CN109484932B

CN109484932B - Elevator compartment guiding system

Info

Publication number: CN109484932B
Application number: CN201810582668.XA
Authority: CN
Inventors: 西迫龙一
Original assignee: Hitachi Building Systems Co Ltd
Current assignee: Hitachi Building Systems Co Ltd
Priority date: 2017-09-12
Filing date: 2018-06-07
Publication date: 2020-06-02
Anticipated expiration: 2038-06-07
Also published as: JP6726145B2; CN109484932A; JP2019051999A

Abstract

An elevator taking room guiding system, which flexibly uses a guiding robot, detects the number of people who can take the next service unit device when a plurality of users take the elevator taking room to wait for the elevator, distributes the guiding of the users, generates the calling outside the next service unit device, thereby improving the service for the users. An elevator system is provided with: an autonomous robot which recognizes the number of people waiting for an elevator in an elevator room; a control device which is arranged for each elevator unit equipment and calculates the number of persons that can take the elevator in addition to the current number of persons that can take the elevator according to the car loading rate of the elevator unit equipment or the image information of the camera in the shooting car; and a group management control device connected to the plurality of control devices, wherein the autonomous robots that receive the number of passengers from the control devices do not guide the elevator taking rooms when the number of passengers is less than the number of passengers, and take actions to inhibit the passengers who cannot take the next arriving elevator unit equipment from taking when the number of passengers is more than the number of passengers.

Description

Elevator compartment guiding system

Technical Field

The present invention relates to an elevator system that detects the number of people riding in a car and provides the detected number to an autonomous robot having a function of guiding the passengers.

Background

With the progress of robot control technology in recent years, various efforts and proposals have been made, such as performing a service such as guidance while a robot performs a conversation with a person using artificial intelligence, while performing a task or a service performed by a person in the past instead of the robot.

In the technical field of elevators, various methods of notifying a user located in a boarding room of a unit device to be served from among a plurality of elevators have been proposed, and for example, patent document 1 proposes a user guidance device (see patent document 1) in which a user of a boarding room is guided to perform destination floor call registration if the user holds a handle of an automated guided vehicle located in a waiting position, the user is guided to the vicinity of the service unit device if the passenger performs call registration in accordance with the guidance, and the user returns to the waiting position if the user leaves the handle of the automated guided vehicle after arrival of a broadcast.

In patent document 1, a user holds a handle of an automated guided vehicle in a boarding room, thereby detecting a request for use of the elevator and guiding the user to a corresponding service unit facility.

However, in patent document 1, similar guidance is performed regardless of the congestion state of the car, and guidance related to the number of people who can get on the car is not considered. That is, the service unit facility guided by the automated guided vehicle may be full and may not be able to ride.

Elevators are used by many people, and there are many cases where there are many users in a boarding room and a car. In particular, in a building having a plurality of elevators, when a number of users are present and a plurality of users are guided to the service unit facility, there is a problem that all the users cannot ride the elevator, and the elevator is insufficient as a guide service for the users.

Patent document 1: japanese patent laid-open publication No. 2002-348055

Disclosure of Invention

Therefore, the present invention provides a guidance system that uses a guidance robot to detect the number of people who can board one service unit device when a plurality of users are waiting for an elevator between elevators, to guide the users, and to additionally generate a call to another unit device, thereby improving the service to the users.

An elevator system according to the present invention for solving the above problems manages the operation of a plurality of elevator units, and includes: an autonomous robot which recognizes the number of people waiting for an elevator in an elevator room; a control device which is arranged for each elevator unit equipment and calculates the number of passengers capable of riding in addition to the current number of passengers according to the loading rate of the elevator car of the elevator unit equipment or the image information of the camera shooting the interior of the elevator car; and a group management control device connected to the plurality of control devices, wherein the autonomous robot receiving the number of persons who can take the elevator from the control devices does not provide guidance between the elevator cars or provides guidance to the effect that all persons can take the next arriving elevator unit when the number of persons waiting for the elevator is equal to or less than the number of persons who can take the elevator, and performs action to suppress taking of users who cannot take the next arriving elevator unit or provide guidance to the effect that all persons cannot take the next arriving elevator unit when the number of persons waiting for the elevator is greater than the number of persons who can take the elevator.

According to the present invention, when there are a plurality of elevator waiting passengers in the elevator boarding room, the autonomous robot is notified of the number of persons that can board the next service unit device, and guidance is performed to allocate the elevator waiting passengers to the unit devices to board, thereby making it possible to improve the service to the users.

