Patent Description:
The disclosure relates to the technical field of automatic control, and in particular, relates to a method, apparatus and storage medium for controlling drainage of equipment. <CIT>relates to a water level sensor and alarm system. <CIT>relates to an automatic washing machine overflow prevention device. <CIT> relates to an apparatus for monitoring the level of water being pumped into kitchen sinks.

In the related art, some household electrical appliances, such as washing machines, are provided with a drain pipe, which is connected to a floor drain to drain water, i.e., to introduce the water discharged from the equipment into an underfloor drain pipe. For example, the waste water flows into the floor drain through the drain pipe after a washing cycle is finished. However, the water discharged from the drain pipe sometimes overflows from the floor drain to the floor, which affects not only the cleanliness of the floor, but also the life of the equipment and the safety of the equipment if the equipment is soaked by water.

In order to overcome the problems existing in the related art, the present disclosure provides a method, apparatus and storage medium for controlling drainage of equipment.

According to a first aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a method for controlling drainage of equipment as defined by claim <NUM>.

According to a second aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided an apparatus for controlling drainage of equipment as defined by claim <NUM>.

According to a third aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided an apparatus for controlling drainage of equipment as defined by claim <NUM>.

According to a fourth aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having instructions stored therein, wherein the instructions, when executable by a processor, cause the processor to perform a method according to the first aspect of the present disclosure.

The technical solutions provided by the embodiments of the present disclosure may bring about the following beneficial effects:.

The method for controlling the drainage of the equipment according to the embodiment of the present disclosure detects whether the floor drain connected to the drain pipe is at risk of drainage overflow or drainage overflow occurs when the equipment is in a drain state, and reduces the amount of water discharged from the drain pipe when the floor drain is at risk of drainage overflow or the drainage overflow occurs, which may avoid that the water discharged from the drain pipe overflows from the floor drain and improve the safety of the equipment.

It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary only and are not restrictive of the present disclosure.

The following description refers to the accompanying drawings in which the same numbers in different drawings represent the same or similar elements unless otherwise indicated. The implementations set forth in the following description of exemplary embodiments do not represent all implementations consistent with the invention. Instead, they are merely examples of apparatuses and methods consistent with aspects related to the invention as recited in the appended claims.

<FIG> is a flow chart of a method for controlling drainage of equipment according to an exemplary embodiment, wherein the equipment may be a smart home appliance, such as a washing machine, a water purifier, or a dishwasher, etc., and the equipment is provided with a drain pipe.

Step <NUM>: determining that the equipment is in a drain state.

In a practical manner, the equipment may be determined to be in a drain state according to operational status information of the equipment. For example, the washing machine is in a drain mode, that is, it enters the drain state.

Alternatively, a water immersion sensor may be disposed at a preset position in the drain pipe, and when the water immersion sensor detects water in the drain pipe, it is determined that the equipment enters the drain state.

Step <NUM>: detecting whether a floor drain connected to the drain pipe of the equipment is at risk of drainage overflow or the drainage overflow occurs.

Detecting whether a floor drain connected to the drain pipe is at risk of drainage overflow can be realized by judging whether the water in the floor drain is about to overflow, or by judging whether the water to be discharged from the drain pipe exceeds the discharge amount of the floor drain. For example, when the water in the floor drain is about to overflow or the water to be discharged from the drain pipe exceeds the discharge amount of the floor drain, there may be a situation where the drain pipe shakes sharply, a small amount of water overflows around the drain pipe, there is a gurgling sound around the drain pipe, or the water level in the floor drain exceeds a specified position in the floor drain. Therefore, the above situations may be monitored by collecting information around the drain pipe and the floor drain to determine whether the floor drain is at risk of drainage overflow or drainage overflow occurs.

In this embodiment, the reason for overflowing or risk of overflowing may include but is not limited to: the water discharged per unit time is too large; the floor drain is clogged (for example, blocked by hair, etc.); there is too much water in the drain pipe under the floor connected by the floor drain, etc..

