METHOD OF CONFIGURING AN ELEVATOR SYSTEM

Abstract

A method of configuring an elevator system (1), includes positioning a wireless communication device (4, 4′) on or within an elevator car (2). When the elevator car (2) is in the vicinity of a landing floor (8a) of the elevator system (1), the wireless communication device (4, 4′) transmits data comprising a unique identification code, or part thereof (26, 44) to a landing fixture (10a, 12a, 14a, 16a, 18a) on the landing floor (8a). The landing fixture (10a, 12a, 14a, 16a, 18a) receives the data. The method further includes, based on the received data, the landing fixture (10a, 12a, 14a, 16a, 18a) storing the unique identification code (44).

Claims

1. A method of configuring an elevator system (1), comprising: positioning a wireless communication device (4, 4′) on or within an elevator car (2); when the elevator car (2) is in the vicinity of a landing floor (8a) of the elevator system (1), the wireless communication device (4, 4′) transmitting data comprising a unique identification code, or part thereof (26, 44) to a landing fixture (10a, 12a, 14a, 16a, 18a) on the landing floor (8a); the landing fixture (10a, 12a, 14a, 16a, 18a) receiving the data; and based on the received data, the landing fixture (10a, 12a, 14a, 16a, 18a) storing the unique identification code (44).

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising the landing fixture (10a, 12a, 14a, 16a, 18a) storing a landing fixture type identifier (42) and transmitting the landing fixture type identifier (42) to the wireless communication device (4, 4′); and the wireless communication device (4, 4′) generating the unique identification code (44) and transmitting the unique identification code (44) to the landing fixture (10a, 12a, 14a, 16a, 18a).

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising the wireless communication device (4, 4′) generating the unique identification code (44) from at least the received landing fixture type identifier (42) and a landing floor identifier (26) of the landing floor (8a).

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the wireless communication range of the wireless communication device (4, 4′) is less than 1.5 m.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising fixing the wireless communication device (4) to the elevator car (2); and the wireless communication device (4′) communicating with the landing fixture (10a, 12a, 14a, 16a, 18a) of the landing floor (8a), using the unique identification code (44), whenever the elevator car (2) is in the vicinity of the landing floor (8a) during normal operation of the elevator system.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising the wireless communication device (4) communicating with an elevator system controller (22), and the elevator system controller providing a landing floor identifier (26) of the landing floor (8a) to the wireless communication device (4).

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the landing floor (8a) comprises at least a first landing fixture (10a, 12a, 14a, 16a, 18a) and a second landing fixture (10a, 12a, 14a, 16a, 18a), and wherein the wireless communication device (4, 4′) carries out the method as described above for the first landing fixture (10a, 12a, 14a, 16a, 18a) and then the second landing fixture (10a, 12a, 14a, 16a, 18a), sequentially.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising repeating the method for every landing floor (8a, 8b, 8c, 8d) in the elevator system (1).

9. A software product, comprising a memory (20) storing software, which, when executed, causes a wireless communication device (4) to carry out the steps of: receiving a landing fixture type identifier (42) from a landing fixture (10a, 12a, 14a, 16a, 18a); generating a unique identification code (44); transmitting the unique identification code (44) to the landing fixture (10a, 12a, 14a, 16a, 18a).

10. An elevator car (2), comprising: a wireless communication device (4, 4′), positioned on or within the elevator car (2), wherein the wireless communication device (4, 4′) comprises a software product as claimed in claim 9.

11. The elevator car (2) of claim 10, wherein the wireless communication device (4, 4′) is configured to generate the unique identification code (44) from at least the received landing fixture type identifier (42) and a landing floor identifier (26).

12. The elevator car (2) of claim 10, wherein the wireless communication device (4′) is a mobile communication device, optionally a smart phone.

13. An elevator system (1), comprising: an elevator car (2) as claimed in claim 10; at least one landing floor (8a, 8b, 8c, 8d), wherein the landing floor (8a) comprises at least one landing fixture (10a, 12a, 14a, 16a, 18a), comprising a memory (122a) storing a landing fixture type identifier (42), wherein the landing fixture (10a, 12a, 14a, 16a, 18a) is arranged to transmit the landing fixture type identifier (42) to the wireless communication device (4, 4′).

14. The elevator system (1) of claim 13, wherein the wireless communication range of the wireless communication device (4, 4′) is approximately equal to half of the height of the landing floor (8a, 8b, 8c, 8d), and wherein the wireless communication device (4, 4′) is positioned centrally with respect to the height of the elevator car (2).

