CN111994747B

CN111994747B - Method and system for elevator traffic guidance

Info

Publication number: CN111994747B
Application number: CN202010895203.7A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 叶涛; 徐向彬; 浦承东; 朱红云; 王野
Original assignee: Kone Elevators Co Ltd; Kone Corp
Current assignee: Kone Elevators Co Ltd; Kone Corp
Priority date: 2020-08-31
Filing date: 2020-08-31
Publication date: 2023-10-17
Anticipated expiration: 2040-08-31
Also published as: CN111994747A

Abstract

The present disclosure proposes an elevator people stream guiding method, comprising: detecting an initial load value of the elevator by a load weighing device; obtaining, by a computing device, the initial load value from the load weighing apparatus; and calculating, by the computing device, the number of passengers of the elevator from the initial load value and a predetermined correspondence between initial load values and the number of passengers.

Description

Method and system for elevator traffic guidance

Technical Field

The present disclosure relates to a method for elevator traffic guidance and to a system implementing such a method.

Background

The number of passengers in the elevator car is important data representing the degree of congestion of the elevator. For example, when 6 or 8 passengers enter an elevator car of 1000kg capacity, the car may become crowded, and when less than 3 passengers, the passengers in the car may feel relatively comfortable.

Early solutions for detecting the number of passengers in an elevator car may utilize cameras or other types of additional sensors, but thus increase material costs and installation time. At the same time, the collected data must be sent outside the elevator hoistway via an additional cable or wireless module. When the building has many floors (i.e., is a high-rise building), it is difficult to install additional cables, and even if installed, it can be very expensive. Wireless methods may be affected by environmental interference and communications may also be unstable. Furthermore, the additional power supply of these modules may also affect the versatility of the additional sensor based approach.

Disclosure of Invention

The present disclosure provides a method and system for elevator traffic guidance that can achieve low cost, easy implementation, high versatility, and efficiency.

According to one aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided an elevator people stream guiding method including: detecting an initial load value of the elevator by a load weighing device; obtaining, by a computing device, the initial load value from the load weighing apparatus; and calculating, by the computing device, the number of passengers of the elevator from the initial load value and a predetermined correspondence between initial load values and the number of passengers.

According to one embodiment, the correspondence is related to the weight of the floor at which the elevator stops or of an item arranged within the elevator car.

According to one embodiment, the method further comprises: and automatically adjusting the corresponding relation according to the no-load initial load value of the elevator by the computing equipment.

According to one embodiment, the initial load value of the elevator when it is stationary for a predetermined time is determined by the computing device as the empty initial load value of the elevator.

According to one embodiment, the correspondence is determined by a load correction relationship of the initial load value and the actual load value and the average passenger weight.

According to one embodiment, the load correction relationship is linear when the initial load value is within a first range; and when the initial load value is within a second range, the load correction relationship is nonlinear.

According to one embodiment, the method further comprises: a plurality of initial load values and a corresponding plurality of actual load values are received by the computing device, and the load correction relationship is determined from the plurality of initial load values and the corresponding plurality of actual load values.

According to one embodiment, the method further comprises correcting, by the computing device, the average passenger weight, wherein the correcting the average passenger weight comprises: comparing the number of passengers calculated based on the correspondence with the actual number of passengers; and correcting the average passenger weight if the calculated number of passengers deviates from the actual number of passengers by more than a predetermined threshold.

According to one embodiment, the method further comprises: a request for the elevator by a user device is received by the computing device and a prompt corresponding to the number of passengers is transmitted to the user device based on the request.

According to one embodiment, the method further comprises: the number of passengers for the plurality of elevators is calculated by the computing device and the elevators are allocated to the user according to the number of passengers for the plurality of elevators.

According to one embodiment, the method further comprises: an elevator ride schedule including one or more particular time periods is received by the computing device from a user device, and a number of passengers corresponding to the elevator ride schedule is predicted from the elevator ride schedule and a historical number of passengers associated with the elevator ride schedule.

