JPH0586536B2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed description of the invention]

(Industrial Field of Application) The present invention relates to an air conditioner, and more particularly to an air conditioner that can automatically change the direction and volume of blowing air to improve air conditioning comfort. (Prior Art) In recent years, air conditioners have been designed to automatically change the direction of air blowing into the room, such as directing warm air toward the feet during heating operation, and directing cold air overhead during cooling operation. Furthermore, the direction of the airflow is automatically changed in response to transient changes in the airflow temperature or room temperature, such as at the start of operation, to improve the air conditioning comfort of the entire room (for example, Akira
No. 58-88549). Additionally, depending on the user's request, some devices have a wind direction concentration operation function (hereinafter referred to as spot operation) that sets the blow direction deflection plate so that the blow direction is concentrated at a specific location in the room. For example, when a user returns from an outing, narrowed warm air is applied to the user to immediately warm them up. (Problems to be Solved by the Invention) By the way, in conventional air conditioners having a spot operation function as described above, the direction in which the blown air is concentrated is usually set in the front area of the air conditioner main body. The person trying to obtain the spot effect is restricted to that area, and even in the front area of the main body, if the person is far away from the main body, a sufficient sense of warmth cannot be given. Therefore, the user's range of action was further narrowed in front of the main unit. On the other hand, if the air conditioner is installed in the corner of a wall, the blowing air will be blocked by, for example, furniture placed along the wall, and the spot operation function will improve the usability and comfort. It had become something that people were not given enough of. This invention was made in order to solve the above-mentioned conventional problems, and its purpose is to improve the usability and comfort of the user during the above-mentioned spot operation, and to improve the installation of the air conditioner main body. An object of the present invention is to provide an air conditioner with reduced restrictions on conditions. (Means for solving the problem) Therefore, as shown in FIG. 6,
7, the air conditioner is further provided with a person detection means 16 for detecting the position of a person in the room, and the air conditioner is configured to blow air according to the detected position of the person from the person detection means 16 during the concentrated wind direction operation. The deflection angles of the deflection plates 6 and 7 are controlled to direct the wind toward the human body, and the blower fan 3 is controlled to change the amount of air blown according to the distance from the air conditioner main body 1 to the detection position of the person. It has a control means 32 to (Function) In the air conditioner having the above configuration, the blowing direction of the air from the air conditioner body 1 during the concentrated wind direction operation is set and changed according to the detected position of a person in the room by the person detection means 16. Ru. Furthermore, the amount of air blown is automatically changed so that, for example, when the detected position of the person is successively detected as being moved away from the main body 1, the amount of air is gradually increased so that the effect of the blown air continues to be exerted. I can do it. (Embodiments) Next, specific embodiments of the air conditioner of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 2 shows a side view of the air conditioner main body 1 which is installed at a high place on a wall. An indoor exchanger 2 and a blower fan 3 are arranged inside the main body 1, and a suction grill 4 is formed on the front surface of the main body 1.
Indoor air is sucked in from the air conditioner, and cold or warm air at a predetermined temperature is blown out from a blow-off grille 5 formed at the lower part of the front side. The outlet grille 5 is provided with a horizontal deflection plate, ie, a horizontal flap 6, and a vertical deflection plate, ie, a vertical flap 7, for controlling the direction of the outlet air. As shown in FIG. 3, each of these flaps 6, 7 has horizontal flap 6 connected to the first step motor 20, and vertical flap 7 connected to the left side of the center in the figure, vertical flap 7a connected to the second step motor 20. 21, and the right vertical flap 7b is the third
The step motors 22 are connected via link mechanisms, and each of the step motors 2
By controlling the rotations of the flaps 6, 7, the direction of the air blown from the main body 1 can be set to any desired direction. As shown in FIG. 2, at one side end of the upper front side of the main body 1, there is a human body position detection device 16 which has a human detection sensor 10 and an ultrasonic sensor 11 and serves as a human detection means. It is attached. The human detection sensor 10 is composed of a pyroelectric infrared sensor, and receives infrared rays equivalent to body temperature emitted from a human body, and when the intensity changes within a preset detection area. Accordingly, the presence of a person within the detection area can be detected. On the other hand, the ultrasonic sensor 11 has an ultrasonic transmitter/receiver, and emits ultrasonic waves in the direction of approximately the center of the detection area of the human detection sensor 10, and the reflected waves reflected by objects in that direction return. In the time it takes to arrive,
The distance from the ultrasonic sensor 11 to the object is detected. FIG. 4 shows the structure of the human body position detection device 16. As shown in the figure, the human detection sensor 1
A sensor box 12 containing a sensor 0 and an ultrasonic sensor 11 is configured to be rotatably controlled in the vertical and horizontal directions by two step motors 14 and 15 for scanning the detection area. Next, the detection of the human body position when the air conditioner main body 1 equipped with the human body position detection device 16 as described above is installed at a high place on a wall as shown in FIG. 5, for example, will be explained. Each step motor 14, 15 is driven to sequentially change the detection direction of the human detection sensor 10 to move and scan the detection area on the indoor floor. When there is a person in the room as shown in FIG. 5, when the head of the human body enters the detection area of the human detection sensor 10 during the scanning process, the human detection sensor 10 senses the human body. A detection signal is generated. The rotation control angles of the step motors 14 and 15 at this time give horizontal angles θ1 and vertical angles θ2 of the detection direction, respectively, and these directional angles θ1 and θ2 are stored as detection direction information. At this time, the ultrasonic sensor 11 detects the distance L to the head of the person.
