TW201418632A - Burner controlling system and method - Google Patents

Abstract

A burner controlling system is provided. The system creates sample images of an inflamer of a burner, and analyzes the sample images to determine a threshold of an account of unburned images that appear in every block of consecutive images. When receiving a signal of turning-on the burner, the system uses a video camera to capture real-time consecutive images of the inflamer, and analyzes the real-time consecutive images to determine a number of unburned images that appear in the real-time consecutive images. If the number of unburned images equals or is more than the threshold value, the system determines that the burner works abnormally, and sends a control signal to cut off gas supply of the inflamer.

Description

Burner control system and method

The present invention relates to a device control system and method, and more particularly to a combustion device control system and method.

Household burning appliances, such as gas stoves, electric heaters, etc., if the combustion of the stove is insufficient during the use of the furnace due to poor ventilation, etc., most of the users cannot immediately find the dangerous situation, and the unburned fuel continues to leak. Indoor toxic gases such as carbon monoxide or carbon dioxide can easily cause accidents such as poisoning or toxic gas explosion.

In view of the above, it is necessary to provide a burning appliance control system and method, which can automatically detect whether a burning abnormality occurs in the burning appliance, and automatically cut off the fuel supply of the burning appliance when an abnormal situation occurs.

A burning appliance control system includes a storage module, an analysis module and a control module. The storage module stores the flame image sample to the storage. The flame image sample is established based on a continuous image of different combustion states of the burner burner previously photographed by the camera and a continuous image of the unburned state of the burner. The analysis module analyzes the flame image sample, and counts the number of images of the unburned burner in each continuous image data, and determines the frequency of occurrence of the unburned image of the burner in the continuous image according to the statistical result. value. After receiving the trigger signal for turning on the burning appliance, the control module automatically issues the first control signal to automatically turn on the camera, and continuously captures the live image of the burner after the camera is turned on. The analysis module is also used for comparing and analyzing the real-time image of the burner with the stored flame image sample data, and obtaining the frequency of occurrence of the unburned image in the total amount of the instant image. The control module is further configured to: when the frequency of occurrence of the unburned image in the total amount of the instant image is equal to or greater than the threshold, determine that the burning appliance is abnormal, and issue a second control signal to turn off the safety device of the burning appliance, The gas in the gas line that blocks the burning appliance enters the burner.

A method for controlling a burning appliance, comprising: (A) using a camera to pre-shoot a continuous image of a plurality of burning burners in different combustion states and a continuous image of an unburned state of the burner, establishing a flame image sample of the burner, and storing the flame (B) analyzing the flame image sample, counting the number of unburned images of the burner in each continuous image data, and determining the unburned image of the burner in the continuous image according to the statistical result. (C) After receiving the trigger signal to turn on the burning appliance, the first control signal is sent to automatically turn on the camera, and the camera continuously captures the live image of the burner; (D) the live image of the burner Comparing and analyzing the stored flame image sample data to obtain the frequency of occurrence of the unburned image in the total amount of the instant image; and (E) if the frequency of the unburned image in the total amount of the instant image is equal to or greater than the valve Value, it is judged that the burning appliance is operating abnormally, and a second control signal is issued to turn off the safety device of the burning appliance to block the burning appliance. Gas in the gas line to the burner.

Compared with the prior art, the burning appliance control system and method provided by the present invention can automatically detect whether a burning abnormality occurs in the burning appliance, and automatically cut off the fuel supply of the burning appliance when an abnormal situation occurs.

Referring to Figures 1A and 1B, there is shown a hardware architecture diagram of a preferred embodiment of the burner control system 1 of the present invention. The burner control system 1 includes a burner and a control portion. In the present embodiment, as shown in FIG. 1A, the inside of the burning appliance includes a water tank 10, a igniter 20, a burner 30, a gas regulator 40, a safety device 50, a hot water outlet pipe 60, a gas line 70, and a cold water inlet pipe 80. . The control portion includes a camera 90, a microprocessor 100, and a reservoir 110 that are mounted inside the burner. As shown in FIG. 1B, the exterior of the burner includes a fire window 120 and an external power supply unit 130. The control portion also includes an alerting device 140 mounted to the exterior of the burner. The gas enters the burner 30 from the gas line 70, and the cold water enters the water tank 10 from the cold water inlet pipe 80. The gas ignited by the igniter 20 into the burner 30 heats the cold water in the water tank 10, and the heated hot water is discharged from the hot water outlet pipe 60. Flow to other water supply devices (such as showers, etc.). The external power supply unit 130 provides electrical energy required for the operation of the burner control system 1. The user can observe the combustion state of the burner through the sight glass 120.

