Abstract:
A group controller for controlling elevator cars in a building having a plurality of floors includes a traffic and traffic rate estimator for providing fuzzy estimates of traffic and traffic rate; a closed loop fuzzy logic controller for providing a control parameter in response to the fuzzy estimates of traffic and traffic rate and in response to an elevator control system output variable, the closed loop fuzzy logic controller having membership functions for fuzzy sets of the control parameter; an adaptive controller for modifying the membership functions of the fuzzy sets of the control parameter in response to the elevator control system output variable; and an elevator dispatcher for controlling the operation of the elevator cars during single source traffic conditions in response to the control parameter.
Abstract:
To assign a car to a hall call such that cars tend to be equally spaced apart and so that bunching of cars is avoided, the position of each car is predicted over a given period by estimating where it will arrive and leave each of its committed stops over that period for a given set of hall call/car call assignments, a bunching measure is calculated and a car to hall call assignment is made in response to the bunching measure.
Abstract:
The invention relates to call registration wherein of a plurality of elevators an elevator which a user (passenger) wants to ride is called to the elevator hall of the user. A display is provided at an elevator hall for users. When a user depresses a hall calling button, a group supervisory controller determines and selects a suitable elevator, and causes the condition of the elevator to be displayed on the display in the form of sentences or the like. If the user is satisfied with the selected elevator, the hall calling button is not actuated again. If the user is dissatisfied with the selected elevator, the hall calling button is depressed again so that the controller selects another elevator for service to the user.
Abstract:
An elevator control system employes microprocessor-based group controller which communicates with the cars of the elevator system to determine conditions of the cars and responds to hall calls registered at a plurality of landings in the building serviced by the cars under control of the group controller, to provide assignments of calls to cars based on the summation for each car, with respect to each call, a weighted summation of a plurality of system response factors indicative of conditions of the car irrespective of the call to be assigned, and indicative of conditions of the car relative to the call to be assigned, including factors relating to preferring cars which are running, which require motion to provide service already assigned to the car, which do not have lobby calls, which are not positioned at the lobby, which are not full, even though the car may have a car call at the floor of the hall call under consideration, which do not have excessive car calls in them, and so forth. Exemplary apparatus and logic flow diagrams are disclosed to illustrate the specific manner of assigning calls to cars in accordance with the invention, and to illustrate the environment in which the invention may be practiced.
Abstract:
A method includes recording a primary destination dispatch request from a primary passenger at a first floor position via a destination dispatch controller 115, identifying a terminal floor, providing a terminal floor call signal to the elevator control system via an overlay controller 110, moving an assigned elevator car in a travel direction of the terminal floor, recording at least one secondary destination dispatch request from a secondary passenger at a respective at least one secondary floor position via the destination dispatch controller, approximating a position of the assigned elevator car, determining a target floor position via the destination dispatch controller, entering a target floor call corresponding to the target floor position at a calculated time to stop the assigned elevator car at the target floor position, cancelling all pending calls via the elevator control system 102, and entering at least one recorded destination dispatch request to the elevator control system.
Abstract:
The invention relates to a method for handling destination calls in an elevator group comprising several elevators using destination call control, which method comprises an allocation procedure for situations where the calls can't be served by all elevators of the elevator group in one round trip, in which situation "n" open calls and "m" fixed calls are present, which fixed calls are already allocated but not served, in which allocation procedure a genetic algorithm (GA) is used in which the following succession of steps is performed: a) chromosomes comprising genes are formed, in which chromosomes: - n first genes comprise a correlation of each open call and a corresponding elevator, - n second genes comprise a correlation of each open call and the corresponding number of the round trip in which the open call will be served, and - m third genes comprise a correlation of each fixed call and the corresponding number of the round trip in which the fixed call will be served, b) for each chromosome round trips are calculated for each elevator of the elevator group according to collective control, c) the round trips of all elevators calculated in step b) are evaluated according to known optimization criteria, as e.g. passenger riding time, passenger waiting time, energy consumption, minimum number of round trips etc., d) chromosomes which are evaluated in step c) as sufficient are put forward to the forming of a new generation by per se known GA methods, as e.g. cross-breeding, mutation, etc., e) the steps b) to d) are repeated for each chromosome of each new generation of chromosomes until a stop criterion is achieved, f) the calls are served in collective control according to the best chromosome of the last generation, and g) the destinations of each elevator in its travelling direction in the current round trip according to the best chromosome are shown on a at least one common display shortly before its arrival at said landing. The invention solves the elevator dispatching problem under consideration of more than the current round trip of the elevators in the elevator group.
Abstract:
The present invention provides a method and apparatus for use in elevator systems for assigning new hall calls to one of a plurality of available elevator cars. The method comprises calculating for each car a call cost for accepting the new hall call. The call cost is a function of the estimated time to the desired destination of the passenger requesting the new hall call and of the delay that other passagers who are using the elevator car will experience. In one embodiment, a destination is inferred for the passenger requesting the new hall call. In another embodiment, the passenger requesting the hall call may input a desired destination at the time the hall call request is made. The elevator system of the present invention allows for use of both standard up/down hall call entry devices and destination entry devices that allow a particular destination to be entered by a passenger at the time a hall call is requested.
Abstract:
An elevator group control device and an elevator group control method can eliminate congestion caused by stoppage, jam or deadlock in a vertical and horizontal movement type elevator system. The vertical and horizontal movement type elevator system controls running of a plurality of cages capable of vertically moving in a plurality of shafts and horizontally moving between the shafts. In the system, path data are stored for each of the cages, target floor data including target floors are produced on the basis of call data obtained correspondingly to the respective cages and platform call data obtained correspondingly to the respective floors, periods of time required for the cages to arrive at the target floor is predicted on the basis of the path data, target floor data, call data and cage data indicative of positions of the respective cages, and predetermined cages are allotted to predetermined platform calls on the basis of the predicted arrival time.
Abstract:
An elevator control system employing a micro-processor-based group controller ( Fig. 2 ) which communicates with the cars of the elevator system to determine conditions of the cars and responds to hall calls registered at a plurality of landings in the building serviced by the cars under control of the group controller, to provide assignments of the hall calls to the cars based on a weighted summation for each car, wi h reapect to each call, of a plurality of system response factors, some indicative, and some not, of conditions of the car irrespective of the call to be assigned, assigning "bonuses" and "penalties" to them in the weighted summation. In the invention, rather than a set of unvarying bonuses and penalties being assigned based on the relative system response factors, the assigned bonuses and penalties are varied (4,6) based on the perceived intensity of traffic, as measured (3,5) by, for example, a past average waiting time and the elapsed time since registration of the hall call, a selected past five minute average waiting time being exemplary.