Method for controlling the closing of a group of motorised shutters

Abstract

Method for controlling a group of motorized shutters of a building, said group comprising at least one solar shutter driven by a motor connected to at least one solar panel for supplying the motor with energy, said group also comprising non-solar shutters, the drive of which is each controlled by a motor powered by the mains, each motor being controllable by means of an individual remote control capable of being programmed by the user between an automated operating mode and a non-automated operating mode of the shutter and being provided with telecommunication means connecting it to a shutter control unit comprising transmission / reception means, an additional remote control being associated with said group of shutters, said additional remote control comprising an identification code stored in the control units of the shutter motors of the group.This method comprises: - the broadcasting by the transmission / reception means of the solar motor control unit of a control frame, said frame including the identification code of the additional remote control of the group; - the verification by each non-solar shutter having received the frame of its belonging to the group of the solar shutter whose control unit broadcast the frame, by comparison between the identification code of the additional remote control broadcast and the identification code of the additional remote control stored by its control unit; and - the subsequent control of the motors of the non-solar shutters belonging to the group of the solar shutter whose control unit broadcast the frame.

Description

[0001] The present invention relates to a method for controlling the closing of a group of motorized shutters of a building with a view to automatically moving all the shutters in the group according to external conditions such as brightness and temperature. The objective is to automate the closing of the shutters in the same group, for example, according to a twilight mode, which is therefore a function of brightness, or a heatwave mode, which is more dependent on temperature. The possibility of automating the total or partial closing of several shutters at the same time can increase the energy efficiency of the building, but it also aims to improve the comfort of life, particularly in the more topical perspective than ever of the occurrence of heatwave episodes.Proper management of the positioning of a shutter can in fact lead to energy savings by reducing the need for air conditioning in summer or heating in winter, and also promote better management of natural light for increased comfort in the home.

[0002] In many private homes equipped with motorized shutters, the stock of shutters includes some that operate with solar energy, and others that are conventional motorized shutters, dependent on mains voltage. The former are equipped with motors that we will call solar, connected to a battery storing solar energy collected via solar panels installed near each shutter. This coexistence can be linked to the location of the building and the nature of its environment, some windows may also be in the shade more or less permanently. The region and its natural sunshine are also a parameter that can play a role in the choice and distribution of shutter motorizations in the same home.

[0003] The movements of all these shutters can be controlled individually by remote controls. In this case, each shutter has its own individual remote control. At the same time, the shutters also often benefit from a wired control that the user can exercise via a button panel fixed to the wall near the bay that can be closed by the shutter. There are also possibilities to control the simultaneous movement of several shutters associated in a group. In this case, it is known to associate with each group an additional remote control that manages the movements of the shutters in the group to which it is assigned. All these remote controls can be programmed so that they can be used in a manual mode, when a user manipulates them at the precise moment when he decides to move individual or grouped shutter(s), or in an automated mode.In this case, the movement of the shutter(s) is dependent on predetermined conditions that trigger it automatically. The motor of each shutter, associated with the shutter movement mechanism, is always managed by an electronic control unit that processes radiofrequency signals from remote controls or wired signals emanating, for example, from push buttons or sensors.

[0004] In an automated mode, the solar electric motor is in practice controlled according to the state of signals emanating from various sensors reflecting external conditions, such as for example an irradiance sensor which measures the amount of solar energy received per unit area of ​​the solar panels attached to it and per unit of time. Said sensors are connected to the motor control unit, which processes said signals and controls a movement of the shutter adapted to the measured conditions, following a protocol planned in advance. Solar motorized shutters, which individually benefit from efficient information in real time, are therefore considered to be more efficient than conventional shutters, and can therefore be easily automated individually.

[0005] Non-solar shutters, to be controlled according to automated procedures, must have their control units connected to an external module, for example a more or less sophisticated home automation system, possibly programmable via applications available on individual terminals such as a smartphone. The home automation system operates at the building level, and collects data from indoor and outdoor sensors measuring from time to time in particular temperatures or the amount of solar energy, which it uses to determine the appropriate time to open or close the motorized shutter. It can manage groups of shutters, which can easily be defined and selected through it, since it generally benefits from a human-machine interface or can be controlled via an application running on a smartphone-type terminal which serves de facto as a human-machine interface.On such an interface, generally equipped with graphical means, forming a group of shutters and assigning a master role to one shutter in the group for controlling other slave shutters in the same group is easy and quick.

