An apparatus for irradiating a load with UHF or microwave radiation includes a cavity for accepting a load, at least one energy feed for transmitting energy into the cavity at a plurality of UHF or microwave frequencies to irradiate the load, and a controller. The controller sets transmission durations, by setting for each of a plurality of frequencies, a respective transmission duration, repeatedly causes energy to be transmitted into the cavity at the plurality of UHF or microwave frequencies according to a duty cycle, and switches ON or OFF transmission of the energy at different frequencies in different repetitions of the duty cycle, which defines an allotted transmission time for each of the plurality of UHF or microwave frequencies. Over a plurality of repetitions of the duty cycle the energy is transmitted at each of the plurality of frequencies for the respective transmission duration.

A microwave oven is provided herein and includes a cavity. A first microwave supply system is configured to supply microwaves to a bottom of the cavity for energizing a crisp function. A second microwave supply system is configured to supply microwaves to the cavity for exciting cavity modes. A heating system is configured to provide a broiling function to the cavity. A control unit is configured to control the first microwave supply system, the second microwave supply system, and the heating system based on a mode of operation selected via a user interface.

The present invention relates to a thawing-apparatus, in which a substance is preferably heated. The present invention further relates to a method to thaw a substance with radio-frequency waves.

An apparatus for applying electromagnetic energy to an object in an energy application zone via at least one radiating element is disclosed. The apparatus may include at least one processor. The at least one processor may be configured to determine a value indicative of energy absorbable by the object at each of a plurality of frequencies and to cause the at least one radiating element to apply energy to the zone in at least a subset of the plurality of frequencies. Energy applied to the zone at each of the subset of frequencies may be a function of the absorbable energy value at each frequency.

A method of processing an object is disclosed. The method comprises heating the object by applying radio frequency (RF) energy, monitoring a value related to a rate of absorption of RF energy by the object during the heating, and adjusting the RF energy in accordance with changes in a time derivative of the monitored value.

An autonomous robot vehicle in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure includes a land vehicle conveyance system, a sensor system configured to capture information including surrounding environment information and/or vehicle subsystem information, a communication system configured to communicate with a remote human operator management system, at least one processor, and a memory storing instructions. The instructions, when executed by the processor(s), cause the autonomous robot land vehicle to, autonomously, determine based on the captured information to request a remote human operator, and communicate a request to the remote human operator management system for a remote human operator to assume control of the land vehicle conveyance system, where the request includes at least a portion of the captured information.

A thawing method for a thawing device includes: generating a radio frequency signal; acquiring the radio frequency signal; an upper electrode plate and a lower electrode plate of the thawing chamber generating, according to the radio frequency signal, radio frequency waves having a corresponding frequency in a thawing chamber and thawing an object to be processed, obtaining voltages and currents of the incident wave signal and reflected wave signal, and determining a thawing progress of the object to be processed.

A thawing method for a thawing device includes: generating, by a radio frequency generation module, a radio frequency signal in a frequency range of 40 to 42 MHz; obtaining the radio frequency signal; and generating, by an upper electrode plate and a lower electrode plate, radio frequency waves of corresponding frequency in a thawing chamber according to the radio frequency signal, and thawing an object to be processed in the thawing chamber. Radio frequency waves using the above frequency range have shorter thawing time, higher temperature-uniformity and lower juice loss rate than radio frequency waves of other frequencies.

A refrigerator has a thawing device. The thawing device includes a cylinder, having a thawing chamber with a forward opening; a device door; and a radio frequency generation module, upper and lower electrode plates electrically connected thereto generating radio frequency waves in the thawing chamber; and at least one temperature sensor is disposed on the inner wall of the thawing chamber and configured to sense the temperature of an object to be processed, thereby adjusting the power of the radio frequency generaton module to prevent the object to be processed from being excessively thawed.

A defrosting system includes an RF signal source, an electrode proximate to a cavity within which a load to be defrosted is positioned, and a transmission path between the RF signal source and the electrode. The system also includes power detection circuitry coupled to the transmission path and configured repeatedly to take forward and reflected RF power measurements along the transmission path. A system controller repeatedly determines, based on the forward and reflected RF power measurements, a calculated rate of change, and repeatedly compares the calculated rate of change to a threshold rate of change. When the calculated rate of change compares favorably with the threshold rate of change, the RF signal source continues to provide the RF signal to the electrode until a determination is made that the defrosting operation is completed, at which time the RF signal source ceases to provide the RF signal to the electrode.