GB2226428A

GB2226428A - "Remote monitor and diagnosis apparatus"

Info

Publication number: GB2226428A
Application number: GB8925836A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Nobuhisa Kobayashi
Original assignee: Hitachi Ltd
Current assignee: Hitachi Ltd
Priority date: 1988-11-19
Filing date: 1989-11-15
Publication date: 1990-06-27
Anticipated expiration: 2009-11-15
Also published as: KR970006582B1; CN1021858C; SG18595G; JPH02138081A; HK52295A; CN1043025A; KR900007711A; GB2226428B; GB8925836D0

Abstract

The apparatus comprises units (21, 22, 23) each including (as described) an elevator (1), a control unit (30, 31), and a monitor terminal (10, 11, 12); a remote maintenance centre (20) being connected to the units (21, 22, 23). Each monitor terminal (10, 11, 12) senses the running history, running state and abnormalities of the elevator (1) obtained by monitoring the control unit (30, 31) and outputs an informing trigger to the maintenance centre (20) which incorporates a monitor and diagnosis program and generates maintenance commands. The running history may include the number of stops at each floor, speed data, brake characteristics etc. Communication between the maintenance centre (20) and the units (21, 22, 23) may be via telephone lines (1c). <IMAGE>

Description

"REMOTE MONITOR AND DIAGNOSIS APPARATUS" The present invention provides a remote monitor and diagnosis apparatus for elevator or the like, which continuously monitors the running history and the running state of a plurality of elevators, escalators or the like, which, upon detection of an abnormality, analyzes the cause of the abnormality and directs restoration work at the maintenance center of the elevators or the like, and which performs suitable preventive maintenance on the basis of the running history and the running state.

A conventional system for elevator or the like has such configuration that a maintenance center is informed about an abnormality when it has been detected on the basis of continuously monitoring the running state of the elevator or the like. Therefore, the time taken until the detection of an abnormality can be shortened. However, work such as abnormality cause analysis and restoration from the abnormality is not started till a maintenance man goes to the spot where the elevator or the like is installed. An example of such prior art is described in JP-B-63-20749.

In a configuration proposed as that taking a step forward, the running state at the time when an abnormality is detected is taken in to make a diagnosis of a failure location and a maintenance directive corresponding to this failure is outputted as described in JP-A-59-22869 and U.S. Patent No.4,622,538.

In such prior art, when an abnormal situation occurs in an elevator or the like, the maintenance center makes a diagnosis of cause location of this abnormal situation and indicates the failure location and the repair location in order to cope with this situation. At such a stage that any failure does not occur in an elevator or the like, therefore, any preventive action is not taken. It is thus difficult to prevent occurrence of a failure or a trouble due to aged deterioration.

In view of the above described prior art, the present invention has been made. An object of the present invention is to provide a remote monitor and diagnosis apparatus of elevator or the like capable of preventing a situation resulting in running stop or at least removing a primary factor causing a serious failure by always monitoring age-based running history and current running state of elevators or the like, in addition to the conventional function of judging a failure location and generating a maintenance command at the maintenance center upon occurrence of a failure in an elevator or the like, by monitoring an omen of occurrence of a failure before a failure occurs in an elevator as a concrete phenomenon, and by preventing occurrence of a failure in advance as quickly as possible.

Another object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus which, even when an abnormality in an elevator or the like is detected, gives consideration to not only abnormality detection terms of the elevator or the like but also the running state of the elevator or the like, which has emitted an informing trigger, and the running history up to occurrence of an abnormality and judges the failure cause more precisely and directs restoration work rapidly at the maintenance center on the basis of monitor and diagnosis program.

In order to achieve the above described object, in accordance with the present invention, an elevator unit or the like comprises an elevator or the like and a monitor terminal for monitoring a control unit of the elevator or the like; a general apparatus comprises a plurality of elevator units or the like thus configured and a maintenance center for remotely monitoring those elevator units or the like; the monitor terminal unit is so configured as to output to the maintenance center the running history and the running state obtained by monitoring the elevator or the like and the control unit as well as an informing trigger upon detection of an abnormal situation; on the other hand, the maintenance center has a monitor and diagnosis program for receiving the running history, the running state and the informing trigger from the monitor terminal unit and for monitoring and making a diagnosis upon the elevator unit or the like; a failure diagnosis is made by this monitor and diagnosis program when the informing trigger is outputted; and necessary preventive maintenance can be performed on the basis of analysis of the running history and the running state.

