The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
May. 14, 1996
Filed:
May. 20, 1994
Beth A Maddix, Lincoln Township, Berrien County, MI (US);
Lori S Miller, Lincoln Township, Berrien County, MI (US);
Whirlpool Corporation, Benton Harbor, MI (US);
Abstract
An automatic washing machine having an automatic washing liquid level control system including an ultrasonic apparatus for detecting the height of the clothes load in the washing machine and generating a signal representative of the clothes height, a control panel means for allowing user selection of the agitator speed, and means for generating a signal representative of the desired agitator speed. A control unit is provided including a fuzzy control which performs fuzzy inference on the basis of the signal representative of the clothes height and the signal representative of the agitator speed such that the optimum washing liquid level is achieved. In particular, membership functions according to fuzzy theory are defined for the clothes height and the agitator speed. Rules are defined for the height and agitator speed conditions such as for very high clothes height and low agitator speed, or medium high clothes height and high agitator speed, and so on. Each rule is executed using the fuzzy theory to thereby achieve an optimum washing liquid level.