CONTROL METHOD FOR AN ELEVATOR CONTROL SYSTEM

Abstract

An elevator control method for an elevator system including cars movable in an elevator shaft of a building the building being dividable into serving sectors each serving sector including at least one floor to be served by a car, and a recording device for recording car usage data, the recording device being dedicated to the cars, wherein the recording device forwards the car usage data to an elevator controller receiving the car usage data for creating car-logbook-data. The method of division of the serving sectors is decided on evaluation-analysis of the car-logbook-data by gathering and storing the car usage data over a period of time into a memory of the elevator controller and allocating a serving sector in dependency of the evaluation-analysis of the car usage data respectively.

Claims

1. An elevator control method for an elevator system comprising: elevator cars movable in an elevator shaft of a building the building being dividable into serving sectors each serving sector comprising several floors to be, served; and recording means for recording car usage data the recording means being dedicated to the cars, wherein the recording means forward the car usage data to an elevator controller receiving the car usage data for creating car-logbook-data, and wherein a division into serving sectors is decided by defining limit floors of each sector on evaluation-analysis of the car-logbook-data by continuously monitoring interfloor traffic and gathering and storing the car usage data over a period of time into a memory of the elevator controller and allocating a serving sector in dependency of the evaluation-analysis of the car usage data, respectively.

2. The elevator control method according to claim 1, wherein the recording means records car usage data comprising parameters of an elevator usage by tenants of a building.

3. The elevator control method according to claim 1, wherein the recording means records car usage data comprising at least one of the following parameters: an origin floor where a serving call occurs, a destination floor, a time when a serving call occurs, a start load, an elevator position, or an elevator moving direction.

4. The elevator control method according to claim 1, wherein the evaluation-analysis of the car-logbook-data combines parameters recorded by the recording means and allocates the serving sector to a car in dependency of a probability of occurrence of a serving call.

5. The elevator control method according to claim 1, wherein the elevator controller allocates the car for serving tenants at a minimum of time.

6. The elevator control method according to claim 1, wherein the elevator system comprises a least two groups of cars wherein each group comprises a plurality of cars.

7. The elevator control method according to claim 2, wherein the recording means records car usage data comprising at least one of the following parameters: an origin floor where a serving call occurs, a destination floor, a time when a serving call occurs, a start load, an elevator position, or an elevator moving direction.

8. The elevator control method according to claim 2, wherein the evaluation-analysis of the car-logbook-data combines parameters recorded by the recording means and allocates the serving sector to a car in dependency of a probability of occurrence of a serving call.

9. The elevator control method according to claim 3, wherein the evaluation-analysis of the car-logbook-data combines parameters recorded by the recording means and allocates the serving sector to a car in dependency of a probability of occurrence of a serving call.

10. The elevator control method according to claim 2, wherein the elevator controller allocates the car for serving tenants at a minimum of time.

11. The elevator control method according to claim 3, wherein the elevator controller allocates the car for serving tenants at a minimum of time.

12. The elevator control method according to claim 4, wherein the elevator controller allocates the car for serving tenants at a minimum of time.

13. The elevator control method according to claim 2, wherein the elevator system comprises a least two groups of cars wherein each group comprises a plurality of cars.

14. The elevator control method according to claim 3, wherein the elevator system comprises a least two groups of cars wherein each group comprises a plurality of cars.

15. The elevator control method according to claim 4, wherein the elevator system comprises a least two groups of cars wherein each group comprises a plurality of cars.

16. The elevator control method according to claim 5, wherein the elevator system comprises a least two groups of cars wherein each group comprises a plurality of cars.

Description

[0017] Embodiments of the invention are shown in the figures and they are explained in the following description.

[0018] FIG. 1 shows a schematic view of an elevator system,

[0019] FIG. 2 shows a schematic view showing channels of communication of an elevator system,

[0020] FIG. 3a shows a schematic view showing channels of communication of an elevator system comprising two groups of cars, and

[0021] FIG. 3b shows another schematic view showing channels of communication of an elevator system comprising two groups of cars.

[0022] FIG. 1 shows a schematic view of an elevator system 10. The elevator system 10 comprises three cars 11.1, 11.2, 11.3 movable in an elevator shaft of a building. Each car 11.1, 11.2, 11.3 comprises a recording means 12.1, 12.2, 12.3 for recording car usage data like elevator events as car position data and car call data, time, floor number, direction, start load, DCS passenger call, or landing and car calls and can also comprise passenger events like time, origin floor, and destination floor. The recording means 12.1, 12.2, 12.3 forwards the car usage data to an elevator controller 13 receiving the car usage data for creating car-logbook-data. Further the elevator controller 13 comprises a memory 14 for gathering and storing the car usage data over a period of time. The controller 13 calculates and processes the constantly changing positions and direction of movement of the cars, the circumstances of car calls and boarding calls, car load conditions, car departure interval conditions, and other types of traffic data to control movement of the cars in response to traffic demands, and assigns the most appropriate cars to floors where passengers are waiting.

