Smart Plug Load Signature Detection for Appliance Cycle Recognition
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing household appliances without electronic connection systems cannot be included in home network systems, preventing users from accessing appliance services and information, despite advancements in smart plug technologies for measuring and transmitting electric power consumption data.
Innovation Solution
A smart plug that determines the operating cycles of household appliances by recognizing electric loads and communicating this information to a remote computing system without adding new components to the appliances, using electronic control means to measure and analyze current and voltage harmonics, active and reactive power, and phase displacement to identify electric loads and their signatures, and store these signatures for determining operating cycles.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of information
If a smart plug measures and transmits electric power consumption data, then connectivity to home network system is improved, but the ability to determine operating cycles and appliance state is insufficient
Solution Approach 1:
The patent transforms the approach from measuring only power consumption parameters to analyzing current harmonic parameters. By detecting characteristic harmonics generated by specific appliance loads (e.g., motor harmonics, heating element harmonics), the system can identify operating cycles and appliance states with higher precision, resolving the information loss problem.
2Adaptability or versatility
If existing household appliances without electronic connection systems are to be included in home network systems, then appliance services accessibility is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The smart plug acts as an intermediary device between existing appliances without electronic connections and the home network system. By inserting itself between the power supply and the appliance, it captures power parameters, analyzes them to determine operating cycles, and communicates this information to the network, enabling legacy appliances to access smart home services without modifying the appliances themselves.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces the need for mechanical/electronic connections within the appliance by using electrical parameter analysis. Instead of requiring physical access to the appliance's internal electronics, the system substitutes this with non-invasive measurement of current and voltage parameters at the power inlet, simplifying the overall system architecture.
3Measurement precision
If load electric quantities are determined during prefixed operating cycles for auto-tuning, then measurement precision is improved, but loss of time increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary measurements during prefixed operating cycles to build a library of load electric signatures. These pre-acquired signatures are stored and can be quickly matched against future measurements, enabling rapid appliance identification without repeating the full measurement and analysis process each time.
Data Source
Figure 1
Figure 2~3C
Figure 3D~3E
AI summary
Smart plug (3) designed to electrically connect a household appliance (2) to power lines (L). The smart plug (2) comprising electronic controller configured to measure current and voltage of the electric power supplied to household appliance (2) via a smart plug (3), determine electric quantities indicative at least of prefixed current harmonics and/or prefixed voltage harmonics, based on said measured current and voltage, determine load information which are indicative of electric loads of the household appliance (2) being activated during an operating cycle performed by household appliance (2), based on determined electric quantities; determine the operating cycle performed by the household appliance (2) based on the load information, communicate determined operating cycle to a network system (5).