Artificial intelligence laundry treatment apparatus and method of controlling the same

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11390977-B2
Application number	US-201916557477-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 30, 2019
Priority date	Aug 30, 2018
Publication date	Jul 19, 2022
Grant date	Jul 19, 2022

Abstract

Disclosed is an artificial intelligence laundry treatment apparatus including a washing tub configured to receive laundry, the washing tub being configured to be rotatable, a motor configured to rotate the washing tub, a controller configured to control the motor such that the washing tub is rotated while being accelerated, and a current sensing unit configured to sense current of the motor at predetermined time intervals, wherein the controller is configured to input, to an input layer of an artificial neural network pre-trained based on machine learning, input data generated by processing current values sensed by the current sensing unit while the motor is accelerated within a range within which the laundry moves in the washing tub according to a predetermined parsing rule in order to obtain at least one of laundry weight or laundry quality from output of an output layer of the artificial neural network.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A laundry treatment apparatus comprising:
a washing tub configured to receive laundry, the washing tub being configured to be rotatable;
a motor configured to rotate the washing tub;
a controller configured to control the motor such that the washing tub is rotated while being accelerated; and
a current sensing unit configured to sense electrical current values of the motor at a plurality of time intervals,
wherein the controller is configured to:
input, to an input layer of a pre-trained machine-learning network, input data based on a plurality of electrical current values that are sensed by the current sensing unit while the motor is accelerated within a range of rotation in which the laundry is separated from an inner surface of the washing tub, wherein the number of the input data generated by processing is less than the number of the electrical current values sensed by the current sensing unit; and
obtain at least one of a laundry weight or a laundry quality from an output of an output layer of the pre-trained machine-learning network based on the input data,
wherein the input data comprises:
current values, among the plurality of electrical current values, that are obtained in a predetermined time period, and
moving average current values obtained by performing a moving averaging operation for each of a plurality of time periods on current values that are sensed after the predetermined time period,
wherein the laundry weight is obtained by inputting the current values, which were obtained in the predetermined time period, as a first input of the input layer of the pre-trained machine-learning network,
wherein the laundry quality is obtained by inputting the moving average current values, which were obtained by performing the moving averaging operation, as a second input of the input layer of the pre-trained machine-learning network, and
wherein the number of the moving average current values is less than the number of the current values obtained in the predetermined time period.

2. The laundry treatment apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein based on the washing tub being rotated by one or more revolutions in a first direction within the range of rotation of the washing tub in which the electrical current values that are input to the pre-trained machine-learning network are sensed by the current sensing unit:
the laundry that is located at a lowermost position in the washing tub is raised to a first height by the rotation of the washing tub and is then dropped while being separated from the inner surface of the washing tub.

3. The laundry treatment apparatus according to claim 1 , further comprising:
a speed sensing unit configured to sense a rotational speed of the motor,
wherein the controller is further configured to:
select, from among a plurality of electrical current values obtained by electrical current sensing unit and based on the rotational speed of the motor sensed by the speed sensing unit, the electrical current values corresponding to a period in which the rotational speed of the motor is accelerated from a first rotational speed to a second rotational speed; and
use the selected electrical current values as the input data to the pre-trained machine-learning network.

4. The laundry treatment apparatus according to claim 3 , wherein the second rotational speed is 60 rotations per minute (rpm) to 80 rpm.

5. The laundry treatment apparatus according to claim 3 , wherein the first rotational speed is 10 rpm to 20 rpm.

6. The laundry treatment apparatus according to claim 5 , wherein the laundry quality is classified in consideration of a wear degree and a washing strength of the laundry.

7. The laundry treatment apparatus according to claim 1 , further comprising:
a water supply unit configured to supply water into the washing tub,
wherein the controller is configured to perform control such that water is supplied by the water supply unit and the rotation of the washing tub is subsequently accelerated.

8. The laundry treatment apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the controller is further configured to:
determine operation settings based on at least one of the laundry weight or the laundry quality; and
control operations of the laundry treatment apparatus according to the determined operation settings.

Assignees

• Lg Electronics Inc

Inventors

• Im Myunghun
• Jung Hwanjin
• Yu Seonhwa
• Woo Kyungchul
• Kim Jaehyun
• Kim Sunggyun

Classifications

• D06F34/18 Primary

  Condition of the laundry, e.g. nature or weight · CPC title

• D06F2103/06

  Type or material · CPC title

• D06F2105/48

  Drum speed · CPC title

• D06F2103/46

  of the motor driving the drum · CPC title

• D06F33/32 Primary

  Control of operational steps, e.g. optimisation or improvement of operational steps depending on the condition of the laundry · CPC title