The invention relates to a method and apparatus. In the method a determining a first position of a user of a mobile node is determined at a first time instant. A second position of the user of the mobile node is determined at a second time instant. A time difference is determined between the first time instant and the second time instant. A walking speed of the user is determined using the time difference, the first position and the second position. A third position of the user of the mobile node is determined. A walking time required for the user to reach at least one elevator is determined from the third position based on the walking speed of the user. An elevator call and the walking time are transmitted to an elevator call control node.

An elevator system is provided and includes at least one car; driving elements, each of the driving elements being configured to drive a corresponding car from a waiting area from which at least one passenger boards the corresponding car; at least one sensor configured to identify a presence of more than one passenger intending to board a car and in the waiting area and configured to determine a characteristic of the more than one passenger; and a controller configured to drive more than one car to the waiting area when a capacity of the corresponding car is less than the characteristic of the more than one passenger.

According to an aspect, there is provided a method for controlling an elevator system. The method comprises causing transmission of radio frequency signals with at least one radio frequency sensor attached to at least one element movable in an elevator shaft of an elevator system, receiving, from the at least one radio frequency sensor measurement data representing radio frequency signals reflected from at least one object and captured with the at least one radio frequency sensor, causing identification, based on the measurement data, of at least one object; and controlling operation of the elevator system in response to identifying the at least one object based on the measurement data.

An elevator control system, an elevator system, and a control method therefor. The elevator control system includes: a data collection unit configured to receive a call request signal from a machine passenger at each landing, and receive information about the machine to ride the elevator sent by the machine passenger; and a control unit configured to determine whether to accept the call request from the machine passenger based on elevator operating condition and the information about the machine to ride the elevator, and send information about the rules of riding the elevator to the machine passenger after accepting its call request.

A method for controlling an elevator system comprises obtaining images of the inside of an elevator car, detecting passengers in the images, creating graphic passenger models of the detected passengers from the images and determining the number of passengers who may additionally board the elevator car using the passenger models. The passenger models may reflect the actual size of the passengers.

The invention refers to a method for allocating elevator cars in an elevator system for passenger transport having at least one elevator group with at least one elevator having at least one elevator car, which elevator group is controlled by an elevator group control having a call allocation system to allocate an elevator car to a floor call using destination call control wherein the floor call includes the departure floor as well as the destination floor, whereby the elevator system communicates via a communication means with terminal devices, e.g. mobile devices acting as destination operating panels for the passengers. According to the invention the call allocation system is configured to handle load calls issued via the terminal device, whereby a load call comprises a departure floor, a destination floor, load specification data and a first time or time frame within which the load is to be transported from the departure floor to the destination floor, and the allocation system reserves within the first time/time frame the necessary space and/or weight in an elevator car, obtained from the load specification data and sends a notice to the terminal device from which the load call has been issued and/or to a predetermined terminal device, which notice comprises information that currently or at what time an elevator car is going to serve the load call and which elevator car is going to serve the load call.

A collaborative scheduling method for high-rise elevators based on Internet of Things is provided. The method includes: obtaining the number of people carried at the current moment of each elevator in the elevator group, the target distance corresponding to the current moment of each elevator, and the number of people waiting at the current moment of each floor; predicting the number of people waiting for the going up and the number of people waiting for the going down at the current moment of each floor based on the monitoring video data of the elevator door every day in the preset historical days, and constructing the corresponding feature vectors of each elevator at the current moment and the corresponding feature vectors of the skyscraper at the current moment, and then obtaining the corresponding state vectors at the current moment, controlling each elevator based on state vector and a reinforcement learning network.

One or more elevators can be more efficiently controlled by considering the then-current spatial capacity of the elevator. Camera images or other sensor data indicative of the occupied space in the elevator are received and processed by a control device to determine whether or not the elevator should stop at a requested floor. If the elevator is determined to lack space for additional passengers, then the elevator can bypass the requested stop and proceed without delay. If space remains, however, the elevator can stop to accommodate additional passengers. Measured spatial capacity can also be used to coordinate the actions of multiple elevators operating within a building.

Elevator control system including an elevator car, an elevator controller, and an occupancy detection system configured to detect an occupancy level within the elevator car, the occupancy detection system comprising at least one camera. The elevator controller and the occupancy detection system are configured control the elevator car to prevent additional passengers from entering the elevator car when the occupancy detection system detects an occupancy level above a predetermined threshold.

Provided are embodiments for method performing elevator condition-based maintenance using an in-car camera. The method includes monitoring one or more conditions of an elevator system, and analyzing image data obtained from monitoring one or more conditions of the elevator system. The method also includes validating the one or more conditions of the elevator system, and executing an action based on the validation of the one or more conditions. Also provided are embodiments for a system for implementing the method described herein.