Wherein, the installation position of the camera 90 is within an appropriate range near the burner 30, so that the camera 90 can capture the complete image of the burner 30, but the burner 30 is ignited by the igniter 20, and the gas burning flame does not endanger the camera 90. . In other embodiments, the microprocessor 100 and the reservoir 110 can also be mounted external to the burner. The gas regulator 40 and the safety device 50 are mounted above the gas line 70. The gas regulator 40 controls the amount of gas intake air entering the gas line 70. The safety device 50 is used to allow or block gas within the gas line 70 from entering the combustor 30. Referring to FIG. 2, when the state of the safety device 50 is "on", the gas in the gas line 70 can enter the burner 30; when the state of the safety device 50 is "off", the gas in the gas line 70 is blocked. Enter the burner 30.

Referring to Figure 3, there is shown a functional block diagram of a preferred embodiment of the burner control system 1 of the present invention. The memory 110 stores the flame image sample 111 and the computerized code of the storage module 112, the control module 113, and the analysis module 114. Microprocessor 100 executes the computer program code to provide the following functions of modules 112-114.

Before the burning of the burning appliance control system 1 of the present invention, the camera 90 pre-shoots a continuous image of a plurality of burners 30 in different combustion states (for example, a large fire, a medium fire, a small fire) and a continuous image of the unburned state of the burner 30 (refer to FIG. 4 The flame image sample 111 of the burner 30 is established, and the storage module 112 stores the flame image sample 111 to the reservoir 110.

In this embodiment, the flame image sample 111 includes continuous image data of the burner 30 captured by the camera 90 at different time points during normal operation of the burner, and the burner 30 captured by the camera 90 at different time points when the burner operates abnormally. Continuous image data. Referring to Figures 5 and 6, a continuous image of the burner 30 taken by the camera 90 at two different time points during normal operation of the burner is shown. Referring to Fig. 7, the igniter 20 is unable to ignite the continuous image of the burner 30 captured by the burner 30 and the camera 90. Referring to Fig. 8, the igniter 20 is unable to continuously ignite the continuous image of the burner 30 captured by the burner 30 and the camera 90.

The analysis module 114 analyzes the flame image sample 111, and counts the number of unburned images of the burner 30 in each continuous image data, and determines, according to the statistical result, the unburned image of the burner 30 in the continuous image when the burner operates abnormally. The threshold for the frequency of occurrence. For example, assuming that the camera captures 30 images per second, the analysis module 114 analyzes a plurality of consecutive image data to obtain that the burner 30 is not burned in the continuous image of the burner 30 captured by the camera 90 when the burner is operating abnormally. The image appears at least 6 times per second (or in the continuous image of the burner 30 captured by the camera 90 when the burner is in normal operation, the image of the unburned burner 30 is less than 6 times), then the analysis module 114 determines the The threshold is 6 times per second.

In the embodiment, the unburned image of the burner 30 refers to an image in which the average brightness value of the image pixel is lower than the preset brightness threshold. The brightness value of the pixel ranges from 0 to 255, and the brightness threshold can be flexibly set, for example, set to 10 or 20. In other embodiments, the unburned image of the burner 30 may also be identified from the captured continuous image based on the average brightness value and the average color value of the image pixels.

After receiving the trigger signal (for example, the switch for the user to turn on the hot water outlet pipe 60), the control module 113 issues a first control signal to automatically turn on the camera 90. In this embodiment, after the flame image sample 111 is established and the burner is not turned on, the camera 90 is in the off state.

After the camera 90 is turned on, the live image of the burner 30 is continuously captured. The analysis module 114 compares and analyzes the real-time image of the burner 30 with the stored flame image sample data to determine whether the burner operation is abnormal. For example, when the unburned image of the total amount of the instant image of the burner 30 captured by the camera 90 within one second appears six or more times, the analysis module 114 determines that the burner is operating abnormally.

