Automated control-schedule acquisition within an intelligent controller

• US 8,630,740 B2
• Filed: 09/30/2012
• Issued: 01/14/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 10/21/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Nest Labs Incorporated (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Matsuoka, Yoky, Lee, Eric A., Hales, Steven A., Stefanski, Mark D., Sharan, Rangoli
• Primary Examiner(s): Bahta, Kidest
• Application Number:
  US13/632,041
• Publication Number:
  US 20130103622A1
• Time in Patent Office: 471 Days
• Field of Search: 700/12, 700/17, 700/276, 700/299, 700/278, 700/277, 707/809, 706/52, 702182-184, 709/250, 709/223
• US Class Current: 700/276
• CPC Class Codes: F24F 11/30 for purposes related to the operation of the system, e.g. for safety or monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: F24F 11/523 for displaying temperature data
• CPC Class Codes: F24F 11/58 using Internet communication
• CPC Class Codes: F24F 11/62 characterised by the type of control or by internal processing, e.g. using fuzzy logic, adaptive control or estimation of values
• CPC Class Codes: F24F 11/64 using pre-stored data
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 13/0265 the criterion being a learning criterion
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 23/1904 variable in time
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 23/1917 using digital means
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2803 Home automation networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2825 Reporting to a device located outside the home and the home network access arrangements H04L12/2856; for remote control or remote monitoring of applications H04L67/025; telephonic communication systems adapted for combination with telemetering systems H04M11/002
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/40013 Details regarding a bus controller
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2012/285 Generic home appliances, e.g. refrigerators

Abstract

The current application is directed to intelligent controllers that initially aggressively learn, and then continue, in a steady-state mode, to monitor, learn, and modify one or more control schedules that specify a desired operational behavior of a device, machine, system, or organization controlled by the intelligent controller. An intelligent controller generally acquires one or more initial control schedules through schedule-creation and schedule-modification interfaces or by accessing a default control schedule stored locally or remotely in a memory or mass-storage device. The intelligent controller then proceeds to learn, over time, a desired operational behavior for the device, machine, system, or organization controlled by the intelligent controller based on immediate-control inputs, schedule-modification inputs, and previous and current control schedules, encoding the desired operational behavior in one or more control schedules and/or sub-schedules.

Claims

1. An intelligent controller comprising:

a processor;

a memory;

a control schedule stored in the memory;

a schedule interface;

a control interface; and

instructions stored within the memory that, when executed by the processor,

receive one or more immediate-control inputs through the control interface during a monitoring period and record the received immediate-control inputs in memory,

receive one or more schedule changes through the schedule interface during the monitoring period and record the received schedule changes in the memory,

generate an updated monitoring-period schedule, after the monitoring period, based on the recorded immediate-control inputs, recorded schedule changes, and the control schedule,

substitute the updated monitoring-period schedule for a portion of the control schedule corresponding to the monitoring period, and

propagate the updated monitoring-period schedule to additional time periods within the control schedule;

wherein the instructions generate an updated monitoring-period schedule, after the monitoring period, based on the recorded immediate-control inputs, recorded schedule changes, and the control schedule by

combining the recorded immediate-control inputs, recorded schedule changes, and setpoints of the control schedule to produce a provisional schedule,

clustering the immediate-control inputs, schedule changes, and setpoints of the provisional schedule into one or more clusters,

resolving the one or more clusters within the provisional schedule, and

generating the updated monitoring-period schedule from the resolved clusters of the provisional schedule.

2. The intelligent controller of claim 1 wherein combining the recorded immediate-control inputs, recorded schedule changes, and setpoints of the control schedule to produce the provisional schedule further comprises:

representing immediate-control inputs as time-associated values of one or more parameters within a portion of the control schedule corresponding to the monitoring period;

representing recorded control-schedule changes as time-associated values of one or more parameters, additionally associated with input times, within the portion of the control schedule corresponding to the monitoring period; and

considering the represented immediate-control inputs, retrospective control-schedule changes, and setpoints of the provisional schedule to be events.

3. The intelligent controller of claim 2 wherein clustering the immediate-control inputs, schedule changes, and setpoints within the provisional schedule into one or more clusters further comprises:

collecting together, as a separate cluster, each group of events that are each within a first threshold time interval of another event of the separate cluster; and

collecting, as a separate cluster, each event that is not within the first threshold time interval of another event.

4. The intelligent controller of claim 3 wherein resolving the one or more clusters within the provisional schedule further includes replacing each cluster of events with one of:

no event, when no control-change trend is discerned in the cluster;

one event, when a single-event control-change trend is discerned in the cluster; and

two events, when a two-event control-change trend is discerned in the cluster.

5. The intelligent controller of claim 1 wherein the instructions propagate the updated monitoring-period schedule to additional time periods within the control schedule by:

selecting, according to one or more rules, one or more additional time periods within the control schedule related to the time period of the updated monitoring-period schedule; and

to each of the selected time periods,

copying setpoints corresponding to immediate-control inputs of the provisional monitoring-period schedule onto a portion of the control schedule corresponding to the selected time period, and

resolving the portion of the control schedule corresponding to the selected time period.

6. The intelligent controller of claim 1 wherein resolving the portion of the control schedule corresponding to the selected time period further comprises:

applying, to each copied setpoint, one or more rules that result in one of deleting the copied setpoint,

deleting an existing setpoint,

moving either the copied setpoint or another setpoint in time, and

no change to the copied setpoint.