Patent Document

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
       [0001]    1. Field of the Invention 
         [0002]    The present invention pertains to the art of refrigerated appliances, and more particularly to a refrigerator having a remote control method as a software task in a cloud-computing environment. 
         [0003]    2. Related Art 
         [0004]    Refrigerated appliances, for both commercial and domestic use operate a vapor compression cycle in which the closed-circuit refrigerant, liquefied from compression, transitions to gas within an evaporator unit, drawing heat through close contact with the refrigerator compartment. By design, heat of vaporization from the refrigerant&#39;s gas phase change effects the extraction of heat from the inside the refrigerator compartment to a condensing unit in order to maintain compartment temperature within a desired range. 
         [0005]    The appliance components for the gas compression cycle include a compressor, a condensing unit, an evaporating unit along with an associated fan, and one or more sensors that measure temperature in the various compartments. Additional components may include an evaporator defrost heater, an airflow control damper, a recirculating fan. 
         [0006]    A thermostat or a temperature control unit assures that the compartment temperature is around a desired set point by starting and stopping the compression cycle based on input from the sensors and using actuators such as relays. The appliance, control unit is also operating other tasks, such as regulating the airflow inside the compartments and starting defrost cycles during which the evaporator unit is heated to remove frost. 
         [0007]    The temperature control method used in existing refrigerated appliances is a component built into the appliance at the time of fabrication. In those rare cases There its parameters other than the set points can be adjusted after field installation, the underlying control method algorithm cannot be changed and is limited by the computational resources available on board the control unit, even in more modern microprocessor-based controllers. Moreover, no factors directly relevant to energy consumption dynamics are taken in consideration. 
         [0008]    Temperature control in refrigerators equipped with on-off, fixed speed compressors is typically achieved by means of the classical relay feedback closed-loop with other tasks such as the defrost cycle, performed on a time schedule. Advanced temperature control methods may incorporate adaptive strategies or sophisticated models to minimize energy consumption, but the additional cost in computational resources needed and the resulting appliance complexity, have limited advanced control methods only to some high-end industrial refrigeration systems. 
         [0009]    Techniques such as cloud computing systems have begun to be utilized for a variety of applications. Cloud computing relocates the execution of applications, deployment of se ices and storage of data to a server farm, typically of premises and implemented as a service. Applications such as remote control software that have been running on conventional server environments have begun to be hosted in the cloud and utilized as services. Providing a service as hosted in a cloud platform results in an operational advantage, since management of hardware for each remotely controlled device becomes unnecessary by arranging the control server on a large-scale server farm. Among other merits, addition of resources depending on a load of the application is easily performed. 
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
       [0010]    The present invention overcomes the limitations of current art, with respect to the use of sophisticated control methods, their flexibility and adaptability to variable usage conditions, and the adoption of energy optimization techniques in the method, of conventional refrigerated appliances. It accomplishes this by use of a distributed control method as a software task executed remotely in a cloud-computing environment, and interacting with a control and communication unit in the refrigerated appliance equipped with a network communication interface. 
         [0011]    A refrigerated appliance constructed in accordance with the present invention includes a local control and communication unit equipped with a network interface such as Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11), GSM/UMTS/LTE carrier networks, or Ethernet (IEEE 802.3), and firmware in such unit that allows secure communication with the cloud computing software for sending sensing data and receiving commands for relay on-off operations or other forms of sensing and control. The communication and control unit will activate the on-off relays or other form of analog control present in the refrigerated appliance, only when directed to do so by the remote control software. Additional sensors for energy consumption measurement and other environmental parameters such as external ambient temperature and humidity, food temperature sensors, may also be added to the appliance for use in the control method and with energy optimization techniques. 
         [0012]    The disclosed distributed control method includes a software system to be hosted and executed in a cloud-computing environment, and configured to manage interactions and to control a plurality of refrigerated appliances at a given time. One advantage of the disclosed control method is the ability to adopt computationally intense control algorithms, to incorporate mathematical models for energy optimization, and to take in account data and parameters derived from large databases or other external sources of information and services, such as weather forecasts or energy demand from a smart-grid service. Moreover, the disclosed control method can be different for individual or groups of refrigerator appliances, and even dynamically replaced with a different one while guaranteeing proper appliance operation. 
         [0013]    The control and communication, unit on board a refrigerated appliance would insure proper functioning in the event of a temporary interruption of the network connection, and the consequent inability to receive control signals, for instance by using a simple relay feedback closed-loop as the control method. 
         [0014]    Other embodiments, aspects, and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following descriptions and accompanying drawings. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0015]    For a more complete understanding of the present invention and for further features and advantages, reference is now made to the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which: 
           [0016]      FIG. 1  is a block diagram of an exemplary cloud-based refrigeration system, according to one embodiment of the present invention. 
           [0017]      FIG. 2  is a block diagram of an exemplary refrigerated appliance, according to one embodiment of the present invention. 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
       [0018]    The preferred embodiments of the present invention and their advantages are best understood by referring to  FIGS. 1 through 10  of the drawings provided below. 
       System Architecture 
       [0019]      FIG. 1  is a block diagram of an exemplary cloud-based, distributed control for refrigerated appliances  1  according to this disclosure. In this diagram, one or more refrigerated appliances  10  are connected to a computing cloud  20 . 
         [0020]    One innovative aspect of this disclosure is the ability to deploy software in the computing cloud to control the temperature and other functions of a refrigerated appliance. The control software executing in CPU  30  acquires sensor data from the refrigerated appliance  10  as needed, performs the compare and compute functions of a transfer function of a typical closed-loop feedback control, and sends to the refrigerated appliance control signals that are received and interpreted by the communication and control unit in the appliance and its actuators. 
