JP2977294B2 - Control device for air conditioner - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an indoor air conditioner equipped with a microcomputer for automatically controlling a comfortable air-conditioning operation. The present invention relates to a control device for an air conditioner that enhances the comfort of a vehicle.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art When controlling the room temperature with an air conditioner, in the case of heating, in order to improve the characteristics at the time of rising of the room temperature, control is performed to shift the indoor target temperature of the air conditioner higher by a certain period of time. Also, control for changing the operating frequency of the compressor according to the indoor temperature has been performed.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing an outline of a conventional control device for an air conditioner. The control signal generating means 19 in FIG.
From the time 47 from the time of turning on the power of the air conditioner 6 measured by the timer 50, the suction temperature 43, and the user's set temperature 45 from the remote control or the operation panel 4 for operating the air conditioner 6 from outside, etc. The control signal 44 is generated.

[0004] For example, during heating, if the time after turning on the power supply is within 60 minutes, the indoor target temperature is raised by 2 ° C higher than the set temperature set by the remote control or the operation panel 4 in order to quickly raise the indoor temperature. That is, the controller controls the indoor temperature adjustment 46 of the air conditioner 6 to set the temperature.

[0005]

In the conventional air conditioner control device, control based only on the time since power-on and the indoor temperature characteristics is not enough to control the size of the air conditioning load in the room where the air conditioner is installed. Inability to flexibly deal with indoor environmental conditions (transient, stable). For example, when the load is too small, the room temperature becomes too high than the target temperature, and when the load is too large, the room temperature becomes too low below the target temperature. In addition, there is a problem that a temperature difference is generated due to a difference in a position of a person in a room or a person, and when the distance from the air conditioner is far, the set temperature may not be reached. There is also.

[0006] The comfort of a human in a room is determined by indoor environmental conditions such as indoor humidity, temperature, air flow velocity, and ambient wall radiation temperature. In addition, the quality of the person is also determined by the state of the person based on the amount of metabolism and the amount of clothes.
The air conditioner can perform comfortable air conditioning in consideration of the indoor environment by estimating the radiation temperature from the surrounding wall of the installed room.

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to realize a more comfortable air-conditioning environment by estimating a sense of comfort of a person in a room.

[0008]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a plurality of sensor means for detecting indoor and outdoor environmental conditions provided in an air conditioner, and a position detecting means for detecting a position of a remote controller. A storage unit for holding the previous state of the sensor unit, and determining whether the indoor environmental state is a transient state or a stable state based on the output from the sensor unit and the storage unit. The output value, the temperature value set by the user, and the output value from the remote control position detection means are used to estimate the comfort of a human in the room,
First control signal generating means for estimating the position of a person from the position of the remote controller to generate first control signals for the blowout temperature, wind direction, and air volume of the air conditioner; and input to the first control signal generating means. A second control signal for interpolating a first output signal output from the first control signal generating means to generate a second control signal such as a blowout temperature, a wind direction, and a flow rate of the air conditioner. The present invention proposes a control device for an air conditioner, comprising a signal generation unit.

[0009]

According to the configuration of the present invention described above, the first control signal generating means determines the indoor / outdoor environmental conditions and indoor environmental conditions (transient / stable) detected by the plurality of sensor means, and the storage means. From the previous state of the sensor unit held by the above, the temperature set by the user and the position of the person detected by the remote control position detecting unit, the feeling of comfort of the person in the room is estimated. Then, since a control signal is generated based on the estimated feeling of human comfort and controls the air conditioner, more comfortable air conditioning and living environment can be realized in consideration of the indoor environment and the state of the human.

[0010]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to FIGS. FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a basic configuration of a control device for an air conditioner according to an embodiment of the present invention.

In FIG. 1, 1 is a sensor, and 20, 21 and 22 are sensor signals from the sensor 1. 2 is storage means, 23,
Reference numeral 26 denotes the slope of the suction temperature output from the storage means 2 at intervals of N seconds. 4 is a remote control or operation panel, and 24 is an output signal from the remote control or operation panel 4. Reference numeral 3 denotes a lookup table, and reference numeral 25 denotes a control signal output from the lookup table 3. Reference numeral 5 denotes an interpolation unit, and 27 denotes a control signal output from the interpolation unit 5. Reference numeral 6 denotes an air conditioner body. 1a is a position sensor, which detects the position of the person from the position of a remote controller operated by a person in the room. 20a
Is a position signal of the remote controller from the position sensor 1a.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram for explaining a circuit for creating the look-up table 3 in FIG. Where 7
Is the outdoor temperature, 8 is the indoor temperature (suction temperature), 9 is the slope of the indoor temperature (suction temperature), 10 is the air volume, and 11 is the temperature set by the user. Reference numeral 12 denotes year / month / date / time information input from the remote control or the operation panel 4, and reference numeral 20a denotes a remote control position signal similar to that shown in FIG. Reference numeral 13 denotes a neural network schematic unit including a determination unit for determining whether the indoor environmental state is transient or stable, and 15 is a control signal generation unit. 14 is the measured comfort level (hereinafter referred to as PMV) or the standard new effective temperature (hereinafter referred to as SEV).
T). 35a is the judgment output of the indoor environment state, 35
b is a PMV (or SET) estimated by the neural network model means 13, 34 is a comfort level (PMV or SET) based on the actually measured PMV (or SET), and 36 is a control signal.