Drawings

Fig. 1 is an overall configuration diagram of an elevator system of an embodiment.

Fig. 2 is a functional block diagram of an elevator system of an embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a flow diagram illustrating overall process steps of one embodiment.

Fig. 4 is a flowchart showing a procedure of the autonomous robot guidance possibility determination process according to one embodiment.

Fig. 5 is a flowchart showing the steps of the elevator boarding passenger count calculation process according to the embodiment.

Fig. 6 is a flowchart showing the procedure of the autonomous robot guidance processing according to the embodiment.

Fig. 7A is a state diagram showing an autonomous robot guidance process according to an embodiment.

Fig. 7B is a state diagram showing an autonomous robot guidance process according to an embodiment.

Fig. 7C is a state diagram showing an autonomous robot guidance process according to an embodiment.

Description of the symbols

2: autonomous robot, 21: communication device, 22: robot control unit, 23: broadcasting apparatus, 24: ladder waiting number identification device, 25: position detection device, 26: boarding hall call registration device, 27: recording device, 28: self-propelled device, 3: public line, 100: elevator system, 101: car, 102: main wire rope, 103: counterweight, 104: winch, 105: control device, 106: load sensor, 107: a camera, 108: destination floor button, 109: group management control device, 110: boarding room button, 111: guide lamp, 112: communication device, 113: operation control unit, 114: elevator boarding number detection device, 71: boarding room door, 72: a user.

Detailed Description

Hereinafter, an elevator system according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. Fig. 1 is an overall configuration diagram of an elevator system according to an embodiment, and fig. 2 is a functional block diagram of an elevator system according to an embodiment. FIG. 3 is a flow diagram illustrating overall process steps of one embodiment. Fig. 4 is a flowchart showing a procedure of the autonomous robot guidance possibility determination process according to one embodiment. Fig. 5 is a flowchart showing the steps of the elevator boarding passenger count calculation process according to the embodiment. Fig. 6 is a flowchart showing the procedure of the autonomous robot guidance processing according to the embodiment. Fig. 7A to 7C are state diagrams illustrating an autonomous robot guidance process according to an embodiment.

First, an outline of the overall structure of an elevator system according to an embodiment will be described with reference to fig. 1.

Fig. 1 is a diagram showing an overall configuration of an elevator system for group management of 3 elevators having the same configuration. In the figure, a, b, and c are added to the end of the reference numerals to distinguish the configurations corresponding to the left, center, and right elevator devices, but since the configurations are the same, the addition of the characters a, b, and c will be omitted below unless otherwise required.

Each unit device of the elevator includes a car 101, a counterweight 103 connected via a main rope 102, a hoist 104, and a controller 105 for driving the hoist 104.

Each car 101 is provided with a load sensor 106 for detecting a load in the car, a camera 107 for imaging the inside of the car, and a destination floor button 108 for registering a destination floor for passengers in the car, and information of these is transmitted to the control device 105 through a communication line not shown.

The group management control device 109 controls the operation of each elevator unit device via the plurality of control devices 105, and issues commands to the respective control devices 105a to 105c so that the operation efficiency of the elevator in the entire building becomes optimal. Thus, for example, the unit device waiting near the floor where the hall button registration is performed is serviced, and the other unit devices are controlled to prepare for the next hall call and move to stand by at an appropriate floor. When the user presses the hall button 110 during the hall, the group management control device 109 determines the unit device to which the hall call is to be answered. If the answering unit device is decided, the corresponding guidance lamp 111 is lit.

Next, a functional block diagram of the elevator system of the present embodiment will be described with reference to fig. 2. The elevator system shown here connects the autonomous robot 2 and the control device 105a of machine No. 1 via the public line 3, and connects the control devices 105a to 105c to each other via the group management device 109. The autonomous robot 2 is disposed in an elevator hall, and broadcasts necessary information to elevator waiting guests in the hall, or guides the elevator waiting guests to appropriate unit devices. Although not shown, the control device 105b and the control device 105c may be configured to be able to directly communicate with the autonomous robot 2 via the public line 3.

As shown here, the control device 105a of the elevator No. 1 includes a communication device 112a and an operation control unit 113 a. The operation control section 113a drives the elevator car 1 based on the hall call registration information input from the hall button 110a and the car call registration information input from the destination floor button 108 a. The number-of-passengers detector 114a provided inside the operation controller 113a detects the number of passengers in the car based on the load factor of the car transmitted from the load sensor 106a and the image information of the camera 107 a. The communication device 112a transmits information from the elevator boarding person number detection device 114a to the autonomous robot 2 via the public line 3.