According to another aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided an elevator traffic guiding system comprising: the load weighing device is used for detecting an initial load value of the elevator; a computing device configured to obtain the initial load value from the load weighing apparatus and to calculate the number of passengers of the elevator from the initial load value and a predetermined correspondence between initial load value and number of passengers.

The technical scheme of the present disclosure has the beneficial effects that: the method or the system utilizes the load weighing device which is generally configured in the elevator, and other sensors are not required to be additionally installed, so that the implementation cost of the scheme is low, the feasibility is high, the universality is high, and passengers can be provided with information about the crowding degree in real time to obtain better user experience.

Drawings

In order to more clearly illustrate the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present disclosure, the drawings of the embodiments will be briefly described below, and it is apparent that the drawings in the following description relate only to some embodiments of the present disclosure, not to limit the present disclosure.

Fig. 1A-1C illustrate schematic diagrams of elevator people flow guidance systems according to embodiments of the present disclosure.

Fig. 2 shows a flow chart of an elevator people stream guidance method according to an embodiment of the disclosure.

FIG. 3 is an example graph of a load correction relationship of an initial load value to an actual load value according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

Fig. 4 illustrates a flow chart for correcting for average passenger weight in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure.

Fig. 5 illustrates an example graph of an offset of a load correction relationship of an initial load value to an actual load value according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

Fig. 6 shows a flow chart of an elevator people stream guidance method according to an embodiment of the disclosure.

FIG. 7 illustrates an example schematic diagram of a fuzzy display of hints information in accordance with an embodiment of the disclosure.

Detailed Description

Specific embodiments in accordance with the present disclosure are described in detail below with reference to the various drawings. However, the present disclosure is not limited to the embodiments described herein, which may be embodied in many different forms. The described embodiments are intended only to provide a thorough and complete understanding of the present disclosure and to fully convey the concept of the present disclosure to those skilled in the art. Features of the various embodiments described may be combined with or substituted for one another, unless expressly excluded or excluded depending on the context.

Fig. 1A-1C illustrate schematic diagrams of an elevator people stream guidance system 100 according to an embodiment of the disclosure.

Referring to fig. 1A, an elevator traffic guidance system 100 according to an embodiment of the present disclosure includes a load weighing device (Load Weighting Device, LWD) 102 and a computing apparatus 103. The equipment or components associated with the system 100 may include an elevator car 101.

The load weighing device 102 is used to detect an initial load value of the elevator. The load weighing device 102 is a general arrangement of an elevator and can be used to detect the load weight in the elevator car 101 in order to alert passengers in the elevator car 101 to a load situation such as overload. The load weighing device 102 may output the detection result in the form of a percentage, e.g. 10% is output representing that the load weight in the current elevator car 101 is 10% (e.g. 100kg or 160 kg) of the elevator capacity (e.g. 1000kg or 1600 kg), the load weight detected by the load weighing device 102 being in the present disclosure the initial load value of the elevator. The load weighing device 102 may be mounted on the bottom of the elevator car 101 or on the top of the elevator car 101.

The computing device 103 is configured to obtain an initial load value from the load weighing apparatus 102 and to calculate the number of passengers of the elevator from the initial load value and a predetermined correspondence between the initial load value and the number of passengers. The computing device 103 may communicate with the load weighing apparatus 102 via the connection 10 to obtain an initial load value from the load weighing apparatus 102. The connection 10 may be any wired connection (such as a connection via a cable) or a wireless connection (such as 3G, 4G, 5G, or Wi-Fi wireless communication).