[0023] From congested floors, such as the lobby floor, the cars will often be completely filled so that a large number of passengers may board. For this case, destination boarding location buttons which are the same as the destination floor buttons on the car operating panel, are provided at these boarding locations. When the destination floor boarding location buttons at these boarding locations are pressed, it will not be necessary to press the destination floor buttons on the car operating panels inside the cars. On the lobby floor, destination floor boarding location buttons are provided in front of elevators 11.1, 11.2 and 11.3.

[0024] After a call has been entered, the controller 13 determines whether the destination floor belongs to a service-sector. Then, the controller determines whether there is another destination floor boarding call for this same sector. When there is no further call for said first sector, the priority level of this sector is tentatively made 1. Next, it is determined if another, second service-sector with a priority level that precedes the first sector, has a destination floor boarding call that belongs to this sector. When the second sector already has had a destination floor boarding call, the priority level of the second sector becomes 1, and the priority level of the first sector is determined to be 2. On the other hand, when the second sector has no call, the priority level of the first sector is determined to be kept at 1. In this way, the priority levels of both sectors are made 1 and 2, etc. depending on the number of service sectors and the sector service order becomes the order in which destination floor boarding calls occur. In addition, when a car departs from the lobby floor to a destination floor that belongs to the first sector, the priority level of the second sector becomes 1.

[0025] FIG. 2 shows a schematic view showing channels of communication of an elevator system 10. The recording means 12.1, 12.2, 12.3 records car usage data, for example an origin floor where a serving call occurs, a destination floor, a time when a serving call occurs, a start load, an elevator position, or an elevator moving direction. The recording means 12.1, 12.2, 12.3 forwards the car usage data to the elevator controller 13. The elevator controller 13 gathers and stores the car usage data for creating car-logbook-data using a memory 14. The elevator controller 13 performs an evaluation-analysis of the car-logbook-data, divides serving sectors of the building based on evaluation-analysis of the car-logbook-data and allocates serving sectors (not shown) to the cars 11.1, 11.2, 11.3 by defining their limit-floors, respectively.

[0026] FIG. 3a shows a schematic view showing channels of communication of an elevator system 10 comprising two groups 15.1, 15.2 of cars 11.1, 11.2, 11.3, 11.4, 11.5, 11.6. The recording means 12.1, 12.2, 12.3, 12.4, 12.5, 12.6 records car usage data, for example an origin floor where a serving call occurs, a destination floor, a time when a serving call occurs, a start load, an elevator position, or an elevator moving direction. The recording means 12.1, 12.2, 12.3, 12.4, 12.5, 12.6 forwards the car usage data to the elevator controller 13. The elevator controller 13 gathers and stores the car usage data for creating car-logbook-data using a memory 14. The elevator controller 13 performs an evaluation-analysis of the car-logbook-data, divides serving sectors of the building based on evaluation-analysis of the car-logbook-data and allocates serving sectors (not shown) to the cars 11.1, 11.2, 11.3, 11.4, 11.5, 11.6, by defining their limit-floors, respectively. Regarding the recording means 12.1, 12.2, 12.3, 12.4, 12.5, 12.6, the elevator controller 13 and the memory 14 there is no difference compared to the embodiment shown in FIG. 2. The two groups of cars 15.1, 15.2 further increase the performance of serving tenants of a building because in dependency of the usage of tenants in a building different groups of cars can be allocated to different serving sectors in a building. Group 15.1 and group 15.2 are both allocated to a serving sector A.

[0027] FIG. 3b shows another schematic view showing channels of communication of an elevator system 10 comprising two groups of cars 15.1, 15.2. FIG. 3b shows identical features shown in FIG. 3a. The only difference is in the allocation of group 15.1 and group 15.2. Group of cars 15.1 is allocated to the serving sector A and the group of cars 15.2 is allocated to serving sector B.

[0028] All features shown or discussed with respect to particular embodiments of the invention can be combined in various applicable combinations in order to realize their positive technical effects simultaneously.

[0029] The scope of the present invention is given by the claims and is not restricted by the exemplary embodiments discussed in the description or depicted in the figures.

REFERENCE NUMERALS

[0030] 10 elevator system [0031] 11 car [0032] 12 recording means [0033] 13 elevator controller [0034] 14 memory [0035] 15 group of cars [0036] A, B serving sector