Method for allocating elevator calls and elevator system

Abstract

The invention relates to a method for allocating elevator calls in an elevator system (10) comprising at least one elevator (12a-12c), which elevator system (10) is controlled by an elevator control (16) comprising a destination call allocation control, wherein passenger IDs are inputted into at least one I/O-device (20) of the elevator system (10), whereafter based on the passenger ID a destination call is issued comprising the floor of the I/O-device (20) as departure floor and a preset or inputted destination floor as destination floor of the elevator call. According to the invention when a new destination call is issued, it is checked whether or not a destination call is still pending under the same passenger ID, and if a destination call of said person is still pending, either the new call or the pending call is cancelled.

Claims

1. A method for allocating elevator calls in an elevator system comprising at least one elevator, the elevator system being controlled by an elevator control comprising a destination call allocation control, said method comprising the steps of: inputting passenger IDs into a I/O-device of the elevator system; whereafter, based on the passenger ID, issuing a destination call comprising the floor of the I/O-device as a departure floor and a preset or inputted destination floor as a destination floor of the elevator call; when a new destination call is issued, checking whether or not a destination call is still pending under the same passenger ID; and if a destination call of a passenger under the same passenger ID is still pending, cancelling either the new call or the pending call, wherein an allocated elevator is indicated to the passenger via a display of the I/O-device.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the pending call is cancelled and the new call is entered to the destination call allocation control.

3. The method according to claim 2, wherein the passenger is informed that the pending call has been cancelled.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the passenger is prompted to confirm the new call, and only if a confirmation is given, the new call is entered to the destination call allocation control, whereas if the confirmation is not given the new call is cancelled whereas the pending call is kept in the destination call allocation control.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein the new call and the pending call are displayed on the I/O-device and the passenger is prompted to select between the new call and the pending call whereafter the selected call is entered to the destination call allocation control whereas the not selected call is cancelled.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein the passenger is informed about the new destination.

7. The method according to claim 1, wherein the passenger is informed about the destination of the cancelled pending call.

8. The method according to claim 1, wherein the destination call is inputted via an ID card of a RFID tag.

9. The method according to claim 1, wherein the call is immediately allocated after being inputted to the I/O-device.

10. The method according to claim 4, wherein the confirmation of which call is going to be kept and which call is going to be cancelled is made in a preset mode, wherein always the new call or the pending call is kept and the other of the new call and the pending call is cancelled.

11. The method according to claim 1, wherein if the pending call has been registered using one of predefined I/O-devices, then the new call is always allocated.

12. The method according to claim 1, wherein if a predefined time has lapsed since the pending call was registered but is still not served, the new call is always allocated and the pending call is cancelled.

13. An elevator system comprising at least one elevator, an elevator control controlling the elevator, a I/O-device, the elevator control comprising a destination call allocation control, the destination call allocation control being configured to allocate a destination call based on a passenger ID inputted into the I/O-device, wherein the destination call allocation control comprises a collision circuit configured to check with the input of a new destination call whether any destination call of a passenger with the same passenger ID is still pending, in which case the collision circuit is configured to cancel the pending destination call and enter the new destination call into the destination call allocation control or to cancel the new call and keep the pending destination call in the destination call allocation control, wherein an allocated elevator is indicated to the passenger via a display of the I/O-device.

14. The elevator system according to claim 13, wherein the I/O-device is a destination call operating panel (DOP).

15. The elevator system according to claim 13, wherein the collision circuit is configured to initiate the display of data of the cancelled call on the I/O-device.

16. The elevator system according to claim 13, wherein the collision circuit is configured to initiate the display the destination of the new call on the I/O-device.

17. The elevator system according to claim 13, wherein the elevator system comprises a card reader and/or an RFID-transmitter.

18. The method according to claim 2, wherein the passenger is prompted to confirm the new call, and only if a confirmation is given, the new call is entered to the destination call allocation control, whereas if the confirmation is not given the new claim is cancelled whereas the pending call is kept in the destination call allocation control.

19. The method according to claim 3, wherein the passenger is prompted to confirm the new call, and only if a confirmation is given, the new call is entered to the destination call allocation control, whereas if the confirmation is not given the new claim is cancelled whereas the pending call is kept in the call allocation control.