The present invention will be apparent from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which: Fig. 1 is a whole configuration diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention; Fig. 2 is the detailed block configuration diagram of a monitor terminal unit shown in Fig. 1; Fig. 3 is the detailed block configuration diagram of a maintenance center similarly shown in Fig. 1; and Fig. 4 is a flow chart of monitor and diagnosis program used in the maintenance center.

The present invention will hereafter be described by referring to an illustrated preferred embodiment. In this embodiment, the present invention will be described by taking an elevator as an example of the elevator or the like.

Fig. 1 shows a whole configuration diagram of a remote monitor and diagnosis apparatus for elevator according to the present invention. Monitor terminal units 10, 11 and 12 respectively included in a plurality of elevator units 21, 22 and 23 are connected to a maintenance center 20 via telephone lines lc. For each of the monitor terminal units 10, 11 and 12, one or more elevator control units 30 and 31 as well as and an elevator controlled thereby are disposed. For brevity, only an elevator connected to the elevator control unit 30 is illustrated and its configuration will be roughly described. A cage 1 of the elevator and a counterweight 2 are hung on a sheave 4 via a rope 3 in a well-bucket form. A brake device 5, a motor M and a tachometer generator G are attached to the axis of the sheave 4 via reduction gears.The rotation direction and speed of the motor M are controlled by the output of a power control unit 9 having a thyristor control device and a disconnector to control power supplied from three-phase AC power supply. The thyristor included in the power control unit 9 is controlled by the output of a speed control circuit 8 supplied with the output of the tachometer generator G and the output of a microcomputer 6. Control signals of the power control unit 9 comprise signals fed from various safety devices installed in the elevator and a signal fed from a safety circuit 7 supplied with a signal fed from the microcomputer 6. The power control unit 9 controls the traveling direction of the elevator and the brake device 5. Cage information supplied via a traveling cable connected to the cage 1, information regarding the elevator hall, information fed from the tachometer generator G, and information SS fed from the safety device are inputted to the microcomputer 6, which controls the elevator by using such information.

Further, interphones 40 and 41 disposed in the elevator cage 1 are connected to the monitor terminal unit 10. The monitor terminal unit 10 is connected to the elevator control units 30-31 by an elevator communication signal line la of common line type electrically isolated via a pulse transformer PT. Electrical isolation using this pulse transformer prevents failure of any unit connected to the elevator communication signal line la from affecting other units. Further, by using this elevator communication signal line la, the monitor terminal unit 10 can periodically take in the internal operation states of the elevator control units 30-31.To be concrete, necessary data can be taken in by configuring a transmission control circuit connected from the monitor terminal unit 10 to a bus line of the elevator control unit so that the transmission control circuit may periodically send out the elevator control state.

Further, interphones 40-41 for elevator cage are used for performing voice talk between the inside of the elevator cage 1 and the maintenance center 20 via the telephone line lc. The interphones 40 and 41 are also connected to the monitor terminal unit 10 via an interphone signal line lb of common line type electrically isolated by a line transformer LT. The monitor terminal device 10 monitors the operation state of the elevator control unit 30. Upon detecting an abnormality, the monitor terminal unit 10 transmits the abnormality of the elevator control unit 30 to the maintenance center 20 via the telephone line lc as the informing trigger.In addition to transmission of this informing trigger, the same telephone line can be used in a time division scheme, in response to a talk request fed from an interphone, for talk between the inside of the elevator cage 1 and a head set installed in the maintenance center 20 as described later.

Fig. 2 is a detailed block configuration diagram showing the internal configuration of the monitor terminal unit 10. The monitor terminal unit 10 comprises an elevator control unit communication circuit 101, a data control circuit 100, a memory circuit 102, a data modem circuit 103, a telephone line network control circuit 104 and an interphone control circuit 105. The data control circuit 100 comprises a microcomputer and controls operation of the whole monitor terminal unit 10. Under the control of the data control circuit 100, the elevator control unit communication circuit 101 is activated to periodically take in the operation state of the elevator control unit 30 via the elevator communication signal line la.Data items taken in comprise the traveling direction of the cage 1, input such as pushbutton input for causing this operation, the operation command of the control circuit responsive to this input, the response, the start time of its actual operation, elapsed time and the response state responsive to the manipulation input.

The memory circuit 102 stores therein past and current age-based running state of the elevator control unit 10 as the running history and stores the current state in operation as the running state. The data modem circuit 103 modulates the informing trigger outputted by the elevator control unit 30 upon occurrence of an abnormality as well as information regarding the current running state and the past running history into analog data or demodulates signals fed from the maintenance center 20.