15. The elevator system (1) of claim 13, wherein each of the at least one landing fixtures (10a, 12a, 14a, 16a, 18a) comprises a radio-frequency identification tag (120a, 140a, 160a, 180a).

Description

DRAWING DESCRIPTION

[0035] Certain preferred examples of this disclosure will now be described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

[0036] FIG. 1 is a schematic drawing showing an elevator system according to an aspect of the present disclosure;

[0037] FIG. 2 is a view showing a landing floor of the elevator system of FIG. 1;

[0038] FIG. 3 is a schematic drawing showing an elevator system according to a first example of the present disclosure;

[0039] FIG. 4 is a schematic drawing showing the transmissions of data between a wireless communication device and a landing fixture, according to an example of the present disclosure;

[0040] FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing a method according to a first example of the present disclosure;

[0041] FIG. 6 is a schematic drawing showing an elevator system according to a second example of the present disclosure; and

[0042] FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing a method according to a second example of the present disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0043] FIG. 1 shows an elevator system 1 according to an example of the present disclosure. The elevator system 1 includes an elevator car 2 within which there is positioned a wireless communication device 4. The elevator car 2 is arranged to travel within a hoistway 6 to a plurality of landing floors 8a, 8b, 8c, 8d of the elevator system 1. Each landing floor 8a, 8b, 8c, 8d includes at least one landing fixture 10a, 10b, 10c, 10d. As shown schematically in FIG. 1, when the elevator car 2 is located at a particular landing floor 8a, the wireless communication device 4 is able to communicate wirelessly with the at least one landing fixture 10a.

[0044] FIG. 2 shows an exemplary landing floor 10a of the elevator system 1. Although FIG. 2 illustrates the lowest landing floor (denoted with the reference “a”), the statements made below apply equally to the other landing floors, denoted with “b”, “c” and “d”, and to the landing fixtures of these floors). The elevator doors are visible, as would be seen by a passenger standing at the landing floor 10a, waiting for the arrival of an elevator car 2. In the view of FIG. 2, certain exemplary landing fixtures are shown.

[0045] The at least one landing fixture 10a present on this landing floor are a hall position indicator 12a, a hall lantern 14a, a hall button box 16a and a hall option box 18a. The hall position indicator 12a is a landing fixture arranged to indicate the current floor of a particular elevator car 2. The hall lantern 14a is a landing fixture arranged to indicate the current direction of travel of a particular elevator car 2. The hall button box 16a is a landing fixture arranged to include call buttons, which a passenger may use to place an elevator call. The hall option box 18a is a landing fixture, which is accessible only by select users, and which allows these users to access certain features e.g. priority service, sending an elevator car to a particular chosen floor e.g. a parking lot floor. The control buttons within this hall option box may be accessible only by using a certain key or an access code, known only to certain users. These same types of landing fixture, or a selection of them, may be present on the other landing floors 8b, 8c, 8d.

[0046] FIG. 3 shows schematically these landing fixtures in communication with the wireless communication device 4. The wireless communication device 4 includes a memory 20, which contains instructions which, when executed, cause the wireless communication device 4 to execute the method described below.

[0047] The wireless communication range 30 of the wireless communication device 4 is illustrated in FIG. 3. As can be seen in FIG. 3, the wireless communication range 30 in any given direction is sufficient that the wireless communication device 4 can communicate with each landing fixture 12a, 14a, 16a, 18a on the current landing floor 8a, but is insufficient for the wireless communication device 4 to reach the landing fixtures 10b of the adjacent floor. For a standard height of landing floor 8a, a suitable wireless communication range 30 is around lm (giving a total communication coverage of 2 metres from 1 metre below the wireless communication device 4 to 1 metre above the wireless communication device 4).

[0048] The elevator car 2 has a height 34 between the floor of the elevator car 2 and the ceiling of the elevator car 2. As can be seen in FIG. 3, the wireless communication device 4 has been positioned substantially centrally with respect to this height 34. This helps to align the wireless communication range 30 of the wireless communication device 4 with the set of landing fixtures 12a, 14a, 16a, 18a, with which it is desired for the wireless communication device 4 to communicate, and to prevent communication with landing fixtures 10b on adjacent landing floors 8b.

[0049] In this example, the wireless communication device 4 is permanently fixed within the elevator car 2. The wireless communication device 4 is also in communication with an elevator system controller 22. The communication between the wireless communication device 4 and the controller 22 may be wired or wireless.