Step <NUM>: reducing the water discharged from the drain pipe per unit time, when it is detected that the floor drain is at risk of drainage overflow or the drainage overflow occurs.

The water discharged from the drain pipe per unit time may be reduced by controlling the opening of the electronic valve provided in the drain pipe, or by controlling the water pump power in the equipment.

When the equipment is in the drain state, the method for controlling drainage of equipment provided by this embodiment detects whether the floor drain connected with the drain pipe is at risk of drainage overflow or the drainage overflow occurs, and reduces the water discharged from the drain pipe if there is a risk of drainage overflow or the drainage overflow occurs, which may avoid the problem that the water discharged from the equipment drain pipe overflows from the floor drain and improve the safety of the equipment.

In a practical manner, detecting whether a floor drain connected to the drain pipe of the equipment is at risk of drainage overflow or the drainage overflow occurs may include: detecting whether the floor drain is at risk of drainage overflow or the drainage overflow occurs according to at least one of the following items: an image of the drain pipe, a sound around the drain pipe, a water level in the floor drain, and a drain rate of the floor drain. The sound around the drain pipe may be any one or more of the sound of the water flow in the drain pipe, the sound of the water flow near the floor drain, the sound of the water flow in the floor drain, or the sound of shake of the drain pipe. The sound of the water flow in the drain pipe and/or the sound of shake of the drain pipe may be collected by a sound collecting device provided on the drain pipe, and the sound of the water flow in the vicinity of the floor drain or in the floor drain may be collected by a sound collecting device provided near the floor drain.

In a practical manner, an image for determining whether the floor drain is at risk of drainage overflow or the drainage overflow occurs includes at least two images of the drain pipe collected at different times, and the image collection operation may be performed periodically during the drainage process of the equipment. For example, the images may be taken every four or five seconds. A camera can be installed around the drain pipe to shoot around the drain, or a camera of the equipment may be used to take pictures around the drain, or the equipment can perform joint action with a camera nearby, for example it may communicate with a mobile phone or a smart camera to request the mobile phone or smart camera to take a picture around the drain.

<FIG> is a flow chart of a method for controlling drainage of equipment according to the invention. As shown in <FIG>, determining whether the floor drain is at risk of drainage overflow or the drainage overflow occurs according to the image of the drain pipe may be implemented by step <NUM> and step <NUM>.

In step <NUM>, determining a change amount of a position of the drain pipe in the at least two images, and/or determining a difference in image content between the at least two images. In step <NUM>, if it is determined that the change amount of the position of the drain pipe in the at least two images exceeds a first threshold, and/or if it is determined that the difference in image content between the at least two images is greater than a second threshold, it is determined that there is a risk of drainage overflow in the floor drain; if it is determined that the difference in image content between the at least two images is greater than a third threshold, it is determined that the drainage overflow occurs.

It may be determined that the drain pipe shakes sharply if it is determined that the change amount of the position of the drain pipe in the at least two images exceeds a first threshold. It may be determined that there is water droplet overflow around the drain pipe if it is determined that the difference in image content between the at least two images is greater than a second threshold. And, it may be determined that the floor drain is at risk of drainage overflow when the drain pipe shakes sharply and/or water droplet overflows around the drain pipe. If it is determined that the difference in image content between the at least two images is greater than a third threshold, it may be considered that the water in the floor drain has overflowed a lot, so it is determined that the drainage overflow occurs. A related image recognition algorithm may be used to determine the change amount of the position of the drain pipe in the image or the difference of the content between the images; the image recognition algorithm will not be described again here.

In a practical manner, the sound around the drain pipe and/or around the floor drain may be periodically collected during the drainage process of the equipment. For example, the sound may be collected every four or five seconds. A microphone may be installed near the connection between the drain pipe and the floor drain of the equipment, and the microphone may be used to collect the sounds around the drain pipe and/or around the floor drain. The equipment may also communicate with devices in its vicinity, such as with a mobile phone or smart speaker, requesting a mobile phone or smart speaker to collect sound around the drain and/or around the floor drain.

