Advances in appliance control: the breaking of a paradigm

The appliance industry is one industry where control has traditionally had a very stable definition. Over the years, the appliance industry has standardized on a “time-based” control paradigm from which, until recently, very few appliances have varied. This paper provides a brief background of time-based control for appliances and why this paradigm is now changing. It then goes on to discuss a functional model for “wet appliances”. From this functional model, a wash process control system is defined. The fundamental blocks of the wash process control system are described, including a fuzzy logic engine used for classification purposes. A conclusions section comments on the benefits of using such a system, including a separation of appliance control and information processing expertise, as well as the optimization of appliance control over a wider variety of conditions