As shown in FIG. 1, sensor signals 20 are output from a plurality of sensors 1 in the air conditioner. This signal 20 is the outside air temperature, the suction temperature, the humidity, the human body temperature, and the like.

A signal 22 similar to the signal 20 is output from the sensor 1 and input to the storage means 2. Storage means 2
Stores the history of the input sensor signal 22 for the past N seconds (N is a positive real number). A signal 24 such as an air volume and a user set temperature is output from the remote control or the operation panel 4 and the storage means 2 stores the state before the sensor, for example, the inclination of the room temperature at intervals of N seconds (N is a positive real number). Outputs 23.

Further, position information 20a of the remote controller is output from the position sensor 1a. As shown in FIG. 3, the position sensor 1a divides a room into N × M zones, and outputs a position of a room in a room by detecting a remote control position. For example, in the case of the i zone, the position sensor 1
The output signal 20a of a becomes i.

Output signal 2 from each member 1, 2, 4, 1a
0, 23, 24, and 20a are input to the look-up table 3 as input signals, and the look-up table 3 calculates a control signal 25 for the air conditioner 6. The control signal 25 is supplied to the interpolation unit 5. The interpolator 5 is supplied with the output value 21 from the sensor 1 and the output value 26 from the storage means 2. The interpolator 5 interpolates the part of the control signal 25 that needs to be interpolated. The air conditioner is handed over to the air conditioner main body 6 to execute the operation.

The control signal 27 controls the inverter frequency, wind direction, air volume, indoor target set temperature, and the like in the air conditioner body 6. As an example, the air conditioner body 6 is determined based on the outside air temperature, the suction temperature, the air volume, the set temperature, the inclination of the suction temperature, and the indoor environment state (transient / stable) from the members 1, 2, 4, 1a. , The shift amount for calculating the target indoor target temperature is obtained. The relationship between the shift amount, the temperature set by the user, and the indoor target temperature is: indoor target temperature = user set temperature + shift amount. Therefore, look-up table 3
The obtained control signal 25 is interpolated by the interpolation unit 5 and
27 is input to the air conditioner main body 6, and the operation of the air conditioner main body 6 is executed so as to reach the indoor target temperature based on the above equation, for example. Thereby, the indoor temperature is adjusted.

Next, a method of creating the look-up table 3 in FIG. 1 will be described with reference to FIG. In FIG.
The neural network schematic means 13 has an outdoor temperature of 7, an indoor temperature of 8,
The slope 9 of the room temperature 7 determined at intervals of seconds (N is a positive real number),
The air volume 10, the user's set temperature 11, the year / month / date / time information, remote control position information 12a and the like are input, and the indoor environment state determination result 35a and the PMV estimated value 35b are output. The neural network model means 13 determines the indoor environment, and converts the measured PMV 14 measured indoors into learning data.
34, the guess value of the actually measured PMV (predicted average vote count) 14
Learning is performed so as to output b.

There are various methods for the learning algorithm of the neural network model means 13. For example, an algorithm of back propagation (reference: Runmelhart, DE and M)
cclelland, JL (Eds.), Parallel Distributed Processi
ng, Exploration in the Microstructure of Cognition.
Vol.1,2, MIT Press, Cammbridge (1986)), find the optimal solution by the lowest descent method. PM in the neural network schematic means 13
When the V (predicted average number of votes) can be sufficiently estimated, if the indoor environment state is in a transient state and the feeling of comfort is unsatisfactory, the output values 35a and 35b of the neural network model means 13 determine the air conditioner. Control signal to maximize the ability of
36 is created by the control signal generation means 15. When the indoor environment state is stable and the comfort is satisfactory, the control signal 36 is generated by the control signal generating means 15 so that the comfort can be maintained.

Neural network schematic means 13 and control signal generating means
15 、 Sensor input outdoor temperature 7 ~ remote control position signal
Each of the input signals 12a is roughly quantized and input, and the result is written into the lookup table 3 to create the lookup table 3. When the lookup table 3 is created, the output of the neural network schematic means 13 is converted from a continuous amount to a discrete amount. Therefore, in the present invention, when the created table is read, linear interpolation is performed, and more detailed control is performed. I do.

