Cloud system for controlling outdoor grill with mobile application

• US 10,491,738 B2
• Filed: 06/05/2019
• Issued: 11/26/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 10/23/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Traeger Pellet Grills, LLC
• Original Assignee: Traeger Pellet Grills, LLC
• Inventors: Colston, Michael
• Primary Examiner(s): Whipple, Brian
• Application Number:
  US16/432,855
• Publication Number:
  US 20190289122A1
• Time in Patent Office: 174 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: A47J 36/321 the electronic control being performed over a network, e.g. by means of a handheld device
• CPC Class Codes: G08C 17/02 using a radio link
• CPC Class Codes: G08C 2201/30 User interface
• CPC Class Codes: G08C 2201/42 Transmitting or receiving remote control signals via a network
• CPC Class Codes: G08C 2201/93 Remote control using other portable devices, e.g. mobile phone, PDA, laptop
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/125 involving control of end-device applications over a network
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72415 for remote control of appliances
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 9/00 Arrangements in telecontrol or telemetry systems for selectively calling a substation from a main station, in which substation desired apparatus is selected for applying a control signal thereto or for obtaining measured values therefrom
• 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 68/005 Transmission of information for alerting of incoming communication

Abstract

Embodiments are directed to communicating with and controlling operation of electronically-controlled appliances. In one scenario, a computer system receives a first input from a computing system indicating that an electronically-controlled appliance is permitted to communicate with a cloud computing platform. The computer system generates a notification that is to be sent to a software application, where the software application is configured to control functions of the electronically-controlled appliance. The computer system transmits the generated notification to the software application, where the generated notification indicates that the cloud computing platform is communicably connected to the electronically-controlled appliance. The computer system then receives a second input from the software application indicating that specified functions are to be performed on the electronically-controlled appliance, and transmits instructions to the electronically-controlled appliance to perform the specified functions. These functions are then interpreted and carried out by a hardware controller on the electronically-controlled appliance.

Claims

1. A cloud computing platform for communicating with and controlling operation of a wood-pellet grill comprising a hopper having an auger and for loading combustible pellets into a combustion area of the wood-pellet grill, the cloud computing platform comprising:

at least one processor; and

at least one non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions thereon that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the cloud computing platform to;

receive confirmation that the wood-pellet grill is in network communication with the cloud computing platform;

transmit a notification to a remote device that the cloud computing platform is in network communication with the cloud computing platform; and

transmit one or more instructions received from the remote device to the wood-pellet grill to perform one or more specified functions.

2. The cloud computing platform of claim 1, further comprising instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the cloud computing platform to communicate directly with the wood-pellet grill via an access point within range of the wood-pellet grill.

3. The cloud computing platform of claim 1, wherein the one or more instructions received from the remote device comprise instructions to the wood-pellet grill to ignite the wood-pellet grill.

4. The cloud computing platform of claim 1, further comprising instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the cloud computing platform to:

receive usage data from the wood-pellet grill, the usage data comprising at least one of digital probe information, food item temperature information, grill temperature information, cooking cycle usage information, fuel burn rate information, ambient temperature information, duration of use information, amount of power drawn from components of the wood-pellet grill, recipe usage data, alert information, ignition data, power off data, component failure data, cooking time data; and

transmit at least one portion of the received usage data or information derived from the received usage data to a third-party system.

5. The cloud computing platform of claim 4, further comprising instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the cloud computing platform to generate one or more customized advertisements based on the received usage data.

6. The cloud computing platform of claim 5, further comprising instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the cloud computing platform to transmit the one or more customized advertisements to one or more of the wood-pellet grill or the remote device.

7. The cloud computing platform of claim 6, further comprising instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the cloud computing platform to:

analyze the usage data received from the wood-pellet grill; and

generate one or more wood-pellet grill-related analytics for the wood-pellet grill.

8. The cloud computing platform of claim 1, wherein the one or more instructions received from the remote device comprise instructions to the wood-pellet grill to cause the hopper and auger to load additional pellets into the combustion area.

9. The cloud computing platform of claim 1, further comprising instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the cloud computing platform to perform remote diagnostics on the wood-pellet grill.

10. The cloud computing platform of claim 9, further comprising instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the cloud computing platform to predict failures for one or more components of the wood-pellet grill.

11. The cloud computing platform of claim 10, further comprising instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the cloud computing platform to transmit one or more notification messages to the wood-pellet grill or the remote device regarding predicted component failures.

12. A method for remotely controlling a wood-pellet grill via a remote device, the wood-pellet grill comprising a hopper having an auger and for loading combustible pellets into a combustion area of the wood-pellet grill, the method comprising:

receiving from a cloud computing platform a confirmation that the wood-pellet grill is in wireless communication with the cloud computing platform;

detecting user interactions with the remote device;

based on the detected user interactions, generating user-specified instructions for controlling functions of the wood-pellet grill; and

transmitting the generated user-specified instructions to the cloud computing platform.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising receiving, via a network, operation data from the cloud computing platform, the operation data comprising ambient temperature data regarding an environment in which the wood-pellet grill resides.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising altering the generated user-specified instructions prior to transmitting the generated user-specified instructions to the cloud computing platform to compensate for the ambient temperature data.

15. The method of claim 12, further comprising receiving food temperature data from a digital thermometer of the wood-pellet grill via the cloud computing platform.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

in response to receiving the food temperature data, generating instructions to perform an alert based on the food temperature data; and

transmitting the instructions to perform an alert to the cloud computing platform to be relayed to the wood-pellet grill.

17. A wood-pellet grill, comprising:

a hopper and an auger;

a combustion area, wherein the hopper and auger are configured to load combustible pellets into the combustion area; and

a controller comprising;

at least one processor

at least one non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions thereon that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the wood-pellet grill to;

establish communication directly with a cloud computing platform;

receive one or more communications from the cloud computing platform, the one or more communications comprising instructions for controlling the wood-pellet grill;

in response to receiving the one or more communications, adjust at least one cooking characteristic of the wood-pellet grill based on the instructions of the one or more communications;

monitor usage of the wood-pellet grill; and

transmit usage data representative of the monitored usage to the cloud computing platform.

18. The wood-pellet grill of claim 17, further comprising instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the controller of the wood-pellet grill to, in response to receiving instructions to perform a custom cooking cycle from the cloud computing platform, initiate the custom cooking cycle.

19. The wood-pellet grill of claim 17, further comprising instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the controller of the wood-pellet grill to:

in response to receiving instructions to perform a user-selected recipe from the cloud computing platform, implement the user-selected recipe; and

adjust an amount of fuel to be delivered to the combustion area of the wood-pellet grill to implement the user-selected recipe.

20. The wood-pellet grill of claim 19, further comprising instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the controller of the wood-pellet grill to further adjust the amount of fuel to be delivered to the combustion area of the wood-pellet grill based on one or more of a time interval identified in the user-selected recipe or temperature data received from a temperature probe.