[0050] As shown in FIG. 3, each landing fixture 12a, 14a, 16a, 18a contains a respective radio-frequency identification tag 120a, 140a, 160a, 180a.

[0051] A radio frequency identification (RFID) tag includes a radio transponder (or a radio receiver and a radio transmitter). An RFID tag is triggered by an electromagnetic pulse, received from a nearby device e.g. the wireless communication device 4, and then responds with digital data e.g. a landing fixture type identifier. The frequency of the electromagnetic pulse emitted by the wireless device 4 may be chosen to provide a desired wireless communication range 30, for example the wireless communication device 4 may use high frequency radio waves, e.g. at a frequency of 13.56 MHz±7 kHz.

[0052] These radio frequency identification tags 120a, 140a, 160a, 180a can be a type of RFID tag known as “read/write”, meaning that object-specific data can be written into the tag. For example, as described below, the RFID tag 120a, 140a, 160a, 180a may at first only transmit a landing fixture type identifier, but, once a unique identification code has been received by the tag 120a, 140a, 160a, 180a, it may overwrite or otherwise store the unique identification code, and when interrogated in future by a reader device, may respond with this unique identification code.

[0053] In other examples, in place of an RFID tag, a small microcomputer with a local memory and processor and a transmitter and receiver may achieve the same functionality by sending the landing fixture type identifier when requested and/or storing a received unique identification code.

[0054] The stages of this communication between the wireless communication device 4 and an exemplary one of the landing fixtures 10a (in this example the hall position indicator 12a) is shown in FIG. 4. The steps of this communication method are also shown in the flowchart of FIG. 5. The method is described below with reference to both FIG. 4 and FIG. 5.

[0055] At a first step S1, the wireless communication device 4 receives floor information from the elevator system controller 22. This floor information could be a landing floor identifier 26 which is a unique code identifying the current floor of the elevator car 2, or it could be other information regarding a specific landing floor, which allows the wireless communication device 4 to retrieve, or provide, the landing floor identifier 26. The landing floor identifier 26 may be stored in the memory 20 of the wireless communication device 4. This communication is represented by the dashed arrow 24 seen in FIGS. 3 and 4.

[0056] Additionally, either at the same time, before, or after this process, but after arrival of the elevator car 2 in the vicinity of a particular landing floor 8a, the wireless communication device 4 makes a transmission of an initiation signal 40. This is the step S2. The initiation signal 40 could be a general transmission by the wireless communication device 4, or could be directed to a particular landing fixture (e.g. hall position indicator 12a in this example). For example, each type of landing fixture e.g. a hall lantern 14a, could have the same general type of radio frequency identifier stored on their respective RFID card 140a. The initiation signal 40 could be directed to this particular landing fixture type identifier. The initiation signal 40 could for example be an electromagnetic pulse designed to trigger an RFID tag 120a, 140a, 160a, 180a.

[0057] Upon receipt of this initiation signal 40, the hall position indicator 12a transmits its landing fixture type identifier 42 to the wireless communication device 4. The landing fixture type identifier 42 relates to the particular kind of landing fixture 10a which is making the transmission, in this case the landing fixture type identifier 42 denotes that the landing fixture is a hall position indicator 12a. The landing fixture type identifier 42 is stored in a memory 122a of the hall position indicator 12a (and more generally each landing fixture 10a may include a memory storing its corresponding landing fixture type identifier). The memory 122a, although shown separately, may be part of the RFID tag 120a. The landing fixture type identifier 42 may therefore be the identifier associated with the RFID tag 120a. This is the step S3 shown in FIG. 5.

[0058] At the next stage, S4, the wireless communication device 4 generates a unique identification code 44 from the landing fixture type identifier 42, together with the landing floor identifier 26, which was received from the elevator system controller 22. The unique identification code 44 may be a binary code, derived from a combination (e.g. a concatenation) of the landing floor identifier 26 and the landing fixture type identifier 42. The scheme or rule for combining the landing floor identifier 26 and the landing fixture type identifier 42 is stored in the memory 20. At step S5 this unique identification code 44 is then transmitted to the hall position indicator 12a.

[0059] At step S6, the landing fixture, in this example the hall position indicator 12a, stores its unique identification code in memory 122a. This may for example involve changing or overwriting the ID code associated with the RFID tag 120a, to be the unique identification code 44. The hall position indicator 12a transmits an acknowledgement 46 to the wireless communication device 4, to confirm that the unique identification code 44 has been successfully stored.

[0060] The next stage of the process, S7, is to repeat this for each landing fixture 10a on the landing floor 10a. In this example, the process will therefore be repeated for the hall lantern 14a, the hall button box 16a and the hall option box 18a.