<FIG> is a flow chart of a method for controlling drainage of equipment according to an exemplary embodiment. As shown in <FIG>, determining whether the floor drain connected to the drain pipe is at risk of drainage overflow according to the sound around the drain pipe may include: step <NUM>, if it is determined that the difference between a first sound feature of the sound around the drain pipe and a preset second sound feature is not greater than a fourth threshold, it is determined that the floor drain is at risk of drainage overflow. The preset second sound feature may be a feature of sound around the drain pipe and/or the floor drain when there is a risk of drainage overflow in the floor drain, and the sound feature may be collected and stored in advance, and the sound feature may be, for example, a voice print When it is determined that the difference between the first sound feature and a preset second sound feature is not greater than a fourth threshold, it may be considered that the collected sound around drain pipe and/or the floor drain is the same as the sound corresponding to the preset second sound feature, thereby it is determined that there is a risk of drainage overflow in the floor drain.

The first threshold, the second threshold, the third threshold, and the fourth threshold are the values that can be preset according to actual conditions.

In a practical manner, the water level in the floor drain may be periodically collected during the draining process of the equipment, for example, the water level may be collected every four or five seconds. The water in the floor drain may be collected by setting a water immersion sensor in the floor drain, and the water level may be used to judge whether the floor drain is at risk of drainage overflow. In addition, a drain rate detecting equipment may be installed in the floor drain to detect the drain rate of the floor drain, and then the drain rate of the floor drain may be used to determine whether there is a risk of drainage overflow or whether a drainage overflow has occurred.

<FIG> is a flow chart of a method for controlling drainage of equipment according to an exemplary embodiment. As shown in <FIG>, determining whether the floor drain is at risk of drainage overflow or the drainage overflow occurs according to the water level in the floor drain and/or the drain rate of the floor drain may include: step <NUM>, it is determined that the floor drain is at risk of drainage overflow if the water level in the floor drain exceeds a preset position in the floor drain, the drain rate of the floor drain exceeds a first preset rate, or the drain rate of the floor drain is lower than a second preset rate; it is determined that the drainage overflow occurs if the drain rate of the floor drain is lower than a third preset rate. The first preset rate may be greater than the second preset rate, and the second preset rate may be greater than the third preset rate. When the drain rate of the floor drain is greater than the first preset rate, it indicates that the drain rate of the floor drain is too fast; at this time, the amount of water discharged from the equipment may be greater than the amount of water discharged from the floor drain. If the equipment continues to drain in the current drainage rate, overflow may soon occurs for the floor drain. So, when the drain rate of the floor drain is detected to be greater than the first preset rate, it may be determined that the floor drain has the risk of drainage overflow. When the drainage rate of the floor drain is less than the second preset rate, there may be a blockage of the floor drain, resulting in a lower drainage rate. In this case, if the equipment continues to drain into the floor drain, it is likely to cause drainage overflow. So, when the drainage rate of the floor drain is detected to be less than the second preset rate, it may be determined that the floor drain is at risk of drainage overflow. When the drainage rate at the floor drain is lower than the third preset rate, for example, the third preset rate is <NUM>, it indicates that the current floor drain has been completely blocked, and cannot continued to drain, so it is determined that the drainage overflow occurs.

