KR100755142B1 - Apparatus and method for controlling liquid dispensation - Google Patents

Abstract

An apparatus for controlling liquid distribution is provided to inject proper amount of liquid into a container mounted on a container mounting part by automatically controlling liquid distribution, and to allow users to inject desired amount of the liquid in the container by controlling injection height of the liquid. An apparatus for controlling liquid distribution comprises a container mounting part, a container detection sensor(200), an actuator(410), a plurality of light emitting elements(210) and a plurality of light receiving elements(220), an ultrasonic wave transmitter/receiver(240) and a controller. The container mounting part mounts a container in a bottom surface. The container detection sensor detects mounting of the container on the bottom surface of the container mounting part. The actuator injects liquid into the container mounted on the container mounting part. The plurality of the light emitting elements and the light receiving elements measures height of the container mounted on the container mounting part. The ultrasonic wave transmitter/receiver measures height of the liquid injected into the container. The controller drives the actuator and controls it to inject the liquid into the container.

Description

Apparatus and method for controlling liquid dispensation

1 is a view showing a configuration in which a liquid discharge part is provided in a refrigerator according to the present invention;

Figure 2 is a front view showing the configuration of the liquid discharge portion in the liquid distribution control device of the present invention,

Figure 3 is a side view showing the configuration of the liquid discharge portion in the liquid distribution control device of the present invention,

4 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the liquid distribution control device of the present invention;

5 is a signal flow diagram showing a liquid distribution control method of the present invention.

The present invention relates to a liquid distribution control device and method.

In general, a refrigerator is composed of a freezer compartment and a refrigerating compartment, and the inside of the refrigerating compartment stores foods requiring various refrigeration. And in order to take out food stored in the refrigerator compartment, the refrigerator compartment door must be opened.

When the refrigerating compartment door is opened, cold air inside the refrigerating compartment leaks out, and high temperature outdoor air flows into the refrigerating compartment, thereby increasing power consumption and damaging foods stored in the refrigerating store due to the high temperature air introduced into the refrigerating compartment.

Therefore, in order to reduce the frequency of opening and closing the door of the refrigerating compartment, when taking out liquid such as water stored in the refrigerating compartment, the refrigerating compartment door can be taken out without opening the door. That is, a liquid dispenser is installed in the door of the refrigerator.

The liquid distributor typically has a container seating portion for seating a container, such as a cup, on the front of the door of the refrigerating compartment, and can be placed in the seated container, and a liquid discharge port for discharging liquid on the container seating portion. In the refrigerating compartment, a storage tank is provided to store liquid, and an actuator such as a solenoid valve and a pump is provided. The liquid stored in the storage tank is seated on the container seating part through the liquid discharge port according to the driving of the actuator. It is configured to be discharged into a container.

In a refrigerator provided with such a liquid distributor, the size of the container must be able to be determined in order to automatically dispense an appropriate amount of liquid into the container seated on the container seat.

To this end, a technique for irradiating light to a container seated on a container seating part and receiving light reflected from the container with a light receiving sensor is known to measure the height of the container.

However, measuring the height of the container using the light should be made of a material that reflects the light, and a container made of a material such as transparent glass could not be used. In addition, since the light emitted from the container must be reflected by the light receiving sensor, the shape of the container that can be used is extremely limited.

In addition, the conventional technique described above has caused many errors in measuring the height of the container according to the intensity of ambient light. For example, when natural light is present and the light reflectance of the container is low, there is a limit in accurately measuring the height of the container.

And the technique of measuring the height of a container using an ultrasonic wave is known. The technique of measuring the height of the container using the ultrasonic wave is provided with an ultrasonic output unit and the ultrasonic receiver on the upper portion of the liquid discharge, the ultrasonic output unit outputs the ultrasonic waves at a predetermined time interval, the ultrasonic output unit is output and reflected from the container The ultrasonic receiver receives the ultrasonic wave and measures the height of the container.

However, measuring the height of the container using the ultrasonic wave should have a thickness sufficient to reflect the ultrasonic wave of the container. When the edge thickness of the container is thin, the height of the container cannot be accurately measured.

