug temperature , is a reference signal , which as a control value , lies on the electronic control controlling the heating flow of the glow plugs , which accordingly controls the heating of the glow plugs using the actual glow plug temperature determined from emulation .