US 5,905,648 A · Appliance performance control apparatus and method

Abstract

A household appliance includes a supervisory level controller for controlling operation of the appliance in accordance with operator-determined performance objectives. The supervisory level controller includes a disturbance parameter estimator coupled to receive appliance condition signals from sensor systems on the appliance for processing the signals to generate estimated appliance operating states; a sequential sensor integrator for generating a temporally-integrated estimated appliance operating state signal; and an optimizer coupled to the sensor systems and the sequential sensor integrator to receive signals therefrom and process those signals in accordance with a fuzzy logic architecture to generate control signals for application to actuator systems of the appliance in correspondence with operator-determined performance objectives.

Claims24

Dependent claims

A household appliance performance-based control apparatus for controlling operation of an appliance in accordance with at least one operator-determined supervisory objective, comprising:

a disturbance parameter estimator for generating estimated appliance operating state signals responsive to appliance condition signals received from a sensor system in said appliance;
a sequential sensor integrator coupled to said disturbance parameter estimator, said sequential sensor integrator being configured to generate temporally-integrated estimated appliance operating state signals responsive to said estimated appliance operating state signals received from said disturbance parameter estimator;
and
a supervisory control system optimizer coupled to said disturbance parameter estimator and to said sensor system in said appliance so as to receive respective signals therefrom, said optimizer further being configured to generate appliance control signals responsive to said received signals and to said at least one operator-determined supervisory objective in accordance with a fuzzy logic architecture to generate control signals to be applied to said appliance for operating said appliance in accordance with said at least one operator-determined supervisory objective.

1 more element

An appliance with electrical and mechanical subsystems therein, said appliance comprising:

at least one sensor system coupled to said electrical and mechanical subsystems to generate signals representative of appliance operating conditions and at least one actuator system coupled to said electrical and mechanical subsystems to control operation thereof;
and
a supervisory level control system coupled to said at least one sensor system and said at least one actuator system, said control system comprising:
an estimator coupled to said sensor system for generation of estimated appliance operating states;
a sequential sensor integrator coupled to said estimator for generating a temporally-integrated estimated appliance operating state signal;
and
an optimizer coupled to said sensor system and said sequential sensor integrator for generation of control signals to be applied to said actuator systems to direct operation of said electrical and mechanical subsystems in accordance with operator-determined performance objectives.

4 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Appliance performance control apparatus and method

Life of this patent

Appliance performance control apparatus and method

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims24