Laundry Appliance Camera-Based Self-Clean Cycle Automation Using AI
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional laundry appliances often fail to initiate self-clean cycles at desirable intervals due to user forgetfulness or when clothes are inside the chamber, leading to issues like mold, mildew, and foul smells from excess wash fluid and humidity.
Innovation Solution
A laundry appliance equipped with a camera assembly that determines if the door is closed and if there is no load in the chamber, allowing for automated initiation of a self-clean cycle based on pre-set conditions, ensuring the cycle is performed without user intervention.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If conventional preprogrammed self-clean cycles are used, then the appliance can clean itself, but the cycles are not initiated at desirable intervals due to user forgetfulness or presence of clothes
Solution Approach 1:
The system enables the washing machine to automatically detect when the drum is empty and when conditions are appropriate for self-cleaning, then autonomously initiates the self-clean cycle without requiring user action. The camera system continuously monitors the drum interior and controller automatically makes the decision to start cleaning based on predefined conditions.
Solution Approach 2:
The camera assembly provides continuous visual feedback about the drum interior state to the controller. This feedback loop allows the system to monitor for the presence or absence of clothes and automatically determine when self-cleaning conditions are met, creating a closed-loop control system that responds to actual drum conditions.
2Adaptability or versatility
If manual initiation of self-clean cycles is required, then the user has control over when cleaning occurs, but the user must remember and manually start the cycle
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary monitoring of drum conditions continuously or at regular intervals, so that when the drum becomes empty and conditions are appropriate, the self-clean cycle can be immediately initiated without waiting for user action. The system is already in a state of readiness to start cleaning as soon as conditions permit.
Solution Approach 2:
The washing machine autonomously monitors its own state and makes the decision to initiate self-cleaning without requiring user presence or action, effectively serving itself by detecting appropriate conditions and starting the cleaning cycle independently.
3Reliability
If the chamber is monitored to ensure it is empty before self-clean, then the system can safely initiate cleaning, but additional detection mechanisms are required
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces mechanical or manual checking methods with an optical camera system that automatically captures images of the drum interior. The controller processes these images to determine whether clothes are present, substituting visual inspection with automated image analysis technology.
Solution Approach 2:
The camera assembly serves as an intermediary between the physical state of the drum (presence or absence of clothes) and the controller's decision-making process. Rather than directly sensing physical conditions, the camera captures visual information that the controller then interprets to determine whether self-cleaning conditions are met.
Data Source
AI summary
A laundry appliance includes a basket rotatably mounted within a cabinet and defining a chamber configured for receiving a load of clothes, a door pivotally mounted to the cabinet for providing selective access to the chamber, and a camera assembly mounted within the cabinet in view of the chamber. A controller is configured to initiate an automatic self-clean cycle, the method comprising determining that the door is closed, obtaining one or more images of the chamber using the camera assembly, determining that there is no load in the chamber based at least in part on the one or more images, determining that a self-clean condition is satisfied, and commencing the self-clean cycle.