is also required at the same time. Further, from the above θ2 and L, for example, the horizontal distance l from the air conditioner main body 1 to the position of the person can be easily determined by calculating l=L·cosθ2. The above explanation is for the case where a human head is detected,
Even when the human detection sensor 10 detects bare feet, the calculation result of the distance l to the person's position is given as the same value as above, and therefore, the position information of the feet can be used regardless of whether the person is standing or sitting. It is possible to accurately obtain information on the position of a person on the floor. Next, based on the detection result of the human body position detection device 16, the control of the blowing air during the concentrated wind direction operation (hereinafter referred to as spot operation) during heating will be explained. 6 and 7 are control block diagrams and flowcharts. In FIG. 6, when the ON operation signal of the spot operation changeover switch 25 attached to the air conditioner main body 1 or the remote control operation switch box (not shown) is input to the wind direction/air volume control device 32, The human body position detection device 1
6 detection operation is started. When a detection signal of a human body in the room is input from the human detection sensor 10 to the position information calculation device 30, this calculation device 30
Now, based on the distance information of the ultrasonic sensor 11 at that time and the detection angle information from the motor control device 31 that controls the detection area scanning step motors 14 and 15 of each of the sensors 10 and 11, The horizontal distance l from the air conditioner body 1 to the person is calculated, and the wind direction/air volume control device 3 is used as human body position information.
Enter 2. The wind direction/air volume control device 32, which is a means for controlling the direction and volume of the blowing air, further includes a blowing temperature sensor 35 that detects the temperature of the blowing air blown from the air conditioner main body 1, and a remote control switch box, for example. Each detected temperature signal from an attached indoor temperature sensor 36 that detects the indoor temperature is converted into appropriate temperature information and inputted via a temperature information calculation device 37. The wind direction/air volume control device 32 determines the flap deflection angle and the rotational speed of the blower fan 3 that provide a spot air conditioning effect from the human body position information and temperature information, and controls these to the step motor control device 38 and the fan motor control device. 39 respectively. The horizontal flap 6 and the vertical flap 7 are changed and set to the above deflection angle by the step motors 20, 21, 22, and the fan motor control device 39 changes and sets the rotational speed of the blower fan 3 to the above rotation speed. Such a control system will be further explained in detail based on the flowchart of FIG. When heating operation is started, predetermined startup flap control and air volume control are first performed (step S1). With this control, vertical flap 7
The main body of the air conditioner
The deflection angle is set in advance during installation.