<FIG> is a flow chart of a method for controlling drainage of equipment according to an exemplary embodiment. As shown in <FIG>, on the basis of the method shown in <FIG>, the method of <FIG> may further include: step <NUM>, after reducing the drain amount of the drain pipe per unit time, increasing the drain amount of the drain pipe per unit time if it is determined that the drainage overflow does not occurs and there is no risk of drainage overflow. It may be determined whether the floor drain is not at risk of drainage overflow and drainage overflow does not occur according to at least one of sound around the drain, water level in the floor drain, and drain rate of the floor drain. Determining that the floor drain does not have a drain overflow and there is no risk of drain overflow may be, for example, if the change amount of the position of the drain pipe in at least two images around the drain pipe that is taken at different times does not exceed the first threshold and if the difference in image content between the at least two images is not greater than the second threshold, it is determined that there is no risk of drainage overflow. Alternatively, if it is determined that the difference between the first sound feature of the sound around the collected drain pipe and the preset second sound feature is greater than a fourth threshold, it is determined that there is no risk of drainage overflow. Alternatively, if the water in the floor drain does not exceed the preset position in the floor drain, it is determined that there is no risk of drainage overflow, or if the drain rate of the floor drain is not higher than the first preset rate and not lower than the second preset rate, it is determined that there is no risk of drainage overflow. Controlling the drain pipe to increase the amount of water discharged per unit time may be controlling the amount of water discharged to return to the amount that is discharged per unit time before the operation of reducing the water discharged per unit time. Or, according to the control logic of the controller in the equipment, the amount of water discharged from the drain pipe per unit time is increased according to the drainage demand. It is also possible to increase the amount of water discharged from the drain pipe per unit time by controlling the electronic valve in the drain pipe to increase the opening degree, or the amount of water discharged from the drain pipe per unit time can be increased by increasing the power of the water pump in the control device, thereby increasing the amount of water discharged from the drain pipe per unit time without the risk of drainage overflow, and completing the drain as soon as possible.

<FIG> is a block diagram of an apparatus for controlling drainage of equipment according to an exemplary embodiment, wherein, the equipment is provided with a drain pipe. As shown in <FIG>, the apparatus <NUM> includes:.

In a practical manner, the detection module is configured to: detect whether the floor drain is at risk of drainage overflow or drainage overflow occurs according to at least one of an image of the drain pipe, a sound around the drain pipe, a water level in the floor drain, and a drain rate of the floor drain.

In a practical manner, the image of the drain pipe includes at least two images of the drain pipe collected at different times. <FIG> is a block diagram of a detection module according to an exemplary embodiment. As shown in <FIG>, the detection module <NUM> may include:.

In a practical manner, the detection module is configured to: determine that the floor drain is at risk of drainage overflow if it is determined that the difference between a first sound feature of the sound and a preset second sound feature is not greater than a fourth threshold.

In an achievable manner, the detection module may include: a fourth determination submodule, configured to determine that the floor drain is at risk of drainage overflow if the water level in the floor drain exceeds a preset position in the floor drain, the drain rate of the floor drain exceeds a first preset rate, or the drain rate of the floor drain is lower than a second preset rate; a fifth determination submodule, configured to determine that the drainage overflow occurs if the drain rate of the floor drain is lower than a third preset rate.

<FIG> is a block diagram of an apparatus for controlling drainage of equipment according to an exemplary embodiment. As shown in <FIG>, on the basis of the apparatus <NUM> shown in <FIG>, the apparatus <NUM> further include: a second control module <NUM>, configured to, after reducing the amount of water discharged from the drain pipe per unit time, increase the amount of water discharged from the drain pipe per unit time if it is determined that the drainage overflow does not occur and there is no risk of drainage overflow.

With regard to the apparatus in the above embodiments, the specific manner in which the respective modules perform the operations has been described in detail in the embodiments relating to the method, and will not be explained in detail herein.

<FIG> is a block diagram of an apparatus for controlling drainage of equipment according to an exemplary embodiment. For example, the apparatus <NUM> may be a mobile phone, a computer, a digital broadcast terminal, a messaging device, a gaming console, a tablet device, a medical device, a fitness device, a personal digital assistant, and the like.

With referring to <FIG>, the apparatus <NUM> may include one or more of the following components: a processing component <NUM>, a memory <NUM>, a power component <NUM>, a multimedia component <NUM>, an audio component <NUM>, an input/output (I/O) interface <NUM>, a sensor component <NUM>, and a communication component <NUM>.

The memory <NUM> is configured to store various types of data to support the operation of the apparatus <NUM>. Examples of such data include instructions for any applications or methods operated on the apparatus <NUM>, contact data, phonebook data, messages, pictures, video, etc. The memory <NUM> may be implemented using any type of volatile or non-volatile memory devices, or a combination thereof, such as a static random access memory (SRAM), an electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), a programmable read-only memory (PROM), a read-only memory (ROM), a magnetic memory, a flash memory, a magnetic or optical disk.