According to an embodiment of the invention, the computing device 103 may calculate the number of passengers in the elevator car 101 by executing an algorithm using the received initial load value and the predetermined related information stored thereon, and may optionally process the calculated number of passengers to obtain a processed result. The predetermined related information may be a correspondence of an initial load value (e.g., load weight in percent) output from the load weighing device 102 to the number of passengers, which may be in the form of a function or a lookup table, for example. The processing result may be a notification message corresponding to the number of passengers, such as a congestion level. Computing device 103 may transmit a reminder corresponding to the number of passengers to the user device for viewing by the user. In one embodiment, the computing device 103 may be integrated with a user device, for example, the computing device 103 may be disposed outside an elevator door and provided with a display, having both the functionality of the computing device and the user device, and may display the results of the processing on the display for viewing by a user. Of course, the computing device 103 may be located anywhere, e.g., inside an elevator, outside an elevator, or remotely.

In the embodiment of fig. 1B, the computing device 103 may be disposed within the control room 104 of the elevator to connect to the control board of the control room 104, and the connection 10 may be a connection of the elevator car 101 to the control room 104 via a normal follow-up cable of the elevator. For example, the computing device 103 may be a data transmission unit (Data Transfer Unit, DTU) with computing and processing capabilities that may implement not only the functions of computing the number of passengers and obtaining the processing results as described above, but also may transmit information (e.g., the computed number of passengers or the processing results) to other devices (e.g., user devices). It is noted that the initial load value output from the load weighing device 102 can be transmitted outside the elevator hoistway, for example to the computing device 103 of the control room 104, via the connection 10 in the form of a trailing cable, without having to additionally attach a wired or wireless connection. In contrast, if other additional sensors than the load weighing device 102 are utilized, additional wired or wireless connections may be required and, in turn, additional costs or trouble in installing the cable may be incurred or problems such as delays in transmission or errors in the initial load values due to unstable wireless communications within the hoistway, limiting versatility and practicality.

In the embodiment of fig. 1C, the computing device 103 may be a server disposed outside the elevator hoistway for calculating the number of passengers of the elevator and providing the user device 106 with application services such as prompt information corresponding to the number of passengers based on the calculated number of passengers. For example, in fig. 1C, computing device 103 is shown as a remotely located server (e.g., cloud server). As will be appreciated by those skilled in the art, the computing device 103 may also be a server located locally to the elevator or any other server device capable of providing computing and processing power to the user.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the system 100 may include a data transmission unit 105, the data transmission unit 105 being configured to transmit the initial load value detected by the load weighing apparatus 102 to the computing device 103 (e.g., a cloud server). For example, the data transmission unit 105 may be provided in the control room 103 of the elevator to be connected to the control board so that it may communicate with the load weighing device 102 via the connection 10 in order to obtain an initial load value output from the load weighing device 102. According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the data transmission unit 105 may communicate with the computing device 103 via the connection 20 with the computing device 103. For example, the data transmission unit 105 may include a wireless communication module, such as a 3G, 4G, or 5G module, or other suitable wireless communication module, such as a Wi-Fi module, so that the connection 20 may be 3G, 4G, 5G, or Wi-Fi wireless communication, respectively. The data transmission unit 105 may transmit information, for example, information about the initial load value output from the load weighing apparatus 102, to the computing device 103 via the connection 20.

According to the embodiment of the present disclosure, after acquiring the initial load value output from the load weighing device 102 through the data transmission unit 105, the computing device 103 is configured to calculate the number of passengers of the elevator according to the initial load value and the predetermined correspondence between the initial load value and the number of passengers, and may transmit a prompt message corresponding to the number of passengers to the client Application (APP) 107 running on the user device 106. The computing device 103 may communicate with the user device 106 via the connection 30 with the user device 106. The connection 30 may be a wireless communication such as 3G, 4G, or 5G communication, or other suitable wireless communication such as Wi-Fi.

The user device 106 may be a terminal device such as a mobile phone, tablet, personal computer, or the like, on which a client application 107 such as a WeChat may be run. The user device 106 may communicate with the computing device 103 through the client application 107 to send requests to the computing device 103 and/or to obtain information from the computing device 103, e.g., to obtain information about the degree of congestion of the elevator car 101. The user device 106 may also visually display information about the degree of congestion obtained from the computing device 103 on the user device 106.