Description

(1) The invention is hereinafter described in an embodiment with the aid of the schematic drawings: In these drawings:

(2) FIG. 1 shows a diagram of an inventive elevator system, and

(3) FIG. 2 shows a flow diagram of the inventive method performed in an elevator system, particularly in an elevator group with several elevators.

(4) In FIG. 1, an elevator system 10 is shown having several elevators 12a-12c in which elevator cars 14a-14c are driving vertically along a shaft. The elevators 12a-12c are controlled by an elevator control 16. The elevator system 10 has DOPs 20 are preferably located at each elevator lobby of each different floor of the building in which the elevator system is mounted. Each destination operating panel comprises push buttons 22 for inputting data, a display 24 to indicate allocated elevators as well as for example an arrow for indicating the direction of an allocated elevator as well as a transmitter 26 to communicate with ID cards 28 carried by the passengers of the elevator system 10. Each ID card 28 has an ID tag 30, for example an RFID tag which communicates with the transmitter 26 of the DOP 20. The elevator control 16 comprises a destination call allocation control 32 comprising a collision circuit 34. The elevator system may also communicate with mobile devices as smartphones which have with respect to the functionality of the elevator system 10 the same function as the DOP 20.

(5) The inventive elevator system works as follows:

(6) When a passenger enters the elevator lobby, his ID card 28 comprising an RFID tag gets into interaction with the transmitter 26 of DOP when getting near to the DOP. Via the interaction, a destination floor is automatically inputted into the destination call allocation control 32 of the elevator control 16 together with the departure floor which is the floor of the location of the DOP 20 where the call has been inputted. Alternatively, the user also may input a different destination than a possible preset destination via the push buttons 22 of the DOP 20. When entering a new destination call, the allocated elevator is immediately displayed on the display 24 preferably together with a direction in which the allocated elevator is situated. The collision circuit 34 of the destination call allocation control 32 checks with each inputted new destination call whether a destination call with the same passenger ID is still pending, i.e. not served. If this is the case, either the pending destination call is cancelled and the new destination call is entered into the call allocation performed by the destination call allocation control 32 or the new call is cancelled and the pending call is kept in call allocation. Preferably the passenger is informed of the fact that several calls are present with his ID and he has the possibility to select the valid one by interaction via the DOP 20 as I/O-device of the elevator system 10.

(7) An advantageous routine for the cancellation of a pending (old) destination call of the same passenger ID is shown in the flow diagram of FIG. 2.

(8) The start point 40 shows the start of a call allocation routine of the destination call allocation control 32 of the elevator system 10 of FIG. 1. At process point 42, a new destination call is inputted by an I/O-device 20 of the elevator system 10, particularly a DOP 20. With the call input, the elevator system receives the passenger ID, the departure floor from the location of the I/O-device as well as a destination floor which is either preset or manually inputted by the passenger into the I/O-device.

(9) In the following decision step 44, the destination call allocation control 32, particularly the collision circuit 34 of it, looks whether a destination call of the same passenger ID is still pending in the destination call allocation control 32 of the elevator control 16. If this is not the case, an elevator is immediately allocated by the destination call allocation control 32 in process step 46. Further in process step 48 the allocated elevator and preferably the direction of it is/are displayed to the passenger via the DOP 20 whereafter the process ends in the termination point 50.

(10) If in the decision step 44 it is found that an old destination call of the same passenger ID is pending, then, the old pending destination call is cancelled in the following process step 52. Further in the following process step 54 the passenger is informed via the DOP 20 that his old pending destination call has been cancelled. Thereafter, the process branches to process step 46 where the new destination call is entered to call allocation so that an elevator is allocated in step 46 and the allocated elevator is displayed to the passenger in step 48 whereafter the process proceeds to termination step 50.

(11) The above-mentioned embodiments should not be understood as delimiting the invention. Rather, the invention can be carried out within the fines of the appended patent claims.

LIST OF REFERENCE NUMBERS

(12) 10 elevator system 12a-c elevators 14a-c elevator cars 16 elevator controlgroup control 20 destination operating panelDOPI/O-device 22 push buttons of the DOP 24 display of the DOP 26 wireless transmitter of the elevator system 28 ID-card 30 ID-tagRFID-tag 32 destination call allocation control 34 collision module 40 start point 42 input new destination call with passenger ID 44 decision stepcall with same passenger ID already pending? 46 immediate call allocation of new destination call 48 display of allocated elevator 50 termination point 52 pending destination call cancelled 54 information to passenger that a pending call has been cancelled