On the other hand, the autonomous robot 2 includes a communication device 21 that communicates with the public line 3, a robot control unit 22 described later, and an autonomous device 28 for autonomous movement.

The robot control unit 22 includes a broadcast unit 23 that notifies a user of voice, an elevator waiting person number recognition device 24 that detects the number of persons waiting for the elevator between the elevators using a camera and a sensor, not shown, a position detection device 25 that detects the position of the autonomous robot 2 using a camera and a sensor, not shown, an elevator hall call registration device 26 that generates elevator hall call registration information different from the elevator hall call registration information of the elevator hall button 110, and a recording device 27 that records information received from the control device 105, and transmits user information and position information of the autonomous robot 2 to the group management control device 109 via the communication device 21.

Next, the processing procedure of the present embodiment will be described with reference to fig. 3.

First, the control device 105 detects whether or not the hall call from the hall button 110 is registered (S31). If the inter-hall call is not registered (no at S31), the normal operation processing is continued. If the hall call is registered (yes at S31), it is detected whether or not the destination floor registration (car call) from the destination floor button 108 is performed for the elevator unit devices assigned by the group management control device 109 (S32). If the destination floor registration is not performed (no at S32), the normal operation processing is continued.

On the other hand, if destination floor registration is performed (yes at S32), the passengers get in the car 101, and therefore there is a possibility that all the passengers waiting for the elevator cannot get in the car 101 when the car 101 is full. Therefore, it is determined whether the autonomous robot 2 can guide the user who rides the elevator (S33). This S33 is explained in detail by fig. 4.

If the autonomous robot 2 is unable to perform guidance as a result of the determination at S33 (no at step S34), the normal operation is continued without performing guidance of the autonomous robot 2. If the autonomous robot 2 can guide (yes in step S34), the control device 105 calculates the number of persons that can take the elevator (S35). This S35 is explained in detail by fig. 5.

Thereafter, the control device 105 transmits the number of persons who can take the elevator to the autonomous robot 2(S36), and performs guidance processing by the autonomous robot 2 according to the relationship between the number of persons who can take the elevator and the number of persons who wait for the elevator (S37). This S37 will be described in detail with reference to fig. 6 and 7A to 7C.

Next, the autonomous robot guidance availability determination process of S33 will be described in detail with reference to fig. 4.

First, at S41, the control device 105 compares the time until the allocation unit device reaches the hall call floor with the time required for the autonomous robot 2 to guide the hall call floor. If the time until the assignment unit device arrives is shorter than the time required for guidance (no in S41), the car 101 arrives during guidance and the user 72 starts boarding, and thus guidance of the autonomous robot 2 cannot be performed. Therefore, the control device 105 determines that autonomous robot guidance is prohibited (S46), and if the time until the allocation unit device arrives is longer than the time required for guidance (yes in S41), transmits a request for confirming the position and the status of the autonomous robot 2 to the autonomous robot 2 (S42).

In S42, if a status confirmation request is transmitted from the control device 105 to the autonomous robot 2, the autonomous robot 2 replies to the control device 105 with the position and whether or not it is supporting another guidance. Here, if there is no answer from the autonomous robot 2 to the control device 105 (no in S43), the control device 105 waits until there is an answer, and if it is time to make no guidance (no in S41), it determines that autonomous robot guidance is provided (S46).

On the other hand, if the control device 105 receives the answer from the autonomous robot 2 (yes in S43), the control device 105 confirms whether the autonomous robot 2 calls the registered floor in the elevator hall and whether guidance can be performed in the elevator hall based on the transmitted information (S44). When the autonomous robot 2 calls the registered floor and is in a state where guidance is possible in the elevator hall (yes in S44), the control device 105 determines that guidance of the autonomous robot 2 is permitted (S45).

On the other hand, when the autonomous robot 2 does not call the registered floor in the boarding room, or when the registered floor is called in the boarding room but another guidance is being provided and a new guidance cannot be provided (no in S44), the control device 105 prohibits the autonomous robot guidance (S46).

Next, the elevator boarding availability count processing at S35 will be described in detail with reference to fig. 5.

