A method of operating an elevator system includes: receiving an evacuation call from a first evacuation floor; determining an evacuation zone surrounding the first evacuation floor; determining a number of passengers on each floor within the evacuation zone; determining a set of adjacent floors within the evacuation zone that have a highest combined passenger number, the set of adjacent floors including a first adjacent floor and a second adjacent floor; and moving a multi-compartment elevator car to the set of adjacent floors with the highest combined passenger number, the multi-compartment elevator having a first compartment and a second compartment; wherein the first compartment arrives at the first adjacent floor and the second compartment arrives at the second adjacent floor when the multi-compartment elevator car arrives at the set of adjacent floors with the highest combined passenger number.

A method of operating an elevator building system is provided. The method includes: receiving an evacuation call from a first evacuation floor; determining an evacuation zone surrounding the first evacuation floor; determining a number of passengers on each floor within the evacuation zone; determining a number of elevator cars to send to each floor within the evacuation zone in response to the number of passengers on each floor, a capacity of each elevator car, and a location of the floor in reference to the first evacuation floor; and moving an elevator car to a first determined floor within the evacuation zone.

An elevator system includes an elevator car configured to travel in a hoistway; an elevator car door configured to open and close; a machine configured to impart force to the elevator car; an interface configured to generate a lockdown mode signal; and a controller configured to control operation of at least one of the machine and the elevator car door in response to the lockdown mode signal.

A building elevator system is provided having: an elevator system having an elevator car; a control system configured to control the building elevator system and determine evacuation information; and a dynamic display configured to display the evacuation information when an evacuation call is received by the control system. The evacuation information includes at least one of an estimated time of arrival of the elevated car, an evacuee recommendation, a directional map, and directional instructions.

A method of operating a building elevator system including: controlling a first elevator system and a second elevator system, floor coverage of the first elevator system overlapping floor coverage of the second elevator system at a least one transfer floor; receiving an evacuation call from an evacuation floor; detecting when a first elevator car of the first elevator system is dispatched to the transfer floor; and dispatching a second elevator car of the second elevator system to the transfer floor.

An elevator system includes at least one elevator car movable between a plurality of landings. The elevator system is operable in an occupant evacuation operation mode. In the occupant evacuation operation mode, at least one safe room is associated with at least one of the plurality of landings.

A method for ensuring elevator safety in an elevator system, an elevator control unit, an elevator system, and a computer program product are disclosed in this document. The method comprises detecting a foreign object in an elevator shaft during normal operation mode, establishing a safe zone of the elevator shaft, wherein the safe zone is associated with a safe zone speed, a safe distance, and a safe direction, switching operational mode of the elevator system to a safe zone mode, determining that the elevator car is in the safe zone, and allowing movement of the elevator car in the safe zone to the safe direction at a speed not exceeding the safe zone speed.

An exemplary building sway operation system (10) for an elevator includes an acceleration sensor (11), and a data receiving unit (12) for receiving a sensor output from the acceleration sensor (11). The acceleration sensor (11) is designed to be mounted on a movable mass (6) of an active vibration control device (5) for a building, in order to detect the reciprocating motion of the movable mass (6) of the active vibration control device (5) responsive to the occurrence of earthquakes or strong winds.

The present invention relates to a method for controlling an operation of an elevator, which is capable of moving the elevator to a near floor by using an auxiliary power supply such as a battery in an emergency situation where a commercial power supply cannot be used, while minimizing power consumption through automatic control. The method includes: detecting the current operation zone of the elevator when an auxiliary power supply driving situation occurs; and operating the elevator by using the auxiliary power supply to correspond to the detected current operation zone. The detected current operation zone corresponds to one of an acceleration zone, a constant speed zone, a creep zone and a seating zone.

The invention relates to a method for using an elevator system in a building having several vertically spaced floors served by an elevator system, particularly by one or more vertically traveling elevator cars of an elevator system, said floors comprising at least a first floor, a second floor, and a plurality of intermediate floors positioned vertically between the first and second floor, the elevator system being configured to have several modes, including at least a normal operating mode and an evacuation operating mode, in which normal operating mode a car of the elevator system is used to serve a first set of floors, and in which evacuation operating mode said elevator car is used to serve a second set of floors different from said first set of floors; the method comprising evacuating passengers from the first floor to the second floor, the evacuating comprising changing the mode of the elevator system from the normal operating mode to the evacuation operating mode; and determining the second set of floors to include the first floor and an intermediate stop floor from amongst the plurality of intermediate floors or a subset thereof; and transporting a load of passengers from the first floor with said elevator car without intermediate stops to said intermediate stop floor; and repeating one or more times said transporting a load of passengers from the first floor; and after one or more of said transporting, transporting passengers from said intermediate stop floor with an elevator car to the second floor. The invention relates also to an elevator system implementing the method.