Systems and methods for determining drying time for a clothes dryer

Claim 3

A system in accordance with claim 1 wherein said fuzzy logic control system comprises a plurality of fuzzy inference subsystems.

Claim 4

A system in accordance with claim 2 wherein said fuzzy inference subsystems comprise a span based inference subsystem and a load based inference subsystem.

Claim 5

A system in accordance with claim 3 wherein said span based inference subsystem is adapted to provide a dryer load output value corresponding to membership in one or more of a plurality of fuzzy sets.

Claim 6

A system in accordance with claim 4 wherein said span based inference subsystem utilizes the drying span to determine a degree of membership in said sets.

Claim 7

A system in accordance with claim 1 wherein said drying span corresponds to an interval of time between a first humidity condition of air at said sensor and a second humidity condition of air at said sensor.

Claim 8

A clothes dryer comprising a system for determining drying time for a clothes load in said clothes dryer, the clothes dryer including a drum for holding clothes to be dried, an inside door and a trap duct, said system for determining drying time comprising: a first temperature sensor disposed in a first location for transmitting a first signal representative of temperature inside said drum; a second temperature sensor disposed in a second location for transmitting a second signal representative of temperature in said trap duct; a fuzzy logic control system coupled to said first and second temperature sensor for receiving said respective temperature representative signals and configured to determine the clothes load in correspondence with a mean value of the temperature difference between said first and second temperature signals.

Claim 9

A clothes dryer comprising a system for determining drying time for a clothes load in said clothes dryer, the clothes dryer including a drum for holding clothes to be dried, an inside door and a trap duct, said system for determining drying time comprising: a first temperature sensor disposed in a first location for transmitting a first signal representative of temperature inside said drum; a second temperature sensor disposed in a second location for transmitting a second signal representative of temperature in said trap duct; a fuzzy logic control system coupled to said first and second temperature sensor for receiving said respective temperature representative signals and configured to determine the clothes load in correspondence with a mean value of the temperature difference between said first and second temperature signals.

Claim 10

An apparatus in accordance with claim 7 further comprising a signal processor coupled between said first and second temperature sensors and said control system.

Claim 11

An apparatus in accordance with claim 8 wherein said signal processor is configured to determine said mean temperature difference value.

Claim 12

An apparatus in accordance with claim 8 wherein said signal processor is configured to determine a mean temperature difference value for a time span.

Claim 15

A method in accordance with claim 11 wherein to determine the drying span, said method further comprises the step of determining an interval of time between a first condition of humidity of air flowing through the trap duct and a second condition of humidity of air flowing through the trap duct.

Claim 16

A method in accordance with claim 11 wherein said step of determining a drying span further comprises the steps of: determining an initial humidity value of the humidity signal; and determining an interval of time between an increase in humidity of air flowing through the trap duct with respect to the initial humidity value and a decrease in humidity of air flowing through the trap duct with respect to the initial humidity value.

Claim 17

A system in accordance with claim 1 wherein said fuzzy logic control system is adapted to determine drying span in correspondence with the slope of the humidity signal.

Claim 18

A clothes dryer comprising a system for determining drying time for a clothes load in said clothes dryer, the clothes dryer including a drum for holding clothes to be dried and a trap duct through which exhaust air passes from said drum, said system for determining drying time comprising: a temperature module, said temperature module comprising at least a first temperature sensor disposed in a first location for transmitting a first signal representative of temperature inside said drum and at least a second temperature sensor disposed in a second location for transmitting a second signal representative of temperature in said trap duct, and a signal processor coupled to said first and second temperature sensors and adapted to generate a signal corresponding to the mean temperature difference between said first and second temperature signals; a humidity module, said humidity module comprising at least one humidity sensor disposed to sense humidity of the exhaust air and a signal processor coupled to said humidity sensor and adapted to generate a signal corresponding to humidity of the exhaust air; and a fuzzy logic control system coupled to said temperature module and to said humidity module, said fuzzy logic control system further being configured to generate a clothes load signal corresponding to at least one of said mean temperature difference signal and said humidity signal, said control system further being configured to generate a drying time signal in correspondence with the determined clothes load signal.

Claim 19

A clothes dryer comprising a system for determining drying time for a clothes load in said clothes dryer, the clothes dryer including a drum for holding clothes to be dried and a trap duct through which exhaust air passes from said drum, said system for determining drying time comprising: a temperature module, said temperature module comprising at least a first temperature sensor disposed in a first location for transmitting a first signal representative of temperature inside said drum and at least a second temperature sensor disposed in a second location for transmitting a second signal representative of temperature in said trap duct, and a signal processor coupled to said first and second temperature sensors and adapted to generate a signal corresponding to the mean temperature difference between said first and second temperature signals; a humidity module, said humidity module comprising at least one humidity sensor disposed to sense humidity of the exhaust air and a signal processor coupled to said humidity sensor and adapted to generate a signal corresponding to humidity of the exhaust air; and a fuzzy logic control system coupled to said temperature module and to said humidity module, said fuzzy logic control system further being configured to generate a clothes load signal corresponding to at least one of said mean temperature difference signal and said humidity signal, said control system further being configured to generate a drying time signal in correspondence with the determined clothes load signal.

Claim 20

The dryer of claim 15 wherein said humidity signal provided by said humidity module corresponds to the relative humidity of air exhausting from said drum.

Claim 21

The dryer of claim 15 wherein said humidity signal provided by said humidity module corresponds to the slope of the values of the relative humidity of air exhausting from said drum.

Claim 22

The dryer of claim 15 wherein said fuzzy logic control system comprises at least a load prediction subsystem and a drying time subsystem.