It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a liquid distribution control device and method capable of accurately measuring the height of a container.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a liquid dispensing control device and method capable of automatically adding an appropriate amount of liquid to a container by accurately measuring the height of the liquid added to the container.

According to the present invention having such an object, when the liquid is added to the container, the height of the container is first determined.

In order to determine the height of the container, the present invention provides a plurality of light emitting devices by vertically arranging a plurality of light emitting devices and a plurality of light receiving devices on both side walls of the container seating part in which the container is seated and the liquid is discharged and put into the seated container. The light output by the light beams is incident on each of the plurality of light receiving elements.

When the container is seated in the container seating part, some of the light emitted by the plurality of light emitting devices is blocked by the container by the seated container, and thus the light receiving device does not enter light as it does not enter the corresponding light receiving device. Determine the height of the container by judging them.

When the height of the container is determined, while driving the actuator to inject the liquid into the container while driving the ultrasonic transceiver to output the ultrasonic wave to the interior of the container, when receiving the ultrasonic wave reflected by the liquid injected into the container, when outputting the ultrasonic wave To determine the height of the liquid injected into the container by using the elapsed time until receiving the ultrasonic waves.

When the height of the liquid is determined, the driving of the actuator is controlled while comparing the height with the height of the liquid, thereby introducing an appropriate amount of liquid into the container.

Therefore, the liquid dispensing control device of the present invention includes a container seating portion in which the container is mounted on the bottom surface; An actuator for injecting liquid into the container seated on the container seat; Light emitting device and light receiving device for measuring the height of the container seated on the container seating portion; An ultrasonic transceiver for measuring the height of the liquid introduced into the container; And a control unit for measuring the height of the container using the light emitting device and the light receiving device, and controlling the liquid to be introduced into the container by driving the actuator while determining the height of the liquid introduced into the container using the ultrasonic transceiver. Characterized in that.

And the liquid distribution control method of the present invention comprises the steps of the control unit to measure the height of the container to dispense the liquid to determine the height of the liquid to be put into the container; A control unit controlling the actuator to determine the height of the liquid introduced into the container while introducing the liquid into the container; And stopping the input of the liquid when the determined liquid input height of the container is equal to or higher than the input height of the liquid determined according to the height of the container.

Hereinafter, with reference to the accompanying drawings illustrating a preferred embodiment of the liquid distribution control device and method of the present invention and a refrigerator having the same. However, in describing the present invention, when it is determined that a detailed description of a related known function or configuration may unnecessarily obscure the subject matter of the present invention, the detailed description thereof will be omitted.

1 is a view showing a refrigerator equipped with a liquid distribution control apparatus according to the present invention. Here, reference numeral 100 denotes a refrigerating compartment for refrigerating and storing liquid such as a predetermined food or drink, and reference numeral 110 denotes a refrigerating compartment door which is installed at the front side of the refrigerating compartment 100 and opened and closed.

The container seating part 120 is formed on the front surface of the refrigerating compartment door 110, and the container 130 is seated on the bottom surface of the liquid discharge part 120. A storage tank (not shown) for storing liquid is provided inside the refrigerating compartment door 110, and between the container seating part 120 and the storage tank, a liquid stored in the storage tank is stored. An actuator for discharging to the container 130 seated on the bottom surface of the seating portion 120 is provided.

On the upper portion of the container seating portion 120, a liquid ejection key 140 for commanding the ejection of the liquid, and a plurality of liquid input height adjusting keys 150 for adjusting the height of the liquid to be injected into the container 130. Is provided. Here, the liquid input height adjustment key 150 is composed of only two keys as the rising key (150-1) for increasing the input height of the liquid, and the falling key (150-2) for reducing the input height of the liquid. can do.

As shown in FIG. 2, the container seating unit 120 is provided with a container detection sensor 200 for detecting whether the container 130 is seated on the bottom surface on which the container 130 is seated. The vessel detection sensor 200 may be configured, for example, with a weight sensor, a push switch.