First, the control device 105 acquires information of the load sensor 106 (S51). The load sensor 106 detects the load factor in the car 101, and when 300kg is loaded in the elevator car 101 with a rated load of 600kg, for example, the load sensor 106 outputs 50%.

Next, the elevator boarding person number detection device 114 of the control device 105 calculates that several persons can be picked up for the rated load based on the load factor obtained from the load sensor 106 (S52). For example, in an elevator with a rated load of 600kg, if the load sensor 106 outputs a load factor of 70%, the elevator passenger number detector 114 determines that 3 passengers can be carried by calculating the rated load of 600kg × (100% -load factor of 70%)/' the weight of 60kg per passenger, if the weight of each passenger is 60 kg.

However, the weight of the person is not fixed, and therefore, the judgment by only loading is insufficient. Therefore, the number of persons that can ride the elevator is detected by the camera 107 provided in the car 101 (S53 to S55). First, the control device 105 acquires image information from the camera 107 installed in the car 101 (S53). Next, the number of passengers riding in the car 101 is detected by performing image analysis by the riding number detection device 114 (S54). Next, it is calculated that several persons can be hitched to the rated number of persons (S55). For example, when the rated number of persons is 11 and the number of persons on the elevator based on the image analysis is 7, it can be determined that 4 persons can be also taken. Further, if a stereo camera is used as the camera 107, even when passengers overlap and cannot be detected by a monocular camera, passengers can be detected more accurately.

If the number of persons that can take the elevator is determined based on the load sensor 106 (S52) and the number of persons that can take the elevator is determined based on the camera 107 (S55), the number of persons that can take the elevator is determined based on these (S56). As in the above example, when the number of persons capable of boarding is "3" at S52 and "4" at S55, the smaller of the two "3" is used as the number of persons capable of boarding. Thus, for example, when the number of persons riding the elevator is small but heavy, the situation that the number of persons riding the elevator is overloaded due to the rated number of persons can be prevented.

Next, the autonomous robot guidance process of S37 will be described in detail with reference to fig. 6 and 7A to 7C.

As shown in fig. 7A, in a building having a plurality of elevators, generally, if a hall call is registered from the hall button 110, the group management control device 109 lights up the guidance lamp 111 of the assigned elevator unit facility to notify the user of the service unit facility (No. 2 machine in fig. 7A). Therefore, a plurality of users 72 are waiting for the elevator near the elevator hall door 71 of the service unit equipment (No. 2 machine).

The details of the guidance process (S37) for the autonomous robot 2 of the user 72 in fig. 7A will be described with reference to fig. 6. In fig. 6, the left-hand process indicates the process content of the autonomous robot 2, and the right-hand process indicates the process content of the control device 105.

First, if the elevator control device 105 transmits information indicating the number of persons that can take the elevator to the autonomous robot 2(S36), the autonomous robot 2 receives the information as the number of persons that can take the elevator (S601). Here, the number of persons that can take the elevator and that are received by the autonomous robot 2 is set to a. Then, the autonomous robot 2 stores the received number of persons who can take the elevator (a) in the recording device 27 (S602).

Next, the autonomous robot 2 detects the number of people waiting to board the elevator in the elevator boarding room (S603). At this time, the autonomous robot 2 detects only the user using a camera, a sensor, and artificial intelligence, which are not shown. At this time, the number of elevator waiting times detected by the autonomous robot 2 is B.

Next, the number of persons who can take the elevator (a) received from the control device 105 is compared with the number of persons who wait for the elevator (B) detected by the autonomous robot 2 (S604).

If the number of elevator waiting persons (B) is equal to or less than the number of elevator boarding persons (a) (a ≧ B), all the users waiting for elevator boarding can board one service unit device, and therefore guidance by the autonomous robot 2 is not required (no in S604). In addition, at this time, the autonomous robot 2 may broadcast the content that all the persons can take the elevator.

On the other hand, if the number of people waiting for the elevator is larger than the number of people who can take the elevator (a < B), several people may not be able to take the elevator among the users waiting for taking the elevator. Therefore, the autonomous robot 2 registers a hall call for an elevator (the first or third elevator in the example of fig. 7A) other than the current service cell facility, and performs guidance for allocating users to the hall.

Specifically, in order to allow a person who cannot board the next service unit device (second-class machine) to board another unit device (first-class machine or third-class machine), the autonomous robot 2 requests additional inter-elevator call registration to the control device 105 other than the next service unit device via the group management control device 109. Further, since the additional hall call registration from the autonomous robot 2 and the call registration from the hall button 110 are registered in the control device 105 in parallel, the group management control device 109 receiving the call registration via the control device 105 can determine that two independent hall call registrations are requested from the same floor.