[0006] The present invention proposes management of the control of groups of shutters comprising a solar shutter and non-solar shutters according to automated procedures which do not require a home automation system or equivalent. No additional installation to the individual installation of the shutters is required. In other words, even non-solar shutters, whose drive motor control units are "blind" since they lack sensors or a dedicated network communicating information to them, can be managed according to automated protocols by means of the invention. In particular, according to the present innovation, there is no need for a dedicated system responsible for centrally collecting data which then feeds the decision-making steps of said protocols intended for the shutters of the group.

[0007] In fact, more precisely defined, the invention relates to a method for controlling a group of motorized shutters of a building, said group comprising at least one solar shutter driven by a motor connected to at least one solar panel for supplying the motor with energy, said group also comprising non-solar shutters, the drive of which is each controlled by a motor powered by the mains, each motor being controllable by means of an individual remote control capable of being programmed by the user between an automated operating mode or a non-automated operating mode of the shutter and being provided with telecommunication means connecting it to a shutter control unit comprising transmission / reception means. In the invention, an additional remote control is conventionally associated with the group of shutters, said additional remote control comprising an identification code stored in the control units of the shutter motors of the group.The method of the invention is such that it comprises: . the broadcasting by the transmission / reception means of the solar motor control unit of a control frame, said frame including the identification code of the additional remote control of the group; the verification by each non-solar shutter having received the frame of its belonging to the group of the solar shutter whose control unit broadcast the frame, by comparison between the identification code of the additional remote control broadcast and the identification code of the additional remote control stored by its control unit; and the subsequent control of the motors of the non-solar shutters belonging to the group of the solar shutter whose control unit broadcast the frame.

[0008] In the method of the invention, broadcasting of the frame is understood to mean a type of transmission designated by broadcast transmission. This type of broadcast sends data by radio to all potential recipients located within a certain perimeter, without any particular characterization of the recipients, as opposed to the so-called unicast or multicast transmission mode which targets one or more recipients by definition of characteristics which define them. In the hypothesis of the invention, all non-solar shutters which are in the vicinity are potentially targets of the message sent by the solar shutter. The solar shutters, which are managed by control units which themselves benefit directly from sensors for measuring the conditions likely to be taken into account to decide on an action, are not targets.

[0009] The message coded in this frame in fact includes a key common to all the shutters in the group, namely the identification code of the additional remote control. It is therefore only after the complete decoding of the broadcast frame, and after comparison with the stored code, that the non-solar shutter control units concerned can accept the message received as concerning them and implement it by decoding the functional data block. In the invention, there is therefore no need for a graphical interface to select the members of the group which are concerned by the instruction encapsulated in the frame. The solution induces the possibility of selecting the targets without requiring a display giving information on those which are potentially concerned and offering a possibility of selecting them, but by a simple common key, in a manner which is completely transparent to the user.

[0010] The solution of the invention is also particularly interesting in that the additional remote control is not used as a relay for the information to be transmitted and is therefore not active. In the invention, it is not in fact requested and does not actively participate in the message transfer chain. It only represents, by its identifier, the common point of the shutters of the group formed, and it is the simple recognition of this common point which is the trigger for the action.

[0011] This is an additional advantage, given the energy issues linked to this architecture for controlling the movements of shutters involving two levels of remote control: the solution of the invention is in this respect particularly elegant and efficient, because it has no or practically no impact on the consumption of the batteries or cells of the remote controls. The energy consumption for the implementation of the method of the invention is in reality mainly at the level of the solar shutter, but this benefits from an inexhaustible natural energy source allowing the storage means of the energy actually used to be frequently recharged.This is even more true because the method of the invention is more particularly designed for the management of heat waves, with the objective that an automated closing of a group of shutters is triggered during heat wave conditions, which are par excellence conditions which are energetically favorable, since they participate in the recharging of the solar battery. In a twilight operating mode, which depends on the brightness, there is moreover only one occurrence per day, which is not penalizing in energy terms.