Thus the data modem circuit 103 is a communication circuit for interchanging signals over the telephone line network lc as signals belonging to the same frequency band as that of voice signals. The telephone line network control circuit 104 connects the monitor terminal unit 10 to the telephone line network lc and controls transmission/reception of a telephone call.

The interphone control circuit 105 connects the interphones 40-41 installed within the elevator cage to the monitor terminal unit 10. Data indicating the running history and the running state stored in the memory circuit 102 are periodically transmitted from this monitor terminal unit 10 toward the maintenance center 20. When the informing trigger is generated as a result of detection of an elevator control abnormality by the monitor terminal unit 10, the data indicating the running history and the running state may be transmitted to the maintenance center together with this informing trigger.

Fig. 3 shows the configuration of the maintenance center 20. This maintenance center 20 comprises an information processing circuit 200, a data modem circuit 201, a telephone line network control circuit 202, a large-capacity data base circuit 203, a terminal 204 with display, a printer 205, a talk circuit 206 and a head set 207. The information processing circuit 200 comprising a minicomputer or a work station analyzes data such as the running history, the running state and the informing trigger transmitted from the elevator control units 30-31 via the monitor terminal units 10-12. Thus the information processing circuit 200 makes a failure diagnosis to find the abnormality cause, predicts an abnormality, and makes a diagnosis for preventive maintenance with respect to the abnormality thus predicted.Further, the information processing circuit 200 performs man-machine control upon the display 204 and the printer 205 of the maintenance center 20. The data modem circuit 201 performs mutual conversion between digital data and analog data by using the same scheme as that of data modulation and demodualtion performed in the monitor terminal units 10-12. In the same way as the telephone line network control circuit 104 of each of the monitor terminal units 10-20, the telephone line network control circuit 202 controls transmission/reception of a telephone call between the maintenance center 20 and the telephone line Ic. The talk circuit 206 is a control circuit within the maintenance center for performing voice talk with respect to the interphones 40-41 installed in the elevator cage 1. The head set 207 is connected to the talk circuit 206.An operator in the maintenance center can talk with the interphones 40-41 installed in the elevator cage 1 while manipulating the terminal 204 with display and the printer 205. The large-capacity data base circuit 203 is an external storage device which stores therein a remote diagnosis program file for judging the running history and the running state of each of the elevator control units 30 and 31 and for making a remote diagnosis to find the cause of the abnormality wherefore the informing trigger has been outputted. That external storage device stores therein running history, running state record, informing trigger record, a failure history file and a maintenance command file of each of the elevator control units 30 and 31 as well.

Further, in the terminal with display, arbitrary contents of the large-capacity data base circuit 203 and the processing progress in the information processing circuit 200 can be printed on the printer 205 and indicated on the display as occasion demands. In the terminal with display, necessary control input can be performed.

Operation performed by the apparatus of this embodiment will now be described.

In order to monitor the running state of the elevator control units 30-31, the monitor terminal units 10, 11 and 12 periodically read out data of runnning state. As a result, running state signals of confinement, the start device system, the safety device system, the power supply system and the door system of the elevator control units 30 and 31 are detected by various sensors and switches. These running state signals are stored in the memory circuit 102 as running history for respective systems. These running history and running state are periodically outputted to the maintenance center and stored into the large-capacity data base 203.

When the monitor terminal unit 10-20 detects an abnormality of a specific elevator control unit, the monitor terminal unit 10 corresponding to that elevator control unit outputs an informing trigger indicating the abnormality.

In addition, that monitor terminal unit 10 outputs the running history, which has not been transmitted yet at that stage, and the running state which has been judged abnormal.

Upon receiving them, the maintenance center 20 reads out the remote diagnosis program, which is based upon the configuration of the elevator control unit, the operation flow and empirical law of maintenance, from the large-capacity data base circuit 203 on the basis of the running history obtained until then and transmitted from the monitor terminal units 10 to 12 as well as the current running state which has resulted in the abnormal situation. The maintenance center 10 then puts the remote diagnosis program into operation, analyzes the cause of occurrence of the failure, generates a maintenance command corresponding to that cause, and display the maintenance command together with indication of the failure location on the display 204 or prints them on the printer 205 as occasion demands.

By referring to a flow chart shown in Fig. 4, the case where a door failure occurs and the monitor terminal unit 10-12 judges the situation abnormal and outputs an informing trigger will now be described as an example.