In addition, a plurality of light emitting devices 210 for outputting light and a plurality of light receiving devices 220 for receiving light from the plurality of light emitting devices 210 are vertically disposed on the walls of the left and right sides of the container seating part 120. Arranged and installed.

The plurality of light emitting devices 210 may be configured using, for example, a laser diode or a light emitting diode. In addition, the light emitting device 210 may be configured using one surface light source (Electro luminescence sheet), it is possible to use any device that can output light.

In addition, the plurality of light receiving elements 220 may use light receiving diodes.

When the light emitting device 210 is used as an individual device such as a laser diode or a light emitting diode, the light emitting device 210 and the light receiving device 220 are provided with the same number, so that the light output from each of the light emitting devices 210 is generated. It is configured to be incident to each of the light receiving elements 220.

And as shown in Figure 3 the upper portion of the container seating portion 120 is provided with a liquid discharge port 230 for discharging the liquid in accordance with the drive of the actuator, and also the container seated on the container seating portion 120 Ultrasonic transceiving unit 240 for outputting the ultrasonic waves to the inside of the 130, and receives the ultrasonic waves reflected from the liquid discharged to the container 130 is installed.

Here, the ultrasonic transceiver 240 may be configured using a separate ultrasonic transmitter and ultrasonic receiver.

In the present invention configured as described above, when the user seats the container 130 on the container seating unit 120 to discharge the liquid stored in the refrigerating chamber 100, the container detection sensor 200 detects the container 130, In response to the detection of the container 130, the plurality of light emitting devices 210 output light.

The light output from the light emitting element 210 is incident to the plurality of light receiving elements 220, and at this time, the light of the light emitting element 210 arranged at a position lower than the height of the container 130 is directed to the container 130. It is blocked by the light receiving element 220 is not incident.

Therefore, the height of the container 130 may be measured by comparing the output signals of the light receiving elements 220 with a preset reference voltage.

When the height of the container 130 is measured, the height of the liquid to be injected into the container 130 is determined. Here, the height of the determined liquid is determined to be a height lower than the height of the measured container 130.

When the height of the liquid to be discharged into the container 130 is determined, the actuator is driven to discharge the liquid stored in the storage tank through the liquid discharge port 230 and into the container 130.

When the liquid is injected into the container 130, the ultrasonic transmitting and receiving unit 240 generates ultrasonic waves at predetermined time intervals and outputs the ultrasonic waves to the inside of the container 130, and the output ultrasonic waves are applied to the liquid injected into the container 130. Reflected by the ultrasonic transceiver unit 240 to receive the ultrasonic wave transceiver 240 may output the ultrasonic wave to measure the height of the liquid introduced into the container 130 using the time required to return.

When the height of the liquid introduced into the container 130 is measured, the height of the measured liquid is compared with the determined height of the liquid, and as a result of comparison, the height of the liquid introduced into the container 130 is greater than or equal to the determined height of the liquid The actuator is stopped to finish discharging the liquid.

4 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the liquid distribution control device of the present invention. Here, reference numeral 400 is a control unit. When the liquid ejection signal is input, the control unit 400 determines the height of the container 130 and the height of the liquid injected into the container 130 to control the appropriate amount of liquid into the container 130.

The control unit 400 is a liquid discharge determination unit 401, a container height determination unit 402, a liquid injection height determination unit 403, a time determination unit 404, a liquid height determination unit 405 and a liquid discharge control unit 406.

The liquid dispensing determination unit 401 detects the container detection sensor 200 is seated of the container 130 to generate a liquid dispensing signal, or the user operates the liquid dispensing key 140, the liquid dispensing signal In the case of occurrence of the liquid ejection judgment, and the liquid ejection determination signal is generated.

The container height determination unit 402 drives the plurality of light emitting elements 210 to output light, and compares a signal received by the plurality of light receiving elements 220 with a preset reference voltage to determine the height of the container 130. Generate a height signal.

The liquid input height determining unit 403 sets a height to inject liquid into the container 130 according to the signal of the liquid input height adjusting key 150. Here, the height to inject the liquid into the container 130 can not be set higher than the height of the container 130, the liquid input height determination unit 403 is a container 130 in accordance with the signal of the liquid input height adjustment key 150 Set how much lower the liquid will be injected.