On the other hand, the rotational speeds of the horizontal flap 6 and the blowing fan 3 are controlled based on the blowing temperature as described below. First, the horizontal flap 6 is set at a horizontal position, that is, at a deflection angle of 0°. As a result, the cold air blown through the indoor heat exchanger 2, which is in a low temperature state immediately after the start of operation, is blown overhead, so that people do not feel the cold air. On the other hand, the rotation speed of the blower fan 3 is controlled so that the rotation speed corresponds to ultra-light wind until the blowing temperature reaches 20 degrees Celsius, then a light breeze until 25 degrees Celsius, and then a weak wind until 35 degrees Celsius, which gradually increases the air volume. When the temperature exceeds 35 degrees Celsius, the rotation speed will be changed to correspond to the air volume set by the user (light, medium, or strong wind). This suppresses agitation of the indoor air due to the blowing of cold air at startup, so that the user does not feel the cold air. Next, when the blowing temperature reaches 38°C, the horizontal flap 6 is set to the vertical position, that is, the deflection angle is 90°C, and the air is blown directly downward, and this state is maintained for 2 minutes, and when the indoor temperature reaches 17°C or higher. Then, the start-up control is finished, and the process moves to step S2, where the horizontal flap 6 is set at a set angle (for example, 70° C.) and the air is blown toward the central area of the room. The control of the horizontal flap 6 is such that while the indoor temperature is low, even when hot air is blown toward a person, the cold air in the room hits the user first, and therefore does not give the user a warm feeling. Since this is not possible, the indoor temperature is raised first, and then warm air is directed toward the user. In addition, when returning to this step S2 after each flap and air volume have been changed by the spot air conditioning control described later, the deflection angle of the horizontal flap is set to the above-mentioned 70°C, and the vertical flap is set to the deflection angle of the wide-angle direction mentioned above. , and the air volume is returned to the air volume set by the user. After the above initial setting, the process moves to step S3, and after confirming that the blowout temperature is equal to or higher than the set temperature, the process moves to step S4. In addition, in the control process explained later, for example, if the indoor thermostat
OFF, the equipment stops, and then restarts the equipment with the indoor thermo ON signal, and if the initial blowout temperature is low, the step
The process returns from S3 to step S1, and the control according to the above-mentioned blowing temperature is performed. In step S4, spot operation selector switch 2
The presence or absence of the ON operation signal from 5 is determined. If there is no ON signal, return to step S2 from step S5, and repeat steps S2 to S5 to maintain the deflection angle and air volume of each flap 6, 7 described above, and to control the ON operation signal from the spot operation changeover switch 25. Continues to have input status. When the ON operation signal is input, the process moves from step S4 to S6, and the human body position detecting device 16 performs the human body position detecting operation, that is, the scanning step motors 14 and 15 are driven to detect the human body position detecting sensor 10. Indoor scanning of the detection area begins. Next, in step S7, it is determined whether or not there is a human body detection signal, and as long as no person is detected, steps S3, S4, S6, and S7 are repeated to continue scanning while checking the blowout temperature state and the ON state of the spot operation switch. . Then, if a human body detection signal is generated, steps S7 to S8 are performed.
Step motor 1 for each scan at that time.
The horizontal angle θ1 and vertical angle θ2 of the detection direction are detected from the rotation control angles 4 and 15, respectively, and furthermore, the distance L between the ultrasonic sensor 11 and the person is detected in step S9. Next, in step S10, the horizontal distance l between the air conditioner main body 1 and the person is calculated from the above L, θ1, and θ2. In step S11, based on the human body position information consisting of l, θ1, and θ2 and the temperature information obtained from the outlet temperature sensor 35 and the room temperature sensor 36, a flap deflection angle that can effectively provide a spot air conditioning effect; The air volume is determined. In making this determination, the vertical flap 7 is deflected by the left and right vertical flaps 7a and 7b, depending on the horizontal angle θ1 and the distance l, so that the blown air substantially converges on the detected human body position. The angle is determined, while the horizontal flap 6 and the air volume are stored in advance based on the distance from the air conditioner main body and the temperature distribution determined through experiments regarding the blowing air speed, blowing temperature, room temperature, blowing direction, etc. Determined based on data. At this time, if the distance l to the detection position is smaller than a preset value, the air volume setting by the user is used, and if the distance l is larger than that, the air volume setting value by the user is used. For example, if you are far away, the air volume will be automatically increased depending on the distance.In other words, the speed of the air from the main body 1 will be increased, so that even if you are at a further distance, the air flow from the blowing wind will be felt in the room. The result is the same as at the central position. After the air volume is determined, the degree of rise due to convection of the hot air outlet from the main body 1 to the detection position is calculated using temperature information, and the horizontal flap 6 is deflected so that the hot air hits the human body more effectively. Determine the angle. Then, in step S12, the rotational speeds of the flaps 6, 7 and the blower fan 3 are changed according to the above determined values.
