U-WASH TECHNOLOGY SDN. BHD.

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FUZZY LOGIC CONTROLLERFOR WASHING MACHINE

CHAPTER 2

LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 INTRODUCTION

The purpose of this chapter is to provide a review of past researches related to washing
machine, the fuzzy logic system and fuzzy logic washing machine. From the article and
journal, the idea of fuzzy logic washing machine is develop.

2.2 HISTORY OF WASHING MACHINE

For centuries, people on sea voyages washed their clothes by placing the dirty laundry
in a strong cloth bag, and tossing it overboard, letting the ship drag the bag for hours. The
principle was sound: forcing water through clothes to remove dirt. Catharine Beecher, an
early advocate of bringing order and dignity to housework, called laundry "the American
housekeepers hardest problem". Women from all classes tried to find ways to get relief from
doing laundry. Some hired washerwomen and others used commercial laundries. Eventually
mechanical aids lightened the load.

"In the early days, without running water, gas, or electricity even the most simplified
hand-laundry used staggering amounts of time and labor. One wash, one boiling and one
rinse used about fifty gallons of wateror four hundred poundswhich had to be moved
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from pump or well or faucet to stove and tub, in buckets and wash boilers that might weigh
as much as forty or fifty pounds. Rubbing, wringing, and lifting water-laden clothes and
linens, including large articles like sheets, tablecloths, and mens heavy work clothes,
wearied womens arms and wrists and exposed them to caustic substances.

They lugged weighty tubs and baskets full of wet laundry outside, picked up an article,
hung it on the line, and returned to take it all down; they ironed by heating several irons on
the stove and alternating them as they cooled, never straying far from the hot stove."

2.3 THE FIRST WASHING MACHINE

The earliest manual washing machines imitated the motion of the human hand on the
washboard, by using a lever to move one curved surface over another and rubbing clothes
between two ribbed surfaces. This type of washer was first patented in the United States in
1846 and survived as late as 1927 in the Montgomery Ward catalogue. The first electric
clothes washers, in which a motor rotated the tub, were introduced into America about 1900.
The motor was not protected beneath the machine and water often dripped into it causing
short-circuits and jolting shocks. By 1911, it was possible to buy oscillating, cylinder,
domestic washing machines with sheet metal tubs mounted on angle-iron frames with
perforated metal or wooden slat cylinders inside.

2.4 MANUFACTURING CHALLENGES

From a technological perspective, washing machine manufacturers faced a number of

challenges. These included discovering a method of transferring power from the motor to the
mechanism, finding a suitable motor with sufficient initial starting torque, and ensuring that
the operator did not get an electrical shock during operation.
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In the transference of power, some washing machines were chain driven, some belt
driven and others used shafts and gears. To overcome the initial resistance in starting a
washing machine, a fractional horsepower motor which would not burn out or overheat
during the start-up period was used. This was usually a 1/8 or horsepower motor,
manufactured out-of-house by Westinghouse or Robbins and Myers. To prevent electric
shocks, the stator and rotor of the machine were enclosed in a housing equipped with a fan to
prevent overheating.

2.5 IMPROVEMENTS

From the customer satisfaction perspective, a machine that would wash without
shredding the clothes needed to be developed. This meant that if the original scrubbing
machines were used, the machine had to be operated at different speeds for different textiles.
To overcome the problem, washing machines that sloshed water through the clothing by
agitation were developed. Either the tub moved or a baffle placed inside the tub moved.

Early washing machines had a heavy, dirty, cast-iron mechanism mounted on the inside
of the tub lid. The introduction of a metal tub and reduction gears to replace this bulky
apparatus was a great improvement. By 1920, the coopered wooden tub was no longer being
manufactured.

Beatty Brothers of Fergus, Ontario was the first company to produce an agitator
washing machine. The early Beatty machines had ribbed copper tubs which were nickel or
nickel-chromium plated. In the US, the first firm to adopt agitator technology was Maytag.
The vertical orientation of these machines became the industry standard replacing the
horizontal rotating axis of earlier machines.

Starting in the 1920s, white enamelled sheet metal replaced the copper tub and angle-
iron legs. By the early 1940s, enamelled steel was used and sold as being more sanitary,
easier to clean and longer lasting than the other finishes. The sheet-metal skirt was also
designed to extend below the level of the motor mount.
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In the early 1920s, a number of Canadian machines were offered with built-in gas or
electric water heaters. By the 1930s, domestic water heaters were in many homes and the
washing machine heater was of little use. The addition of a motor-driven drain pump at this
time moved the machine one step closer to complete automaticity.

2.6 FUZZY LOGIC SYSTEM

In fuzzy logic system, the system deals with uncertainty in engineering by attaching
degrees of certainty to the answer to logical questions. Commercially, fuzzy logic is being
used with a great success to control machines and customer products. During the past decade,
fuzzy logic control has emerged as one of the most active and fruitful research areas in the
application of fuzzy set theory, fuzzy logic and fuzzy reasoning. In contrast to conventional
control techniques, fuzzy logic control is best utilized in complex ill-defined processes that
can be controlled by a skilled human operator without much knowledge of their underlying
dynamics.

The basic idea behind fuzzy logic control is to incorporate the expert experience of a
human operator in the design of a controller in controlling a process whose input-output
relationship is described by a collection of fuzzy control rules involving linguistic variables.
This utilization of linguistic variables, fuzzy control rules, and approximate reasoning
provides a means to incorporate human expert experience in designing the controller.

There are many benefits in using the fuzzy logic system. Suitable for Complex III
defined Systems where mathematical modeling is difficult or Plant is too abstract. It is also
able to design along linguistic lines and better performance than conventional PID
Controllers yet simple to design.
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Figure 2.1: Example of fuzzy logic system.