In addition, the liquid input height determining unit 403 determines the input height for injecting liquid into the container 130 when the container height determining unit 402 generates a height signal of the container 130.

The time determiner 404 drives the ultrasonic transceiver 240 to output ultrasonic waves into the interior of the container 130, and inputs ultrasonic waves reflected from the liquid introduced into the container 130. In addition, the time determiner 404 determines the elapsed time until the ultrasonic transceiver 240 outputs the ultrasonic wave and returns.

The liquid height determination unit 405 determines the height of the liquid introduced into the container 130 by using the time determined by the time determination unit 404.

The liquid dispensing control unit 406 causes the container height determining unit 402 to determine the height of the container 130 when the liquid dispensing determination signal is generated, and the liquid dispensing height determining unit 403 injects liquid. Let the height be determined. In addition, the time determining unit 404 determines the time while driving the actuator 410 to inject the liquid into the container 130, the time determined by the time determining unit 404 the liquid height determination unit ( The liquid input height of the container 130 determined by 405 is input. In addition, the liquid dispensing controller 406 compares the liquid input height of the liquid determined by the liquid input height determining unit 403 with the liquid input height of the container 130 determined by the liquid height determining unit 405, and compares the container ( When the liquid input height of 130 is equal to or higher than the determined liquid input height, the actuator 410 is stopped to terminate the liquid discharge.

In the liquid distribution control apparatus of the present invention configured as described above, the liquid input height determining unit 403 sets the input height of the liquid to be introduced into the container 130 as the user operates the liquid input height adjusting key 150. That is, as the user presses the ascending key 150-1, the liquid input height determining unit 403 increases and sets the height of the liquid to be injected into the container 130, and the user sets the descending key 150-2. In response to the pressing, the height of the liquid to be added to the container 130 is reduced and set. Here, the height of the liquid to be put into the container 130 cannot be set higher than the height of the container 130.

As such, when the user mounts the container 130 on the bottom surface of the container seating unit 120 in the state where the liquid input height of the container 130 is set, the container detection sensor 200 stops the seating of the container 130. It detects and generates a liquid ejection signal. In addition, when the user presses the liquid ejection key 140, the liquid ejection key 140 generates a liquid ejection signal.

Here, only one of the container detection sensor 200 and the liquid ejection key 140 may be provided.

When the liquid ejection signal is generated, the liquid ejection determination unit 401 of the controller 400 is input to generate a liquid ejection determination signal, and the generated liquid ejection determination signal is input to the liquid ejection control unit 406.

The liquid dispensing control unit 406 controls the container height determining unit 402 to determine the height of the container 130 when the liquid dispensing determination signal is input. Then, the container height determination unit 402 drives the light emitting element 210 to output light, inputs a light receiving signal of the light receiving element 220, and compares the voltage of the received light receiving signal with a preset reference voltage. The height of the container 130 is determined. That is, the container height determination unit 402 determines a plurality of light receiving elements 220 lower than a preset reference voltage among the light receiving signals output from the plurality of light receiving elements 220, and among the determined light receiving elements 220. The height of the container 130 is determined by the height of the light receiving element 220 positioned at the highest level, and a determination signal is generated.

When the container height determining unit 402 generates a height determination signal of the container 130, the liquid input height determining unit 403 determines a height to inject liquid into the container 130. That is, the liquid input height determining unit 403 determines the height of the liquid as low as the height set by the container height determining unit 402 by the liquid input height adjusting key 150 from the height of the container 130. do.

In this way, the liquid input height of the liquid determined by the liquid injection height determination unit 403 is input to the liquid discharge control unit 406.

The liquid dispensing control unit 406 drives the actuator 410 when the liquid dispensing height determining unit 403 determines the dispensing height of the liquid, and discharges the liquid to the liquid dispensing port 230 and the container 130. To be committed.

In addition, the liquid dispensing controller 406 controls the time determining unit 404 simultaneously with the driving of the actuator 410 to determine the time.