The multimedia component <NUM> includes a screen providing an output interface between the apparatus <NUM> and the user. The touch sensors may not only sense a boundary of a touch or swipe action, but also sense a duration and a pressure associated with the touch or swipe action. The front camera and the rear camera may receive an external multimedia data while the apparatus <NUM> is in an operation mode, such as a photographing mode or a video mode.

The audio component <NUM> is configured to output and/or input audio signals. For example, the audio component <NUM> includes a microphone ("MIC") configured to receive an external audio signal when the apparatus <NUM> is in an operation mode, such as a call mode, a recording mode, and a voice recognition mode. The received audio signal may be further stored in the memory <NUM> or transmitted via the communication component <NUM>. In some embodiments, the audio component <NUM> further includes a speaker to output audio signals.

The sensor component <NUM> includes one or more sensors to provide status assessments of various aspects of the apparatus <NUM>. For instance, the sensor component <NUM> may detect an open/closed status of the apparatus <NUM>, relative positioning of components, e.g., the display and the keypad, of the apparatus <NUM>, a change in position of the apparatus <NUM> or a component of the apparatus <NUM>, a presence or absence of user contact with the apparatus <NUM>, an orientation or an acceleration/deceleration of the apparatus <NUM>, and a change in temperature of the apparatus <NUM>.

The communication component <NUM> is configured to facilitate communication, wired or wirelessly, between the apparatus <NUM> and other devices. The apparatus <NUM> can access a wireless network based on a communication standard, such as WiFi, <NUM>, or <NUM>, or a combination thereof. In one exemplary embodiment, the communication component <NUM> receives a broadcast signal or broadcast associated information from an external broadcast management system via a broadcast channel. In one exemplary embodiment, the communication component <NUM> further includes a near field communication (NFC) module to facilitate short-range communications. For example, the NFC module may be implemented based on a radio frequency identification (RFID) technology, an infrared data association (IrDA) technology, an ultra-wideband (UWB) technology, a Bluetooth (BT) technology, and other technologies.

In exemplary embodiments, the apparatus <NUM> may be implemented with one or more application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), digital signal processors (DSPs), digital signal processing devices (DSPDs), programmable logic devices (PLDs), field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), controllers, micro-controllers, microprocessors, or other electronic components, for performing the above described methods.

In exemplary embodiments, there is also provided a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium including instructions, such as included in the memory <NUM>, executable by the processor <NUM> in the apparatus <NUM>, for performing the above-described methods. For example, the non-transitory computer-readable storage medium may be a ROM, a RAM, a CD-ROM, a magnetic tape, a floppy disc, an optical data storage device, and the like.

In exemplary embodiments, there is also provided a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium including instructions, such as included in the memory <NUM>, executable by the processing component <NUM> in the apparatus <NUM>, for performing the above-described methods. For example, the non-transitory computer-readable storage medium may be a ROM, a RAM, a CD-ROM, a magnetic tape, a floppy disc, an optical data storage apparatus, and the like.

Other embodiments of the invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art from consideration of the specification and practice of the invention disclosed here. This application is intended to cover any variations, uses, or adaptations of the invention following the general principles thereof and including such departures from the present disclosure as come within known or customary practice in the art. It is intended that the specification and examples be considered as exemplary only, with the scope of the invention being indicated by the following claims.

Claim 1:
A method for controlling drainage of equipment, wherein the equipment is provided with a drain pipe, the method comprising:
determining that the equipment is in a drain state (<NUM>);
characterized by
detecting whether a floor drain connected to the drain pipe of the equipment is at risk of drainage overflow or the drainage overflow occurs (<NUM>), according to an image of the drain pipe, wherein the image of the drain pipe comprises at least two images of the drain pipe collected at different times; and
reducing the amount of water discharged from the drain pipe per unit time if it is detected that the floor drain is at risk of drainage overflow or the drainage overflow occurs (<NUM>).