FIG. 4 shows an interpolation method. For example, when there is a reference of the suction temperature in increments of 1 ° C. as an input to the look-up table 3, if the suction temperature 38 is 2.5 ° C. as shown in FIG. Contents of lookup table 3 at 2 ℃ and 3 ℃ 39,40
, And the sum 41 of the two is further halved by the divider 18 to obtain a control signal value 42 of 2.5 ° C.

As described above, estimation of the metabolic rate and the amount of clothing by means of a user's set temperature and a human body temperature sensor as means for knowing the state of a person, the indoor and outdoor temperatures, the landscape of an air conditioner, and the indoor The indoor environment state (transient / stable) is determined based on the indoor environment that can be detected by the air conditioner, such as the slope of the temperature every N seconds (N is a positive real number). The control signal for the air conditioner is generated based on the determination value of the indoor environment state and the value of the comfort level. Examples of the comfort sensation to be inferred include a predicted average voting number (PMV) in which the comfort sensation is calculated according to the state of the person and the indoor environment, or a standard new effective temperature (SET) in which the physiology and sensation of the person are predicted. ). Then, the output value of the sensor is input to the schematic circuit of the neural network, and the learning is performed so as to estimate the PMV or the SET, so that the PMV or the SET can be estimated, and the control signal is generated based on the estimation result. .

A look-up table 3 in which a neural network schematic circuit and a control signal generating portion are matched with the input value of a sensor.
And a control signal is generated by interpolating the contents of the look-up table 3 in a portion where information is lacking in the look-up table 3.

[0024]

As described above, according to the first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a control apparatus for an air conditioner for performing room temperature air conditioning by controlling a room temperature, an air volume and a wind direction.
A plurality of sensor means for detecting environmental conditions inside and outside the room where the air conditioner is installed; a storage means for retaining the previous state of the sensor means; and a position of a human being detected by detecting a position of a remote controller in the room. From the outputs from the position detection means, the sensor means and the storage means, it was determined whether the indoor environmental state was in a transient state or a stable state, and the determination value, the output value from the sensor means and the storage means, and the user's setting First control of the blowout temperature, wind direction, and air volume of the air conditioner by estimating the comfort of a human being in the room from the temperature value and the output value from the remote control position detecting means and estimating the human position from the position of the remote control. A first control signal generating means for generating a signal, and a first signal output from the first control signal generating means based on a value inputted to the first control signal generating means.
And a second control signal generating means for generating a second control signal for the blowout temperature, wind direction, and air volume of the air conditioner by interpolating the output signal of the air conditioner. It is possible to realize more comfortable air conditioning and living environment by estimating the feeling.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, the sensor means is a detector for detecting the temperature inside and outside the room, the air volume of the air conditioner, and the humidity, and the second control signal is used to control the inverter compressor of the air conditioner. Since the frequency is controlled, it is possible to quickly and easily realize a comfortable air-conditioning environment by finely controlling the frequency according to the indoor / outdoor environment.

According to the third aspect of the present invention, the gradient of the intake air temperature of the air conditioner is stored in the storage means at intervals of N seconds, so that the load state of the room during use can be accurately grasped. And improve comfort by preventing overshoot.

According to the fourth aspect of the present invention, the first control signal generating means is a look-up table in which an output of a function for estimating a feeling of comfort in a room can be referenced by its input. By using a look-up table, it is possible to perform processing with a microcomputer equipped with an air conditioner, which requires long calculation time and a large computer when the neural network is implemented by an air conditioner. Benefits are achieved.

According to the fifth aspect of the present invention, the indoor environment for controlling the air conditioner is obtained by using the position of the person estimated from the position of the remote controller and the radiation temperature of the surrounding wall as the comfort of the person in the room. Comfort can be more accurately captured.

According to the sixth aspect of the present invention, as the feeling of human comfort, a predicted average voting number (PMV) calculated based on the state of the person or the indoor environment, or the physiological state or feeling of the person is predicted. By using the standard new effective temperature (SET), a feeling of human comfort is established as an index, so that a problem such as a mistake in comfort does not occur, and accurate comfort can be easily calculated. Therefore, control is simplified.

According to the seventh aspect of the present invention, the first control signal generating means detects the indoor and outdoor environmental conditions provided in the air conditioner from the output of the sensor means and provides a sense of comfort for a person in the room. Is a neural circuit model means (neural network) that learns human comfort from the position of the person inferred from the position of the remote controller to estimate a lot of information (indoor / outdoor temperature, humidity, air volume, human Location etc.)
As a means for finding accurate comfort from the user, the method is very excellent and has a learning function, so that it is possible to obtain a method of controlling comfort according to various situations, and to improve comfort.