Fig. 2 illustrates a flow chart of an elevator people stream guidance method 200 according to an embodiment of the disclosure.

The system 100 as shown in fig. 1A-1C may implement the elevator traffic guidance method 200 as shown in fig. 2, with the following specific steps.

In step S201, an initial load value of the elevator, e.g. a load weight in percent, is detected by the load weighing device 102.

In step S202, an initial load value is obtained by the computing device 103 from the load weighing apparatus 102, e.g. the computing device 103 may be a data transmission unit, a server or any other computing device having computing and processing capabilities.

In step S203, the number of passengers of the elevator is calculated by the calculating device 103 from the initial load value and the predetermined correspondence between the initial load value and the number of passengers. The correspondence may be in the form of a function or a look-up table, for example. The calculation of the computing device 103 may be performed automatically at fixed periods or in response to a request from the user device 106, e.g. when a predetermined moment is reached or a request is accepted, the computing device 103 may perform the calculation based on the initial load value in real time.

Alternatively, the computing device 103 may transmit a reminder corresponding to the number of passengers to the user device 106, e.g. to a client application 107 running on the user device 106. The prompt information may be information related to the number of passengers for pushing to the user equipment 107 based on the estimated number of passengers, for example, the prompt information may include the number of passengers calculated by the server 105, information after processing the calculated number of passengers, and information obtained in combination with information of other elevators. The server 105 may push the reminder information in response to a request from the user device 106 or periodically automatically push the reminder information.

The correspondence between the initial load value and the number of passengers may be determined based on a load correction relationship of the initial load value and the actual load value and a determination of the average passenger weight. For example, the correspondence may be equal to a ratio of the load correction relationship to the average passenger weight.

In some embodiments, the average passenger weight may be a preset default value, for example, any value in the range of 70-90 kg.

In some embodiments, a technician may make a determination of the load correction relationship of the elevator in a laboratory or installation site before the elevator is placed into service. Specifically, the technician stops the elevator car at a floor, adds a plurality of different weights to the elevator car so that the computing device 103 obtains a plurality of initial load values through the load weighing apparatus 102, and inputs a corresponding plurality of actual load values to the computing device 103, for example, through an input interface of the computing device 103 or the user device 106; after receiving the plurality of initial load values corresponding to the different weights and the plurality of actual load values corresponding to the plurality of initial load values, the computing device 103 fits the data to obtain a fitting function (e.g., fitting using a second order polynomial) that represents a load correction relationship of the initial load values to the actual load values. The above-described determination of the load correction relationship can be referred to as experimental calibration, which is performed before the elevator is put into use, with only a small additional effort.

Typically, the load correction relationship of the initial load value to the actual load value exhibits a nonlinear characteristic when the initial value is within a certain range of values (e.g., within 0-50%) and a linear characteristic when it is within another range of values (e.g., within 50-100%). Thus, in one embodiment, the load correction relationship may be determined as a function consisting of a linear function and a nonlinear function segment, based on the range of values in which the initial load value is located.

Fig. 3 is an example graph of a load correction relationship of an initial load value to an actual load value, showing an example curve of a load correction relationship when the initial load value is in the range of 0 to 50% according to some experimental calibration, according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. In fig. 3, the horizontal axis represents the initial load value (i.e., the load weight in percent output by the load weighing device 102), the vertical axis represents the actual load value (in kg), the open and solid circles represent data points acquired by the computing device 103 in experimental calibration, where the open circle corresponds to an elevator of 1000kg capacity, the solid circle corresponds to an elevator of 1600kg capacity, the dotted line indicates a load correction curve corresponding to an elevator of 1000kg capacity, and the dotted-dashed line indicates a load correction curve corresponding to an elevator of 1600kg capacity. It can be seen that the load correction relationship is nonlinear when the initial load value is within this range.