[0012] To control a predetermined grouped operation of all the shutters in the group, the frame sent by the solar shutter may include a data block corresponding to at least one functional instruction intended for the shutters in the group.

[0013] The group control method of the invention is in practice mainly oriented towards a grouped and automated instruction to close a group of shutters, in a heatwave or twilight context, and the frame broadcast by the control unit of the solar shutter of the group consequently comprises in this case a data block giving an instruction to close the shutters of the group.

[0014] The frame broadcast by the solar shutter control unit can also be used to initialize the operating mode of the shutter control, to initiate simultaneous automated operation of several shutters. In this case, according to the method of the invention, the initialization of the control of the non-solar shutters by the solar shutter(s) is carried out by sending a frame broadcast by the transmission / reception means of the control unit of a solar shutter triggered by an action of the user which switches the operating mode of the individual remote control of the solar shutter. As soon as the individual remote control of this solar shutter is switched to automated operating mode, the sent frame switches the non-solar shutters of the group to automated operating mode.

[0015] Again, everything is done from the solar shutter control unit, which is the least expensive in terms of paid energy. The remote controls and control units for non-solar shutters are not individually requested by the user. In reality, as mentioned, establishing the automated mode corresponds to the operation of the shutters as a group, while abandoning this automated mode returns to an individual manual operating mode. Each shutter is then only controlled by its own individual remote control, by the user, at the time they choose.

[0016] It should be noted that, after the user has switched the operating mode of the individual remote control of the solar shutter to a non-automated operating mode, the latter can continue to transmit command frames corresponding to the closing in automated mode to the shutters of the group which would still be in an operating mode of their individual remote control in automated operating mode.

[0017] In the method of the invention, according to one possibility, the identification code of the additional remote control, which allows each of the shutters of the group to have the group operating key and therefore to be part of said group for automated operation, can be recorded and stored individually in the control units of each shutter of the group.

[0018] Other aims and advantages of the present invention will become apparent during the description which follows, relating to embodiments which are given only as indicative examples. The understanding of this description will be facilitated in particular by reference to the diagrams attached in the appendix and in which: [ Fig.1 ] shows a block diagram of the overall operation of the automated control method for a group of shutters according to the invention, for a grouped closing command; and [ Fig.2 ] represents a synoptic diagram of the initialization phase of the automated control mode by a solar shutter of the group.

[0019] With reference to the figures, the method for controlling a group of shutters according to the present invention is based on the existence of a hardware configuration comprising a solar shutter and non-solar shutters which are to be grouped so that they can benefit from the information available for the solar shutter. The movements of the latter are carried out by means of an electric drive motor powered by at least one solar panel and its electrical energy storage battery. A control unit manages this hardware system, in particular with a view to coupling the control, whether manual via a remote control specific to the shutter or automated, with the movements of the shutter.During automated operation, the control unit collects several signals, for example signals from at least one irradiance sensor fitted to the solar panel and possibly a temperature sensor, as well as from shutter end-of-travel sensors, said signals being processed to implement pre-programmed actions.

[0020] The movements of non-solar shutters, whose drive motors are dependent on mains electricity, can also be controlled by their own remote control. As mentioned before, group operation implies the existence of an additional group remote control, to which all the shutters in the group are connected. The idea behind the invention is that the shutters of the entire group are controlled by benefiting from the more efficient information available to the solar shutter, which is in a way the entry point for the parameters to be managed to ensure automated common operation.

[0021] According to the figure 1 , to satisfy the main objective of the invention of automating the closing drive of the shutters of the group (for the implementation of a heatwave or twilight operating mode), a control frame is first broadcast by a transmitter of the solar motor control unit, which includes the identification code of the additional remote control of the group and a control data block giving instructions to close the shutters. The message being sent in the form of a wide broadcast, in "broadcast" mode, it is received by the shutters of the building which are within the radio wave emission perimeter. In these shutters present in the range of the radio broadcast message sent, each control unit of a non-solar shutter receiving the frame makes a comparison between the identification code of the frame sent and the identification code of the additional remote control which has been stored therein.