If the analysis module 114 determines that the burning appliance is operating abnormally, the control module 113 issues a second control signal to turn off the safety device 50 to block the gas in the gas pipeline 70 from entering the burner 30, and issue a third control signal to drive the warning device 140 to issue a warning. A signal to remind the user that the burning appliance is operating abnormally. The warning device 140 can be a device that emits an audio signal (such as a buzzer or a horn) or a device that emits a light signal (such as an LED light).

Referring to Figure 9, there is shown a flow chart of a preferred embodiment of the burner control method of the present invention. It should be noted that some steps in the figure may be omitted (for example, S70 or S80), or the order of some steps may be reversed (for example, S70, S80).

In step S10, the camera 90 pre-shoots a continuous image of a plurality of burners 30 in different combustion states (for example, a large fire, a medium fire, a small fire) and a continuous image of the unburned state of the burner 30 (see FIG. 4) to establish the burner 30. The flame image sample 111, the storage module 112 stores the flame image sample 111 to the storage 110.

In step S20, the analysis module 114 analyzes the flame image sample 111, and counts the number of unburned images of the burner 30 in each continuous image data, and determines, according to the statistical result, that the image of the burner 30 is not burned when the operation of the burner is abnormal. The threshold of the frequency of occurrence in the image. For example, assuming that the camera captures 30 images per second, the analysis module 114 analyzes a plurality of consecutive image data to obtain that the burner 30 is not burned in the continuous image of the burner 30 captured by the camera 90 when the burner is operating abnormally. The image appears at least 6 times per second (or in the continuous image of the burner 30 captured by the camera 90 when the burner is in normal operation, the image of the unburned burner 30 is less than 6 times), then the analysis module 114 determines the The threshold is 6 times per second.

In step S30, after receiving the trigger signal for turning on the burning appliance (for example, the switch for the user to turn on the hot water outlet pipe 60), the control module 113 issues a first control signal to automatically turn on the camera 90. In this embodiment, after the flame image sample 111 is established and the burner is not turned on, the camera 90 is in the off state.

In step S40, after the camera 90 is turned on, the live image of the burner 30 is continuously captured.

In step S50, the analysis module 114 compares and analyzes the real-time image of the burner 30 with the stored flame image sample data, and obtains the frequency of occurrence of the unburned image in the total amount of the instant image. For example, the analysis module 114 analyzes the number of unburned images in the total amount of instant images of the burner 30 captured by the camera 90 in one second.

In step S60, the analysis module 114 determines whether the frequency of occurrence of the unburned image in the total amount of the instant image is lower than the threshold to determine whether the burner is malfunctioning. If the burning appliance is operating normally, the flow returns to step S40, and if the burning appliance operates abnormally, step S70 is performed. For example, if the analysis module 114 analyzes that the number of unburned images in the total amount of the instant image of the burner 30 captured by the camera 90 in one second is six or more, the analysis module 114 determines that the burner operates. abnormal.

In step S70, the control module 113 sends a second control signal to turn off the safety device 50 to block the gas in the gas line 70 from entering the burner 30.

In step S80, the control module 113 sends a third control signal to drive the warning device 140 to issue an alert signal to remind the user that the burning appliance is operating abnormally.

In other embodiments, the method may further include the following steps: when the control module 113 receives the trigger signal for turning off the burning appliance (for example, the user turns off the switch of the hot water outlet pipe 60), the fourth control signal is issued to automatically turn off the camera. 90.

It should be noted that the above embodiments are merely illustrative of the technical solutions of the present invention, and the present invention is not limited thereto. Although the present invention has been described in detail with reference to the preferred embodiments, those skilled in the art should understand that Modifications or equivalents are made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.

1. . . Burner control system

10. . . Water tank

20. . . Firearm

30. . . burner

40. . . Gas regulator

50. . . safety equipment

60. . . Hot water outlet

70. . . Gas pipeline

80. . . Cold water inlet pipe

90. . . camera

100. . . microprocessor

110. . . Storage

120. . . Fire window

130. . . External power supply unit

140. . . Warning device

111. . . Flame image sample

112. . . Storage module

113. . . Control module

114. . . Analysis module

1 is a hardware architecture diagram of a preferred embodiment of a burner control system of the present invention.