In one embodiment, fitting data points obtained by experimental calibration for an elevator with a capacity of 1600kg yields functions (1) and (2) representing the load correction relationship (fig. 3 shows the fit of function (1):

f(x)＝-0.0542*x ² +18.026*x+43.549,0＜x＜50 (1)

f(x)＝16*x,50≤x≤100 (2)

where f (x) is the load correction relationship and x is the initial load value.

In one embodiment, fitting data points obtained by experimental calibration for an elevator of 1000kg capacity yields functions (3) and (4) representing the load correction relationship (fig. 3 shows a fit of function (3):

f(x)＝-0.0588*x ² +12.882*x+2.8388,0＜x＜50 (3)

f(x)＝10*x,50≤x≤100 (4)

R in FIG. 3 ² Represents the goodness of fit, which is used to evaluate the fit of the fitting function to the data points. R is R ² The value is between 0 and 1, and the closer the value is to 1, the better the fitting degree of the fitting function to the data points is; conversely, R is ² The smaller the value of (c), the worse the fitting function fits to the data points. R is R ² May be calculated as the ratio of the sum of squares of the fit to the sum of the total squares. Assuming that the mean of the data points being fitted is μ, then the sum of squares of the differences between the fitting values corresponding to the respective data points and μ is referred to as the sum of squares of the differences between the values of the respective data points and μ. As shown in fig. 3, two fitting functions R ² The fitting degree is very good as the fitting degree is above 0.99.

From the obtained load correction relation f (x) and the average passenger weight W _avg Further, a correspondence between the initial load value and the number of passengers is determined so as to calculate the number of passengers from the correspondence, for example, as shown in the following formula (5):

wherein N (x) represents the number of passengers, W _avg Indicating the average passenger weight.

Substituting (5) into (1) to (2) gives the number of passengers of an elevator with 1600kg capacity:

substituting (5) into (3) to (4) can obtain the number of passengers of the elevator with 1000kg capacity:

in one embodiment, the computing device 103 may automatically select a corresponding function (e.g., any of functions (6) - (9)) based on the initial load value and an inherent characteristic of the elevator (such as the magnitude of the elevator capacity) to calculate the number of passengers.

The constant coefficients in the functions (1) to (4) and (6) to (9) can be obtained by fitting based on an experimental calibration procedure. It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that any suitable modifications and variations (e.g. selection of different fitting functions) may be made to the functions (1) to (9) to make the results calculated therefrom more efficient. In one embodiment, the correspondence between the initial load value and the number of passengers (i.e., functions (6) - (9)) may also be determined in the form of a lookup table.

The weight of the passengers varies from person to person and passengers sometimes carry items(e.g., a cart or luggage), and thus, average passenger weight W _avg May exhibit different characteristics depending on the scene. In one embodiment, W _avg May be related to the purpose of the building in which the elevator is located, e.g. the building in which the elevator is located is a junior middle school teaching building, then W in this case _avg Will be significantly smaller relative to buildings used primarily by adults (e.g., university teaching buildings). In one embodiment, W _avg May be related to the schedule of use of the elevators, e.g. the group of people using the elevators during different time periods of the day may correspond to different average weights.

Therefore, after the elevator is put into use, W can be adjusted _avg Further corrections are made to obtain a more accurate W _avg The value adjusts the correspondence between the initial load value and the number of passengers. The correcting may include comparing the calculated number of passengers with the actual number of passengers based on the correspondence between the initial load value and the number of passengers, and correcting the average passenger weight if the calculated number of passengers deviates from the actual number of passengers by more than a predetermined threshold.

FIG. 4 illustrates a weight W for an average passenger in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure _avg A flow chart for performing the correction.

In step S401, the currently set W _avg The value is taken as an initial value, which can be the default W _avg Or W after last correction _avg 。

In step S402, W set currently by the computing device 103 _avg And the current initial load value (i.e., the output of the load weighing device 102) to calculate the number of passengers, ncal, and compare the calculated number of passengers, ncal, with the actual number of passengers, nreal. For example, nreal may be transmitted by a technician to computing device 103 through client application 107 on user device 106.