Then, the time determiner 404 drives the ultrasonic transceiver 240 to output ultrasonic waves to the interior of the container 130 at predetermined time intervals, and receives the ultrasonic waves reflected from the liquid injected into the container 130. To be input to the time determining unit 404.

Then, the time determining unit 404 determines the elapsed time from when the ultrasonic transceiver 240 outputs the ultrasonic wave until the ultrasonic wave is received, and determines the liquid height based on the elapsed time determined by the time determining unit 404. The unit 405 determines the height of the liquid introduced into the container 130, and inputs the determined height of the liquid into the liquid discharge control unit 406.

Then, the liquid dispensing control unit 406 compares the liquid input height set by the liquid input height determining unit 403 with the liquid input height determined by the liquid height determining unit 405, and as a result of the comparison, the liquid height determining unit When the liquid input height determined by 405 is equal to or higher than the liquid input height set by the liquid input height determining unit 403, the actuator 410 is stopped to terminate the liquid discharge.

On the other hand, Figure 5 is a signal flow diagram showing a liquid distribution control method of the present invention. Referring to FIG. 5, the controller 400 determines whether a signal is input (S500). When a signal is input as a result of the determination, the controller 400 determines whether the input signal is a liquid ejection signal or a liquid ejection height adjustment signal (S502). That is, it is determined whether the signal of the liquid ejection height adjusting key 150 is input to the liquid ejection height determining unit 403 of the controller 400. In addition, the liquid ejection determination unit 401 of the controller 400 determines whether a liquid ejection signal output from the container detection sensor 200 or a liquid ejection signal output from the liquid ejection key 140 is input.

When the signal of the liquid ejection height adjusting key 150 is input as a result of the determination, the liquid ejection height determining unit 403 of the controller 400 is input to the container 130 according to the signal of the liquid ejection height adjusting key 150. The injection height of the liquid to be set is set (S504).

When the liquid ejection signal is input, the liquid ejection determination unit 401 of the controller 400 generates a liquid ejection determination signal, and the liquid ejection control unit 406 determines the height of the container according to the generated liquid ejection determination signal. The control unit 402 drives the light emitting elements 210 (S506), inputs the signals of the light receiving elements 220 (S508), and uses the signals of the light receiving elements 220 of the container 130 to input the signals. The height is determined (S510).

When the height of the container 130 is determined, the liquid ejection height determination unit 403 determines the height to inject the liquid into the container 130 (S512).

As such, when the height to inject the liquid into the container 130 is determined, the liquid dispensing control unit 406 drives the actuator 410 to discharge the liquid into the liquid discharge port 230 and is injected into the container 130 In operation S514, the time determining unit 404 controls the ultrasonic transceiver unit 240 to output the ultrasonic waves at predetermined time intervals, and receives the reflected ultrasonic waves at operation S516 to output and receive the ultrasonic waves. It is measured (S518).

When the elapsed time is measured, the liquid level determining unit 405 calculates the height of the liquid introduced into the container 130 based on the elapsed time (S520), and the liquid dispensing control unit 406 calculates the container ( It is determined whether the liquid height of 130) is equal to or greater than the input height of the liquid set above (S522).

As a result of the determination, when the calculated liquid height of the container 130 is not equal to or higher than the set height of the set liquid, the actuator 410 is continuously driven to measure the height of the injected liquid while injecting the liquid into the container 130. Then, the operation of judging whether the height of the measured liquid is equal to or higher than the input height of the set liquid is repeatedly performed.

When the calculated liquid height of the container 130 is equal to or greater than the set height of the liquid, the liquid discharging controller 406 stops the actuator 410 (S524) and terminates the discharging operation of the liquid. do.

On the other hand, the present invention has been described by taking an example of applying the liquid stored in the storage tank of the refrigerating chamber 100 to the container 130 is applied to the refrigerator. In carrying out the present invention, the present invention is not limited thereto, and various liquids, including water purifiers and beverages, may be stored and simply applied when the stored liquids are put into various containers such as cups.

