Smart water dispenser and control method thereof

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10866599-B2
Application number	US-201816007558-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 13, 2018
Priority date	Sep 20, 2017
Publication date	Dec 15, 2020
Grant date	Dec 15, 2020

Abstract

The present disclosure discloses a smart water dispenser and a control method thereof. The smart water dispenser includes: an electronically controlled switch for starting adding water to a cup when it is turned on and stopping adding water when it is turned off; a cup detection module for detecting a cup placed under an outlet of the smart water dispenser; and a water level detection module for detecting a water level of water in the cup when the water is being added to the cup under the outlet.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A control method of a smart water dispenser, comprising:
detecting whether there is a cup under an outlet;
turning on an electronically controlled switch to start adding water to the cup in response to that the cup under the outlet is detected;
detecting a water level of water in the cup when water is added to the cup;
turning off the electronically controlled switch to stop adding the water according to the detected water level,
receiving user commands,
determining priorities of the user commands by one or more of:
determining priorities of the user commands according to an order in which the user commands are received; or
determining priorities of the user commands according to distances between locations from where the user commands are transmitted and the smart water dispenser; or
calculating the priorities of the user commands by a preset formula which is set based on the order in which the user commands are received and on the distances between the locations from where the user commands are transmitted and the smart water dispenser;

storing the user commands according to the priorities of the user commands to be executed; and
executing the user commands in an order in which the user commands are stored.

2. The control method of the smart water dispenser according to claim 1 , wherein said turning off the electronically controlled switch to stop adding the water according to the detected water level comprises:
measuring a distance H between a bottom of the cup and a laser range finder by the laser range finder, and measuring a distance d between a water surface of water in the cup and the laser range finder in real time when the water is being added to the cup; and
turning off the electronically controlled switch to stop adding the water when d+h−r=H, where r is an overflow prevention value, and h is a height of the cup.

3. The control method of the smart water dispenser according to claim 1 , wherein said turning on the electronically controlled switch to start adding water to the cup in response to that the cup under the outlet is detected comprises:
turning on the electronically controlled switch after the cup has been detected for a preset delay time.

4. The control method of the smart water dispenser according to claim 1 , further comprising:
when a user command with information on a water added volume is received, turning on the electronically controlled switch, calculating a water discharged volume of the outlet, and turning off the electronically controlled switch when the water discharged volume is equal to the water added volume.

5. The control method of the smart water dispenser according to claim 1 , further comprising:
determining whether there is a user command to be executed:

if there is no user command to be executed, stopping the smart water dispenser at a preset location; and
if there is a user command to be executed, determining a target location and a planned target route according to the user command so as to move the smart water dispenser to the target location according to the planned target route.

6. The control method of the smart water dispenser according to claim 1 , wherein the user command is selected by app software for controlling the smart water dispenser which is downloaded within a mobile terminal.

Assignees

• Boe Technology Group Co Ltd

Inventors

• Zhang Zhongwei
• Wen Ken

Classifications

• G05D9/12 Primary

  characterised by the use of electric means · CPC title

• B65B3/06

  by gravity flow · CPC title

• B67D7/02

  for transferring liquids other than fuel or lubricants · CPC title

• G05B19/048 Primary

  Monitoring; Safety · CPC title

• G05D9/00 Primary

  Level control, e.g. controlling quantity of material stored in vessel · CPC title