Set. After the change, the process returns to step S3 and the control based on the above human body position detection information is performed.
Turn spot operation switch 25 OFF in step S4
During this time, new positions of the human body are successively detected, and the flaps 6 and 7 and the air volume are changed in accordance with the detected positions.
Therefore, even when a person moves indoors, for example, warm air will be blown out to follow the movement of the person. In addition, in step S4, the spot operation switch 25
If the OFF operation is determined, step S5
The human body position detection operation is stopped at step S2.
In step S4, each flap 6, 7 and the air volume are returned to their initial settings, normal heating operation is resumed, and the next spot operation switch 25 is turned on in step S4.
ON operation signal monitoring status. FIGS. 8a and 8b are interior plan views schematically showing the blown air during the spot air conditioning operation. In the case where the blowing direction is fixed in the conventional device, and the air conditioner body is installed approximately in the center of one wall of the room as shown in Figure a, the spot air conditioning effect is within a predetermined range. However, if the main unit is installed in the corner of the wall as shown in Figure b, the direction of the blowout will be spot as shown by the broken line in the Figure, greatly restricting the user's actions. As a result, the spot air conditioning function is impaired. Therefore, by detecting the position of the human body as in the above embodiment and controlling the blowing air according to the detected position, the blowing direction shown by the solid line in FIG. The feeling and comfort can be improved. Also, by this
Restrictions on installation conditions for the air conditioner body are also reduced. Furthermore, in the above embodiment, the position of the human body is sequentially detected and the wind direction is controlled according to the detected position.The system follows the movement of the person and automatically adjusts the air volume according to the distance to the detected position. Therefore, the effect of spot air conditioning operation can be always provided without restricting the range of movement of people indoors, thereby further improving air conditioning comfort. As explained above, in the air conditioner of the present invention, the position of the human body is detected during spot air conditioning operation, and the wind direction and air volume are set according to the detected position, so that the usability and comfort are improved. At the same time, restrictions on the installation conditions of the main body are also reduced. Note that the above embodiments do not limit this invention, and various changes can be made within the scope of this invention. For example, in the above embodiment, the person detection means 1
6, a human detection sensor 10 and an ultrasonic sensor 11 are provided, and an indoor scanning mechanism for the detection area is added to these sensors. However, the indoor detection area is appropriately divided, and an infrared sensor corresponding to each divided area is used. It is also possible to adopt a configuration in which a plurality of sensors are attached to detect the position of a human body. Furthermore, although the above embodiments have been described with respect to spot air conditioning operation during heating operation, the present invention can also be applied to cooling operation to improve the comfort during cooling. (Effects of the Invention) As described above, in the air conditioner of the present invention, when the wind direction is concentrated, the position of the person in the room is detected and the wind direction and air volume are automatically changed according to the position. Even when the user moves indoors, it is possible to continue to provide a concentrated hot or cold air effect, which improves usability and comfort, and also reduces the restrictions on the installation conditions of the main unit. is also reduced.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Figures 1 to 8 show examples of the air conditioner of the present invention. Figure 1 is a functional diagram, Figure 2 is a side view of the air conditioner body, and Figure 3 is a horizontal flap and a vertical flap. 4 is a perspective view showing the structure of the human body position detection device, FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram of position detection by the human body position detection device, FIG. 6 is a block diagram of the operation control system, and FIG. 7 is a perspective view showing the structure of the human body position detection device. A flowchart of the control method, FIGS. 8a and 8b, are schematic indoor plan views showing the blowing air. 1...Air conditioner body, 3...Blower fan, 6
...Horizontal flap, 7...Vertical flap, 16...
...Human body position detection device (person detection means), 32...Wind direction/air volume control device (control means).

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1 An air conditioner comprising a blower fan 3 and deflection plates 6 and 7 for changing the direction of air blown from the blower fan 3, and further detects the position of a person in a room. A detection means 16 is provided to control the deflection angle of the deflection plates 6 and 7 in order to apply the blown air to the human body according to the detected position of the person from the person detection means 16 during the wind direction intensive operation,
An air conditioner comprising a control means 32 for controlling the blower fan 3 to change the amount of air blown according to the distance from the air conditioner main body 1 to the detected position of the person.