While the invention has been shown and described with reference to certain preferred embodiments, it will be understood that the invention may be modified and modified in various ways without departing from the spirit or scope of the invention as set forth in the following claims. It will be readily apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art.

As described in detail above, the present invention measures the height of the container by using light when the liquid is added to the container, and determines the injection height of the liquid to be added to the container according to the measured height of the container.

When the input height of the liquid is determined, the actuator is driven to inject the liquid into the container, and the injection height of the liquid injected into the container is determined using ultrasonic waves, and the determined liquid injection height is determined according to the height of the container. If it is higher than the height, the actuator is stopped to complete the liquid injection.

Therefore, according to the present invention, an appropriate amount of liquid can be automatically added to the container seated on the container seating portion regardless of the size and height of the container.

In addition, the user can adjust the input height of the liquid to be added to the container can be added to the container in the desired amount.

Claims (10)

Container seating portion is the container seated on the bottom surface; A container detection sensor detecting whether the container is seated on the bottom surface of the container seating part; An actuator for injecting liquid into the container seated on the container seat; A plurality of light emitting elements and a plurality of light receiving elements for measuring the height of the container seated on the container seating portion; Ultrasonic transceiving unit for measuring the height of the liquid introduced into the container; And When the container detecting sensor detects the seating of the container, the height of the container is measured using the light emitting device and the light receiving device, and the actuator is determined while determining the height of the liquid introduced into the container using the ultrasonic transceiver. A liquid dispensing control device including a control unit for driving to control the liquid into the container. The method of claim 1, wherein the control unit; A liquid dispensing determination unit which determines the dispensing of the liquid when the container detecting sensor detects the seating of the container; A container height determination unit which causes the light emitting device to output light and determines the height of the container by a signal received by the light receiving device; A liquid input height determining unit configured to determine an input height of the liquid into the container according to the height of the container determined by the container height determining unit; A time determination unit determining an elapsed time until the ultrasound transceiver outputs an ultrasound and returns; A liquid height judging unit for judging the height of the liquid introduced into the container by the elapsed time determined by the time judging unit; And When the liquid dispensing determination unit determines the discharge of the liquid, the container height determination unit determines the height of the container, while the time determining unit determines the elapsed time while driving the actuator to inject liquid into the container And a liquid dispensing controller configured to stop the operation of the actuator when the liquid input height of the liquid determined by the liquid height determination unit is equal to or higher than the liquid input height determined by the liquid input height determining unit. According to claim 1, The light emitting device and the light receiving device; Liquid distribution control device is installed on the left and right sides of the container seating portion is configured so that the light output from the light emitting element is incident to the light receiving element. According to claim 1, The ultrasonic transceiver unit; Is installed on top of the container seating portion and outputs the ultrasonic wave into the interior of the container, liquid dispensing control device, characterized in that configured to receive the ultrasonic wave reflected from the liquid injected into the container. Generating a liquid ejection signal by detecting a container seated on a bottom surface of the container seating part, by the container detecting sensor; Determining, by the control unit, the height of the liquid to be added to the container when the liquid ejection signal is generated; Determining, by the controller, the height of the liquid introduced into the container while the liquid is introduced into the container after the height of the liquid is determined; And Stopping the introduction of liquid when the determined liquid input height of the container is equal to or higher than the liquid input height determined according to the height of the container. delete The method of claim 5, wherein the generation of the liquid ejection signal; And a step which occurs when the user manipulates the liquid ejection key. The method of claim 5, wherein the height measurement of the container; A method of distributing liquid, comprising: turning on a light emitting device disposed in the container seating unit, and measuring a height of the container by a light receiving signal of the light receiving devices. 6. The method of claim 5, wherein the liquid height determination to be added to the container is; And a height set according to a signal of the liquid ejection height adjustment key. According to claim 5, Determination of the height of the liquid introduced into the container; Outputting ultrasonic waves to the inside of the vessel and determining an elapsed time until the ultrasonic waves are reflected from the liquid introduced into the vessel and received; And determining the height of the liquid based on the determined elapsed time.

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