Method for operating a domestic appliance system

• US 10,238,259 B2
• Filed: 08/31/2015
• Issued: 03/26/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 09/10/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Miele & CIE KG
• Original Assignee: Miele & CIE KG
• Inventors: Langhammer, Nils, Laube, Friedrich, Kersting, Andre, Benner, Florian, Merkel, Lars
• Primary Examiner(s): Holloway, Jason
• Application Number:
  US14/840,110
• Publication Number:
  US 20160066759A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,303 Days
• CPC Class Codes: A47L 2201/00 Robotic cleaning machines, i.e. with automatic control of the travelling movement or the cleaning operation
• CPC Class Codes: A47L 9/28 Installation of the electric equipment, e.g. adaptation or attachment to the suction cleaner; Controlling suction cleaners by electric means
• CPC Class Codes: A47L 9/2894 Details related to signal transmission in suction cleaners
• CPC Class Codes: B25J 9/0003 Home robots, i.e. small robots for domestic use
• CPC Class Codes: G08C 17/02 using a radio link
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/70 Services for machine-to-machine communication [M2M] or machine type communication [MTC]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/80 Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/10 Connection setup
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 901/01 Mobile robot

Abstract

A method for operating a system of at least one stationary domestic appliance and a mobile domestic appliance includes connecting the mobile domestic appliance using wireless communication to the at least one stationary domestic appliance and exchanging data between the mobile domestic appliance and the at least one stationary domestic appliance.

Claims

1. A method for operating a domestic appliance system comprising at least one stationary domestic appliance selected from the group comprising an oven, a refrigerator, a hob, a washing machine, and a tumble dryer, and a robotic vacuum cleaner as a mobile domestic appliance, the at least one stationary domestic appliance and the mobile domestic appliance each comprising short-range radio technology, the method comprising:

connecting the mobile domestic appliance using the short-range radio technology to the at least one stationary domestic appliance;

exchanging data between the mobile domestic appliance and the at least one stationary domestic appliance,

wherein the mobile domestic appliance monitors its surroundings using at least one sensor, the at least one sensor comprising at least one of a temperature sensor or a moisture sensor, the at least one sensor being associated with the at least one stationary domestic appliance, and

wherein the mobile domestic appliance switches off the at least one stationary domestic appliance when an output signal from the at least one sensor exceeds a predetermined threshold.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising using the at least one stationary domestic appliance as a user interface for the mobile domestic appliance.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the mobile domestic appliance sends a piece of status information to the at least one stationary domestic appliance, and further comprising the at one stationary domestic appliance outputting the received piece of status information by a display apparatus of the at least one stationary domestic appliance.

4. The method of claim 2, further comprising picking up an operator control action using an operating element comprising the at least one stationary domestic appliance and wherein the at least one stationary domestic appliance sends an automatically generated piece of control information relating to the operator control action to the mobile domestic appliance.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one stationary domestic appliance or the stationary domestic appliance is configured to act as a gateway for the mobile domestic appliance.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one stationary domestic appliance comprises at least three stationary domestic appliances, and the mobile domestic appliance carries out a position determination using data received wirelessly by the at least three stationary domestic appliances.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising monitoring the predetermined threshold together with a distance-related plausibility check.

8. A mobile domestic appliance configured to carry out a method for operating a domestic appliance system comprising at least one stationary domestic appliance selected from the group comprising an oven, a refrigerator, a hob, a washing machine, and a tumble dryer, the at least one stationary domestic appliance and the mobile domestic appliance each comprising short-range radio technology, the method comprising:

connecting the mobile domestic appliance using the short-range radio technology to the at least one stationary domestic appliance;

exchanging data between the mobile domestic appliance and the at least one stationary domestic appliance,

wherein the mobile domestic appliance monitors its surroundings using at least one sensor, the at least one sensor comprising at least one of a temperature sensor or a moisture sensor, the at least one sensor being associated with the at least one stationary domestic appliance,

wherein the mobile domestic appliance switches off the at least one stationary domestic appliance when an output signal from the at least one sensor exceeds a predetermined threshold, and

wherein the mobile domestic appliance comprises a robotic vacuum cleaner.

9. A domestic appliance system, comprising:

at least one stationary domestic appliance; and

at least one mobile domestic appliance,

wherein the at least one stationary domestic appliance and the at least one mobile domestic appliance are configured to carry out a method for operating the domestic appliance system, the at least one stationary domestic appliance being selected from the group comprising an oven, a refrigerator, a hob, a washing machine, and a tumble dryer, and the at least one mobile domestic appliance comprising a robotic vacuum cleaner, the at least one stationary domestic appliance and the at least one mobile domestic appliance each comprising short-range radio technology, the method comprising;

connecting the at least one mobile domestic appliance using the short-ranqe radio technology to the at least one stationary domestic appliance;

exchanging data between the at least one mobile domestic appliance and the at least one stationary domestic appliance,

wherein the at least one mobile domestic appliance monitors its surroundings using at least one sensor, the at least one sensor comprising at least one of a temperature sensor or a moisture sensor, the at least one sensor being associated with the at least one stationary domestic appliance, and

wherein the at least one mobile domestic appliance switches off the at least one stationary domestic appliance when an output signal from the at least one sensor exceeds a predetermined threshold.