If the value of the difference between Ncal and Nreal is within a predetermined range, e.g., the difference is less than the predetermined threshold Th, no correction is made, i.e., step S402 proceeds to step S405, where the currently set W _avg W determined to be used _avg (called "best estimateValue "), and the correction is stopped.

If Ncal is smaller than Nreal and the phase difference value reaches a predetermined threshold Th (indicating a large deviation), then the process proceeds from step S402 to step S403, where W is corrected by a predetermined deviation value delta _avg ：W _avg ＝W _avg -δ。

If Ncal is greater than Nreal and the phase difference value reaches a predetermined threshold Th (indicating a large deviation), then the process proceeds from step S402 to step S404, where W is corrected by a predetermined deviation value delta _avg ：W _avg ＝W _avg +δ。

In step S403 or S404, W is _avg After correction, W after correction _avg W as the current setting _avg The Ncal is calculated again. If the value of the difference between Ncal and Nreal at this time becomes within the allowable error range, the process proceeds to step S405, where the corrected W at this time is corrected _avg W determined to be used _avg (referred to as the "best estimate") and the correction is stopped. Otherwise, if the value of the difference between the value of the cal and the value of the real still reaches the predetermined threshold Th at this time, the process returns from step S403 or step S404 to step S402, and a different initial load value is added to re-perform step S402.

In one embodiment, the above-described correction of the average passenger weight may also be performed for a plurality of specific time periods (e.g., 8 am half to 9 am half, 2 pm to 5 pm) to employ different average passenger weights W at different times _avg Is determined to be the best estimate of (a).

W obtained by the above correction _avg The best estimate of (a) can be used to adjust the correspondence between the initial load value and the number of passengers to fit the elevator in a particular scenario or a particular time period so that the number of passengers estimated by the computing device 103 is more accurate than the estimate with the default average passenger weight.

According to embodiments of the present disclosure, the load correction relationship or the correspondence between the initial load value and the number of passengers may be related to the floor at which the elevator is stopped. The initial load value detected by the load weighing device 102 will also be different when the elevator car is parked at a different floor and no passengers are being carried, due to the influence of the weight of the suspension ropes or the additional ropes, and the initial load value at this time may be referred to as an empty initial load value. This means that after experimental calibration of one floor in a laboratory or installation site, the resulting load correction relationship (e.g. functions (1) or (3)) and the corresponding correspondence (e.g. functions (6) or (8)) may not be applicable in the case of elevator stops at other floors. Thus, the load correction relationship or the correspondence between the initial load value and the number of passengers can be determined for each of the different floors. Thus, when a technician makes an experimental calibration of the elevator, it can be performed floor by floor.

According to embodiments of the present disclosure, the load correction relationship or the correspondence between the initial load value and the number of passengers may be related to the weight of an item disposed within the elevator car. After the elevator is put into use, it is also possible for the customer to arrange items such as decorations, billboards, liquid crystal televisions, etc. in the car or to unload already arranged items, so that the empty initial load value detected by the load weighing device 102 changes when the car is not loaded with passengers, which also affects the load correction relationship or the correspondence between initial load value and the number of passengers. Thus, it is necessary to adjust the load correction relationship or the correspondence relationship between the initial load value and the number of passengers. Thus, after a change in the weight of an item disposed within the elevator car, the technician can again perform an experimental calibration on the elevator.

Fig. 5 illustrates the effect of the above-described situation on a load correction relationship curve, which shows an example graph of the offset of the load correction relationship of the initial load value to the actual load value according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. The three fitted curves for an elevator of 1000kg capacity (as indicated by the dotted horizontal line in fig. 5) have different offset values, depending on the floor or the item placed in the car. Let the leftmost fitting curve f (x) = -0.0588 x ² As the elevator floor gets lower or the items disposed in the car get more, the curve shifts to the right, meaning that the empty initial load value gets higher, as a reference +12.882 x+2.8388.