In case it is judged that a confinement state has been caused due to a door failure (step 400), i.e., in case the door is closed but the cage is not started, or in case the cage has moved to a desired floor with the door closed once and thereafter the door does not open (so-called confinement state), a call is originated from the maintenance center 20 to the interphones 40-41 installed in the cage 1 and rescue dispatch is performed (step 405). Here, the monitor and diagnosis program advances analysis processing along steps on the basis of the past running history and the running state obtained when the abnormality has occurred. For example, the control state obtained when a passenger in the cage 1 operates a door opening button or a door closing button is judged.That is to say, it is judged whether the door open/close command output is present or not irrespective of the button operation (step 410). If the closing command is not outputted here, judgment of the control system is begun (step 415). In the state judgment of the control system, it is first judged whether an abnormality exists in the microcomputer 6 included in the elevator control unit 30 or in the door drive system.

If the control system is judged abnormal, the safety device is checked (step 425) and the result of its analysis is outputted. If it is judged that the control system is normal (i.e., the door drive system is abnormal), the door drive system is checked (step 430) and the result of its analysis is outputted. If the door does not move in spite of the door opening command at step 410, it is judged whether mechanical lock is present or not (step 420). If it is judged that the lock is not mechanical, items such as electrical insufficiency, fusing and motor fault are checked and analyzed (step 440). If it is judged that the lock is mechanical, check on surrounding of the door including check on abnormality of link coupling device and check on alien substance nipped by the door as well as the result of the analysis are outputted.It is a matter of course that besides the running state directly appearing as phenomenon at that time, running history such as the fact that the door which had not closed once restored to the normal state by automatic execution of door closing control is used for judgment of a failure location at each of the steps heretofore described. On the basis of the running history resulting in abnormality detection by the elevator control units 30 and 31 and the concrete operation state of the elevator at the time of detection, a diagnosis is thus made to know what state the elevator assumes when the elevator is judged abnormal. A diagnosis for checking whether the stop position of the elevator is largely shifted from the prescribed cage stop position or not or whether the door is closed or not is advanced in accordance with procedure of a flow chart as exemplified in Fig. 4.Suitable restoration directive is given to the maintenance man dispatched for restoration from the abnormality.

Further, by making a self-diagnosis of a failure of the elevator control units 30 and 31, the failure location such as the elevator control relay, the power supply unit, the microcomputer within the elevator control unit, or the communication line can be concretely specified. At the same time, the failure generating mechanism can be presumed. Thereby components for substitution and measuring instruments required for restoration from abnormality can be concretely specified.

Further, in this embodiment, the running history and the running state of each elevator are periodically transmitted from the monitor terminal units 10, 11 and 12 to the maintenance center 20. Before abnormal situation occurs and an informing trigger is issued, therefore, it is possible to precisely grasp the wear and decline of each constituent device caused by age-based changes and generate commands for preventive maintenance.

Data adopted as examples of study items for preventive maintenance and items of preventive maintenance obtained by analyzing those data are as follows.

n The number of times of stop at each floor classified by up/down movement: Grasping frequency of use by passengers Directing the floor whereon devices of door system should be inspected with priority.

The number of times of excess of time required for each of opening/closing operation *: Detecting a failure sign of a door-system device The number of times of detection of shock caused by each of opening/closing operation *: Detecting a failure sign of a door-system device The The number of times and time of lighting of ceiling illumination: Grasping the illumination substitution time Landing control error data *: Detecting abnormality in control system/ elongation of rope Measurement of dynamic/static characteristics of elevator stop brake: Measuring abnormality of brake system Measurement of elevator up/down speed data:: Detecting abnormality of control/drive system (Data indicated * are stored into the failure history file, whereas other data are stored into the running history file.) In case of the prior art, an abnormality cannot be judged unless a maintenance man goes to the spot where the elevator is installed when a failure has occurred. However, the present invention makes it possible to give precise and concrete instructions for restoration work, before dispatch of a maintenance man for restoration from the abnormality, on the basis of the current running state and the running history obtained until then. As a result, the maintenance efficiency is improved, and the unavailable time of elevators can be shortened.Further, before abnormal situation occurs, preventive maintenance can be performed with respect to portions, which tend to be faulty due to age-based changes, on the basis of the running history and the running state at that time.

Therefore, the probability of occurrence of abnormal situation can be lowered and unavailable time of the elevator can be further reduced. Periodical transmission of the running history and the running state can be performed by using the time of answer back with respect to the operation confirming signal transmitted from the maintenance center 20 to each of the monitor terminals 10, 11 and 12 once a day, for example, as commonly performed in such remote monitor apparatuses.

By periodically transmitting the running history and the running state of each elevator control unit from the monitor terminal unit beforehand as in this embodiment, preventive maintenance in advance can be performed. In making a diagnosis of a failure as well, the problem of transmission capacity of the telephone line network and the hindrance caused by insufficient memory capacity of the monitor terminal unit are also mitigated.

