Determining the mass and angular position of the unbalanced load in horizontal washing machines

Abstract

Horizontal washing machines use significantly less water and energy as opposed to conventional machines. Unbalanced load in washing machines limit the performance, and therefore accurate estimation of unbalanced loads, including their magnitudes and locations in washing drum, is required. In this paper, we propose an approach to evaluate the angular position and mass of the unbalanced load. A simulation model of the system was developed and various experiments were performed. The proposed algorithms and the developed experimental system can estimate the angular position of the unbalance load with maximum %3 error. The research on unbalanced load increase the performance of the washing machine and in addition to this, this research can be used to eliminate unbalanced load in future studies.