[0061] At step S8 the same process is then carried out at every other landing floors 8b, 8c, 8d of the elevator system 1.

[0062] At step S9, the elevator car 2 is carrying out normal operation i.e. after successful commissioning of the elevator system 1. During this normal operation the elevator car 2 regularly stops or passes in the vicinity of each landing floor 8a, 8b, 8c, 8d of the elevator system 1. On occasions when a landing fixture 10a 10b, 10c, 10d is within the communication range 30 of the permanently fixed wireless communication device 4, they may exchange information. For example, the landing fixture 10a, 10b, 10c, 10d sends to the wireless communication device 4 certain status and/or error information for example changes in power consumption or fault codes. The wireless communication device 4 then sends this information to cloud server 50, shown in FIG. 3. This cloud server may belong to the particular operator of the elevator system 1 or a contracted maintenance company, and may be stored and/or processed to provide additional feedback about when the elevator system 1 may require additional maintenance and the particular maintenance which may be required.

[0063] FIG. 6 shows a second example of a wireless communication device 4′ according to the present disclosure. All other like components of the elevator system 1 are labelled with the same reference numerals as they are the same as those described with reference to FIGS. 1-5 above. In this example, the wireless communication device 4′ is a mobile device, specifically a smartphone. This wireless communication device 4′ operates largely as described above, however, in this example, it is not arranged in communication with an elevator system controller 22 (although in other examples such a connection could indeed be present). The wireless communication device 4′ is arranged to receive a manual input 60, from a user 62 e.g. a maintenance person. A maintenance person may input information using an application installed on the wireless communication device (e.g. smart phone) 4′. The wireless communication device 4′ may be carried by the user 62 e.g. in their hand, or may be placed within their clothing e.g. in a pocket. The user 62 may wear a specific item of clothing designed to hold the wireless communication device 4′, for example to ensure that the wireless communication device 4′ is positioned at a suitable height to carry out the method described herein.

[0064] The wireless communication range 30′ of the wireless communication device 4′ is shown in FIG. 6. As can be seen in FIG. 6, this wireless communication range 30′ of the wireless communication device 4′, together with positioning of the wireless communication device 4′ at a suitable height, ensures successful communication of the wireless communication device 4′ with all and only those landing fixtures 12a, 14a, 16a, 18a on the selected landing floor 8a which is being configured. Conveniently, a mobile wireless communication device 4′ held in the hand or a jacket pocket of a maintenance person 62 is approximately 1 metre above the floor of the elevator car 2 and therefore when configured with a range of approximately 1 metre as discussed above, extends from approximately the floor of the elevator car 2 to a height of approximately 2 metres above the floor of the elevator car 2. Such a range 30′ is likely to cover all required landing fixtures 12a, 14a, 16a, 18a. It will be appreciated that in other examples, if a greater range is required (e.g. to achieve a greater height at the top of the communication range 30′) the mobile wireless communication device 4′ can either be held at a higher height by the maintenance person 62 or the wireless communication device 4′ can be given a slightly extended range, e.g. up to 1.5 metres.

[0065] FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing the stages of a method according to this second example of the present disclosure. FIG. 7 differs from the method of FIG. 5 only in the first step S1′ (and also in the omission of the final step S9 which is present in the first example).

[0066] In this example, at step S1′ the wireless communication device 4′ receives a manual input 60 from the user 62. The manual input 60 provides floor information to the wireless communication device 4′, this information could be the landing floor identifier 26, or could allow the wireless communication device 4′ to retrieve the landing floor identifier 26 e.g. from a lookup table.

[0067] The method then proceeds with steps S2-S8, which are the same as those described above in relation to FIGS. 4 and 5. In this example the wireless communication device 4′ is a mobile smartphone 4′ carried by the user 62, e.g. maintenance person, and is therefore not permanently present within the elevator car 2. The wireless communication device 4′ is therefore not present in the elevator car 2 during normal operation and so no ongoing communication occurs in this example.

[0068] Although the suffix “a” is used herein to denote the landing fixtures 10 of the first floor 8a, it will be understood by the skilled person that the features described herein apply equally to each equivalent landing fixture of each other landing floor of the elevator system (“b”, “c”, and “d”), and that the method described herein may be carried out at any (or even every) floor of the elevator system.

[0069] It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the disclosure has been illustrated by describing one or more specific aspects thereof, but is not limited to these aspects; many variations and modifications are possible, within the scope of the accompanying claims.