As a matter of course, it is also possible to adopt such a configuration that data of running history and running states are transmitted when a failure has occurred, depending upon the design of the entire apparatus. It is also possible to consider the entire past running history at that time in addition to making a failure diagnosis.

In this embodiment, an elevator is taken as an example of the elevator or the like. As a matter of course, however, the present invention is not limited to elevators; but is applicable to escalators or the like requiring periodical maintenance and administration in the same way as elevators.

Claims

CLAIMS:

1. A remote monitor and diagnosis apparatus comprising a plurality of elevator units or the like each including an elevator or the like, a control unit of said elevator or the like and a monitor terminal of said control unit, and comprising a maintenance center so connected to such a plurality of elevator units or the like as to remotely monitor said elevator unit or the like, characterized in that: said monitor terminal unit outputs a running state and running history obtained by monitoring said elevator unit or the like and an informing trigger indicating an abnormal situation of said elevator unit or the like to said maintenance center; and said maintenance center has a monitor and diagnosis program for receiving the running state, the running history and the informing trigger from said monitor terminal unit and for monitoring and making a diagnosis upon said elevator unit or the like.

2. A remote monitor and diagnosis apparatus for elevator unit or the like according to Claim 1, characterized in that data communication between said monitor terminal unit and said maintenance center is performed via an analog communication line.

3. A remote monitor and diagnosis apparatus for elevator unit or the like according to Claim 2, characterized in that said analog communication line comprises a commercial telephone line.

4. A remote monitor and diagnosis apparatus for elevator unit or the like according to Claim 1, characterized in that said monitor terminal unit monitors a plurality of said control units of the elevators.

5. A remote monitor and diagnosis apparatus for elevator unit or the like according to Claim 1, characterized in that said monitor terminal unit transmits said running state and running history to said maintenance center beforehand, and when said monitor terminal unit senses an abnormality of said elevator unit or the like and generates said informing trigger, a failure diagnosis is made upon said elevator unit on the basis of said running state and running history already transmitted to said maintenance center.

6. A remote monitor and diagnosis apparatus for elevator unit or the like according to Claim 5, characterized in that said monitor terminal unit periodically transmits said running state and running history to said maintenance center at predetermined time intervals.

7. A remote monitor and diagnosis apparatus for elevator unit or the like according to Claim 1, characterized in that said monitor terminal unit comprises memory means and senses said running history and running state to store them into said memory means, and when said monitor terminal unit senses an abnormality of said elevator unit or the like and transmits an informing trigger to said maintenance center, said monitor terminal unit transmits said running history and running state stored in said memory means to said maintenance center.

8. A remote monitor and diagnosis apparatus for elevator unit or the like according to Claim 1, characterized in that said maintenance center makes a diagnosis of a failure of said elevator unit or the like and issues a predetermined maintenance command depending upon the failure diagnosis.

9. A remote monitor and diagnosis apparatus for elevator unit or the like according to Claim 8, characterized in that upon input of said informing trigger, said maintenance center makes a diagnosis of the failure of said elevator unit or the like.

10. A remote monitor and diagnosis apparatus for elevator unit or the like according to Claim 8, characterized in that said maintenance center makes a diagnosis of said inputed running history and running state, and issues a predetermined maintenance command depending upon said running history and running state.

11. A remote monitor and diagnosis apparatus for elevator unit or the like according to Claim 1, characterized in that said elevator or the like comprises a talk unit, said maintenance center also comprises a talk unit, and talk between said elevator or the like and said maintenance center via both talk units is possible.

12. A remote monitor and diagnosis apparatus for elevator unit or the like according to Claim 1, characterized in that said maintenance center comprises printing means, which is capable of arbitrarily or periodically printing the running history and running state of an arbitrary elevator or the like.

13. A remote monitor and diagnosis apparatus for elevator unit or the like according to Claim 13, characterized in that said maintenance center comprises a display device, which is capable of arbitrarily or periodically displaying the running history and running state of an arbitrary elevator or the like.

14. A remote monitor and diagnosis apparatus for elevator unit or the like according to Claim 1, characterized in that said maintenance center comprises memory means, and the running history, the running state and informing trigger for each elevator or the like as well as contents of the failure diagnosis and maintenance command are recorded into said memory means.

15. A remote monitor and diagnosis apparatus for elevator unit or the like according to Claim 14, characterized in that remote diagnosis processing program for making a remote diagnosis of said running history, running state and informing trigger is incorporated into said memory means.

16. A remote monitor and diagnosis apparatus constructed substantially as herein described with reference to and as illustrated in the accompanying drawings.