         [0021]    One advantage of the disclosed approach is that the complexity of the transfer function in the control method used is not limited by the resources available inside the appliance, and that it can be composed of any number of steps, each of high computational complexity and requiring the resources typical of a cloud computing environment. 
         [0022]    In some embodiments of this disclosure, one software task executed in the computing cloud&#39;s CPU  30 , with its own private execution and data context, is instantiated in the computing cloud for each controlled refrigerated appliance  16  to perform tile transfer function of that refrigerated appliance. 
         [0023]    The computing cloud  20  is accessible from remote locations and includes at least one processing unit  30  and at least one data storage unit  40 . The computing cloud  20  is capable of both storing information in data storage  40  and performing data functions of information in CPU  30 , as well as to interact with external services. 
         [0024]    The refrigerated appliance  10  communicates with the computing cloud  20  using any secured or unsecured protocol, such as the Transport Layer Security (TLS) or any other socket-based communication protocol. The communication between the refrigerated appliance  10  and the computing cloud  20  is “bidirectional”, that is data is sent and received by both ends. 
         [0025]    The computing cloud  20  includes hardware that does not fit and is cost-prohibitive to incorporate in individual refrigerated appliance  10 . Moreover, the computing cloud  20  includes software that would not run or would be cost prohibitive to incorporate in individual refrigerated appliance  10 . Therefore, the computing cloud  20  provides this hardware and software resources through secure connections to perform temperature and all other control functions for refrigerated appliance  10 . 
         [0026]    One of the innovative features of this disclosure is to take advantage of the computational resources in, the computing cloud  20  to perform the control method of refrigerated appliance  10 , and to use such resources to incorporate non-linear and time variant control strategies, including, methods and models to minimize energy consumption, and to incorporate data analysis to evaluate and compare different control methods. Moreover, the control method may be individually selected for each refrigerated appliance  10 , according to its expected use and location to obtain higher energy efficiency, and adapted to account for local and changing environmental and operational conditions. 
         [0027]    In some embodiments, the cloud computing  20  may store sensor data and energy consumption data acquired from refrigerated appliance  10 , as well as other data used to estimate the efficiency of the refrigerated appliance  10  and of specific components, such as the compressor. Dedicated analytics software can be used to analyze the collected data, evaluate and compare different control methods and to provide information to improve the methods or to devise new ones. 
         [0028]    In some embodiments, the control algorithm may leverage the service-oriented architecture of the cloud computing  20  to access data or other computational and resources available from external services, such as weather forecast for the locations of refrigerated appliance  10 , details of relevant events such as receiving new material or foodstuff to be stored in a refrigerated appliance from a shipping company, price or demand-response signals from utilities or other requests related to the operation of a smart-grid and the need for electric load shaving and shifting. 
       Refrigerated Appliance 
       [0029]    Refrigerated appliance  10  is a refrigeration system controlled with a method in a computing cloud  20 . 
         [0030]      FIG. 2  is the block diagram of an exemplary refrigerated appliance with a cloud-based control method, according to some embodiments of the present invention. Refrigerated appliance  10  includes a microprocessor  11  capable of executing firmware  13  stored in memory  12 , an interface circuit  14  used to connect to refrigerator sensors  50  and actuators  60 , and a communication circuit  15  used to connect to cloud computing  20 . The refrigerated appliance actuators  60  set the state of the relays that controls the equipment used in the refrigerated appliance to perform the vapor compression cycle, such as compressor, evaporator fan, and other components such as airflow fans, defrost heater, lights, and air damper. The refrigerated appliance sensors  50  acquire data from temperature, humidity, energy consumption and other sensors inside the appliance and outside. 
         [0031]    Refrigerated appliance firmware  13  incorporates at least functions that acquire sensor data  50  and control the state of actuators  60  through the interface circuit  14 , and that allow the refrigerated appliance to communicate to cloud computing  20  through the communication circuit  15 . The appliance firmware  13  allows a software task executed remotely in cloud computing  20  to know and change the refrigerated appliance equipment state through the interface circuit  14 . 
         [0032]    Other functions of the refrigerated appliance firmware  13  include protocol and encryption methods to enable secure communication with cloud computing  20 , such as the Transport Layer Security (TLS) protocol. 
         [0033]    Refrigerated appliance memory  12  stores the firmware  13  and it may store other configuration data that allow the refrigerated appliance communication circuit to connect to gateways or access points in the access network used by the refrigerated appliance to connect to cloud computing  20 . 
       Advantages of Present Invention 
       [0034]    From the above description, it should be apparent that the present invention provides at least the following advantages. First, refrigerated appliance control methods are not limited by resources available in the appliance and are not built into the appliance at time of fabrication. Second, different control methods can be developed and selected depending on intended use of refrigerated appliance, location time variant and other critical parameters. Third, energy efficiency of refrigerated appliances can be incorporated as a parameter in the control method and computationally intensive optimization techniques used in the control method to minimize energy consumption while guaranteeing safety of material stored in the refrigerated compartments of the appliance. Fourth, the cloud-based control method described can be provided to refrigerator appliance manufacturers as a service, incorporating additional functions such as detection of anomalies, malfunctioning of equipment and notification of exceptions or temperature out of range, to the end-user of the refrigerated appliance. Fifth, the stem described allows for collection of field data about the operation of a refrigerated appliance and its energy consumption at a scale that has no precedent. Such data may be used to evaluate energy efficiency performance of refrigerated appliances for regulatory compliance, inspire changes in policies and devise new and more energy efficient control methods. 
         [0035]    While particular embodiments of the present invention and their advantages have been shown and described, it should be understood that various changes, substitutions, and alterations could be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.

Technology Category: 3