According to the present invention, the first control signal generation means estimates the state of the person in the room from the user's position estimated from the user's set temperature and the position of the remote controller. It is possible to judge the individual's preference (whether it is cold or hot) and to realize comfort suited to the individual.

According to the ninth aspect of the present invention, since the first control signal generating means is the information of year, month, day, and time inputted from a remote controller or the like, it is possible to determine the season and determine whether it is morning or night. Since it is configured to make a guess based on judgment, it is possible to take into account the human comfort in that situation, and to obtain a comfortable feeling all year round. For example, September is a season to fall after summer, and humans are accustomed to the heat, so it is more comfortable for humans to set the temperature higher than in June or July.

According to the tenth aspect of the present invention, the first control signal generation means determines whether the output value output from the sensor is within the range set with respect to the target value or other than the target value. It is possible to control the air conditioner more finely, and it is possible to improve room temperature fluctuations and the like, thereby improving comfort.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a basic configuration showing an embodiment of a control device for an air conditioner according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a circuit for creating a look-up table of the control device for an air conditioner according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing position information of a person estimated from a position of a remote controller in FIGS. 1 and 2;

FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrating a process of an interpolation unit of the control device for the air conditioner according to the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing a conventional control device for an air conditioner.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Sensor 1a Position sensor 2 Storage means 3 Look-up table means 4 Remote control or operation panel 5 Interpolator 6 Air conditioner 12 Year / month / date / time information 20a Remote control position signal

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (72) Inventor Ikuo Akamine 1006 Kadoma, Kazuma, Osaka Prefecture Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. (58) Field surveyed (Int.Cl. ⁶ , DB name) F24F 11/02

Claims (10)

(57) [Claims] 1. A plurality of sensor means for detecting environmental conditions inside and outside a room in which an air conditioner is installed, a storage means for retaining a previous state of the sensor means, and a position of a remote controller placed indoors Determining whether the indoor environmental state is a transient state or a stable state based on the output from the sensor means and the storage means, and the determination value, the output value from the sensor means and the storage means, And the output value from the remote control position detection means to estimate the comfort of a human in the room, and to estimate the position of the human from the position of the remote control, and to output the air temperature and wind direction of the air conditioner. And a first control signal for generating a first control signal of the air volume.
The first output signal output from the first control signal generating means is interpolated by the control signal generating means and the value input to the first control signal generating means, and A control device for an air conditioner, comprising: second control signal generating means for generating second control signals for temperature, wind direction, and air flow. 2. The sensor means is a detector for detecting indoor and outdoor temperatures, airflow of an air conditioner, and temperature, and configured to control the frequency of an inverter compressor of the air conditioner by a second control signal. The control device for an air conditioner according to claim 1, wherein: 3. The air conditioner according to claim 1, further comprising means for storing the gradient of the intake air temperature of the air conditioner at an interval of N seconds (N is a positive real value) in the storage means. Control device. 4. The first control signal generation means is a look-up table corresponding to an indoor environment state so that an output of a function for estimating a sense of comfort of a person in a room can be referred to by the input. The control device for an air conditioner according to claim 1. 5. The system according to claim 1, wherein a human position and a surrounding wall radiation temperature estimated from a position of a remote controller are used as a comfortable feeling of a human in a room for controlling the air conditioner.
The control device for an air conditioner as described in the above. 6. The method according to claim 1, wherein a predicted average number of votes calculated based on a human condition or an indoor environment or a standard new effective temperature based on a predicted human physiological condition or sensation is used as the human comfort. The control device for an air conditioner according to claim 1. 7. A first control signal generating means for detecting a position of a remote controller in order to infer a sense of comfort of a person in a room from an output of said sensor means for detecting an indoor or outdoor environmental condition provided in an air conditioner. 2. The control device for an air conditioner according to claim 1, wherein the control device is a neural circuit model which learns a feeling of human comfort from a position of the human estimated more. 8. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the first control signal generation means estimates a state of a person in the room from the position of the user estimated from a set temperature of the user and a position of the remote controller.
The control device for an air conditioner as described in the above. 9. The system according to claim 1, wherein the first control signal generating means is configured to make an estimate based on information of year, month, day, and time inputted from a remote controller or the like. Air conditioner control device. 10. The first control signal generation means determines that the sensor output value is in a stable state when the sensor output value is within a range set with respect to a target value, and otherwise determines that the sensor output value is in a transient state. The control device for an air conditioner according to claim 1.