Figure 2 is a schematic illustration of two states of the security device of Figure 1.

3 is a functional block diagram of a preferred embodiment of the burner control system of the present invention.

Figure 4 is a schematic illustration of a flame image of different combustion states and unburned states of a burner.

Figures 5 and 6 are continuous images of the burners taken by the camera at two different time points during normal operation of the burner.

Figure 7 shows a continuous image of the burner that could not be ignited by the burner or camera.

Figure 8 is a continuous image of the burner that the igniter cannot continuously ignite the burner and the camera.

Figure 9 is a flow chart of a preferred embodiment of the burner control method of the present invention.

90. . . camera

100. . . microprocessor

110. . . Storage

111. . . Flame image sample

112. . . Storage module

113. . . Control module

114. . . Analysis module

50. . . safety equipment

140. . . Warning device

Claims (10)

A burning appliance control method, the method comprising:
Storage step: using a camera to pre-shoot a continuous image of a plurality of burning burners in different combustion states and a continuous image of the unburned state of the burner, establishing a flame image sample of the burner, and storing the flame image sample to the storage;
The first analysis step: analyzing the flame image sample, and counting the number of images of the unburned burner in each continuous image data, and determining the frequency of occurrence of the unburned image of the burner in the continuous image according to the statistical result. Threshold
The first control step: after receiving the trigger signal for turning on the burning appliance, the first control signal is sent to automatically turn on the camera, and the camera continuously captures the instant image of the burner;
The second analysis step: comparing and analyzing the instant image of the burner with the stored flame image sample data, and obtaining the frequency of occurrence of the unburned image in the total amount of the instant image; and the second control step: if the total amount of the instant image is If the frequency of occurrence of the unburned image is equal to or greater than the threshold, it is judged that the burner is operating abnormally, and the second control signal is issued to turn off the safety device of the burning appliance to block the gas in the gas pipeline of the burning appliance from entering the burner. The method for controlling a burning appliance according to claim 1, further comprising:
The third control step: the warning device that sends the third control signal to drive the burning appliance sends a warning signal. The method for controlling a burning appliance as described in claim 1 or 2, further comprising:
After receiving the trigger signal to turn off the burning appliance, the fourth control signal is issued to automatically turn off the camera. The burner control method according to claim 1, wherein the unburned image of the burner refers to an image in which an average brightness value of the image pixel is lower than a preset brightness threshold. The method of controlling a burning appliance according to claim 1, wherein the warning device is a device that emits an audio signal or a device that emits a light signal. A burning appliance control system, the system comprising:
a storage module for storing a flame image sample to a storage device, wherein the flame image sample is established according to a continuous image of different combustion states of the burner burner and a continuous image of the unburned state of the burner;
The analysis module is configured to analyze the flame image sample, and count the number of unburned images of the burner in each continuous image data, and determine the appearance of the unburned image of the burner in the continuous image according to the statistical result. Threshold of frequency;
The control module is configured to automatically start the camera after receiving the trigger signal for turning on the burning appliance, and automatically capture the instant image of the burner after the camera is turned on;
The analysis module is further configured to compare and analyze the real-time image of the burner with the stored flame image sample data to obtain an appearance frequency of the unburned image in the total amount of the instant image; and the control module, When the frequency of occurrence of the unburned image in the total amount of the instant image is equal to or greater than the threshold, determining that the burning appliance is operating abnormally, and issuing a second control signal to turn off the safety device of the burning appliance to block the gas pipeline of the burning appliance The gas inside enters the burner. The fire control system of claim 6, wherein the control module is further configured to send a warning signal to the warning device that sends the third control signal to drive the fuel. The fire control system of claim 6 or 7, wherein the control module is further configured to automatically turn off the camera after receiving the trigger signal for turning off the fuel. The burner control system of claim 6, wherein the unburned image of the burner refers to an image in which an average brightness value of the image pixel is lower than a preset brightness threshold. The burner control system of claim 6, wherein the warning device is a device that emits an audible signal or a device that emits a light signal.