[0022] If the result of the comparison is that the identification codes respectively received and stored are identical for a control unit attached to a non-solar shutter, this means that the latter belongs to the group and that it must therefore implement the functional part of the frame, the one that sends it an action instruction. The automation being in this case set up for the closing of the shutters of the group, which must intervene if parameters reflecting particular conditions are measured at the level of the solar shutter, the data block constituting the instruction contained in the frame therefore aims to close all the shutters of the group.

[0023] The closing instruction itself can take several options depending on the programmed scenario. Thus, the automated closing known as twilight leads to the complete closing of the shutters in the group. On the other hand, the heatwave closing results in an almost complete closure, however leaving open a portion of the bay that the shutter is intended to obstruct, in order to allow ventilation.

[0024] If the result of the comparison of the identification codes respectively encapsulated in the frame and stored in the memory of each control unit attached to a non-solar shutter is negative, this means that the shutter is not in the group and that no action is to be taken at the level of this particular shutter.

[0025] In reference to the figure 2, the operation of message exchanges between shutters in the same geographical area is identical, but the message to be passed to the non-solar shutters in the same group is different. This involves initializing the automated operating mode driven by a solar shutter in the group. This is done by the individual remote control of a solar shutter in the group, which is switched by the user to automated operating mode. This switching triggers the broadcasting of a frame by the transmission / reception means of the control unit of a solar shutter, which instructs the non-solar shutters in the group to switch to automated mode, grouped with the solar shutter initiating the change of operating mode.

[0026] The message is always broadcast openly, in broadcast mode, and it is always the key consisting of the identification code of the additional remote control that identifies the target shutters. The solar shutters in the neighborhood, present within the sending perimeter of the radio waves, receive the information but are not in reality targets because their mode of operation, benefiting at the source and directly from efficient information processed by their own control unit, makes it useless to control them by another solar shutter. Only the non-solar shutters, blind in the absence of a connection to a home automation center or equivalent, are likely to be aggregated to the group. The target shutters are in any case prepared upstream of the implementation of the method of the invention, by recording the identification code of the additional remote control in a memory of their control unit.

[0027] The configuration examples which are the subject of the figures should not be considered as exhaustive of the invention, which includes for example variants of functional message in the frames broadcast by the solar shutter to give instruction of an action to the non-solar shutters of the group.

Claims

1. Method for controlling a group of motorized shutters of a building, said group comprising at least one solar shutter driven by a motor connected to at least one solar panel for supplying the motor with energy, said group also comprising non-solar shutters, the drive of which is each controlled by a motor powered by the mains, each motor being controllable by means of an individual remote control capable of being programmed by the user between an automated operating mode and a non-automated operating mode of the shutter and being provided with telecommunication means connecting it to a shutter control unit comprising transmission / reception means, an additional remote control being associated with said group of shutters, said additional remote control comprising an identification code stored in the control units of the shutter motors of the group, characterized in thatit comprises: - the broadcasting by the transmission / reception means of the solar motor control unit of a control frame, said frame including the identification code of the additional remote control of the group; - the verification by each non-solar shutter having received the frame of its belonging to the group of the solar shutter whose control unit broadcast the frame, by comparison between the identification code of the additional remote control broadcast and the identification code of the additional remote control stored by its control unit; and - the subsequent control of the motors of the non-solar shutters belonging to the group of the solar shutter whose control unit broadcast the frame.

2. Method for controlling a group of motorized shutters according to the preceding claim, characterized in that said frame comprises a data block corresponding to at least one functional instruction intended for the shutters of the group.

3. Method for controlling a group of motorized shutters according to the preceding claim, characterized in that the frame contains a data block giving instructions to close the shutters of the group.

4. Method for controlling a group of motorized shutters according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the initialization of the control of the non-solar shutters by the solar shutter(s) is carried out by sending a frame broadcast by the transmission / reception means of the control unit of a solar shutter triggered by an action of the user which switches the operating mode of the individual remote control of the solar shutter.