Then, if the control device 105 receives the additional boarding call registration from the autonomous robot 2 (yes at S621), the group management control device 109 transmits the additional boarding call registration to the control device 105 other than the service unit devices (S622). In this way, the group management control device 109 selects a serviceable unit device and enables the same to respond to the boarding pass call from the autonomous robot 2 (S623). Subsequently, the control device 105 recognizes, via the group management control device 109, that the unit equipment to which the inter-boarding call registration is added in S624 is the station number, and transmits it to the autonomous robot 2.

After that, if the autonomous robot 2 receives the unit device information for responding to the additional hall call from the control device 105 (S605), it starts guidance to the user 72 waiting for the hall call.

As shown in fig. 7A, a case where a person waits for 7 persons in the boarding room and the number of persons capable of boarding is 3 will be described. At this time, as shown in fig. 7B, the autonomous robot 2 takes the following actions: the elevator waiting passenger who moves to the boundary position between the elevator waiting passenger who can take the next arriving service unit device and the elevator waiting passenger who is guided to the additional service unit device is prevented from taking the next arriving service unit device (S607). During this movement, the autonomous robot 2 can broadcast a content that the entire user 72 cannot board the next service unit device.

When the user arrives at the division position illustrated in fig. 7C (yes in S608), the user waiting for the elevator broadcasts a content that the user cannot take all the rides (S609). For example, the broadcast "next elevator can also take 3 people. The passenger in the rear end requests the use of the elevator (elevator three) ", and leads to the additional service unit device (S610).

In addition, since the passenger only gets on the elevator car when the destination floor registration information does not match the floor of the inter-elevator call registration information, the contents of the passenger getting on the elevator car and asking for the passenger to get back may be broadcast in the car 101.

In addition, when it is necessary to guide the autonomous robot 2 between the boarding floors of a plurality of floors, if the service unit devices are the same, the number of persons boarding the other floors and the number of persons waiting for the boarding may be added and compared when the number of persons boarding the other floors and the number of persons waiting for the boarding are compared at S604.

Further, by transmitting the destination floor registration information to the autonomous robot 2, when the autonomous robot 2 performs guidance, a person on the same destination floor is guided to the next service cell device, and a person using a floor other than the floor on which the destination floor registration is performed is guided to the additional service cell device.

As described above, when a plurality of users wait for an elevator while taking an elevator, the number of people who can take the next service unit device is detected, guidance for allocating users is performed, and a call other than the next service unit device is generated, thereby making it possible to improve services to the users.

Claims

1. An elevator system for managing the operation of a plurality of elevator unit devices,

the elevator system is provided with:

an autonomous robot which recognizes the number of people waiting for an elevator in an elevator room;

a control device which is arranged for each elevator unit equipment and calculates the number of passengers capable of riding in addition to the current number of passengers according to the loading rate of the elevator car of the elevator unit equipment or the image information of the camera shooting the interior of the elevator car; and

a group management control device connected to the plurality of control devices,

the autonomous robot which receives the number of persons who can take the elevator from the control device,

when the number of the elevator waiting persons is less than the number of the elevator capable of taking the elevator, the elevator taking room is not guided, or all persons can take the arriving elevator unit equipment,

when the number of the waiting persons is larger than the number of the available persons, the elevator control device takes action of restraining the boarding of the users who cannot board the next arriving elevator unit equipment or takes guidance of the effect that not all the people can board the next arriving elevator unit equipment.

2. Elevator system according to claim 1,

when the number of the waiting persons is larger than the number of the persons capable of taking the elevator, the autonomous robot registers a call request between elevator taking steps to a control device of other elevator unit equipment through the group management control device.

3. Elevator system according to claim 1,

the number of persons capable of boarding the elevator transmitted from the control device to the autonomous robot is smaller than any of the number of persons capable of boarding the elevator determined from the loading rate and the number of persons capable of boarding the elevator determined from the image information.

4. An elevator system for managing the operation of a plurality of elevator unit devices,

the elevator system is provided with:

the number of people who can take the elevator is sent to the autonomous robot arranged in the elevator taking room,

when the number of people waiting for the elevator taking room is less than the number of people capable of taking the elevator, the elevator taking room is not guided or all people can take the next arriving elevator unit equipment,