Modeling and control of washing machine based on approximate solution of HJB equation

The paper elaborates the design of an optimal feedback control system for a washing machine. It is sought to save on the water and energy consumption and the associated wear and tear and detergent consumption through monitoring the washing process via feedback sensors rather than following a fixed cycle. A lumped nonlinear model is first fitted to empirical data. After choosing an appropriate objective function, the optimal control law is found via approximate solution of Hamiltonian-Jacobi-Bellman (H-J-B) equation. The results show the high performance of proposed controller.