According to embodiments of the present disclosure, the computing device 103 may also automatically adjust the load correction relationship or the correspondence between the initial load value and the number of passengers according to the empty initial load value of the elevator. In other words, the technician only needs to perform one-time experimental calibration of the elevator for one floor, after which the load correction relation or correspondence obtained by the one-time experimental calibration can be automatically adjusted by the computing device 103 according to the empty initial load value without performing multiple experimental calibrations.

In one embodiment, the computing device 103 may determine whether the received initial load value satisfies a predetermined condition, and when the predetermined condition is satisfied, determine that the currently received initial load value is an empty initial load value, and then automatically adjust a load correction relationship or a correspondence between the initial load value and the number of passengers according to the empty initial load value.

In one embodiment, the predetermined condition may be that the car remains stationary for a predetermined time. When there are passengers in the car, the car will not stop for too long at each floor, i.e. the car will not normally be stationary for too long, and if the car remains stationary for more than a certain time, the car will normally be considered to be in an empty state. In addition, when there are passengers in the car, the passengers get on and off the elevator, and the number of passengers in the car changes, so the initial load value detected by the load weighing device 102 also changes. Thus, it is possible to determine whether the elevator remains stationary or is empty based on the detected change in the initial load value, e.g. when the received initial load value has not changed for a predetermined time, it is determined that the currently received initial load value is an empty initial load value. The predetermined time may be set according to the actual running situation of the elevator, for example, to 5 minutes. In one embodiment, the load weighing device 102 may continuously detect the initial load value of the elevator and transmit it to the computing device 103, for example, through the data transmission unit 105, where the computing device 103 compares the initial load value at the current time with the initial load value at the previous time to determine whether there is a change in the initial load value. If the initial load value does not change within the predetermined time, the initial load value at the current time is determined as an idle initial load value.

In one embodiment, the automatic adjustment for the empty initial load value described above may be performed on each of the different floors. When the computing device 103 determines that the elevator remains stationary for a predetermined time, an automatic adjustment is made to the load correction relationship of the corresponding floor or the correspondence between the initial load value and the number of passengers in conjunction with the floor information (e.g., what floor) at which the elevator is stopped.

In one embodiment, after determining the empty initial load value I, the computing device 103 calculates a corresponding passenger number adjustment value N (I) at that time from the empty initial load value I. At this time, the actual number of passengers N in the car _non-zero (x) Can be represented by a function (10):

N _non-zero (x)＝N(x)-N(I) (10)

wherein N (x) is the number of passengers calculated based on the correspondence relation before automatic adjustment, and N (I) is used for adjusting N (x) to obtain the actual number of passengers N _non-zero (x)。

Compared with the implementation mode that the experiment calibration is carried out by depending on the technical personnel on floor by floor or carried out every time articles are added in the car, the labor cost and the time cost are saved by automatically detecting the no-load initial load value and adjusting the load correction relation or the corresponding relation, the instantaneity is improved, and therefore the efficiency and the practicability are improved.

Corresponding to the above description, fig. 6 shows a flow chart of an elevator people stream guidance method 600 according to an embodiment of the disclosure.

The technician may perform an experimental calibration 601 on the elevator before it leaves the factory or when it is installed, and determine a load correction relationship of the initial load value and the actual load value. In one embodiment, individual experimental calibrations may be performed for different floors to determine individual load correction relationships. In one embodiment, the items or the weight of the items disposed within the elevator car may be experimentally calibrated whenever they change to determine a changing load correction relationship.

After the elevator is put into use, the computing device 103 makes a computing device estimation 602, i.e. an estimation of the number of passengers using the initial load value determined on the basis of the load correction relation and the average passenger weight, in relation to the number of passengers. The computing device 103 further generates a reminder message for the user based on the estimated passenger weight.

During use of the elevator, it can also be subjected to an empty initial load value adjustment 603 and an average passenger weight correction 604 in order to adjust the load correction relationship used in the calculation device estimation 602 or the initial load value to the number of passengers.

In the no-load initial load value adjustment 603, the computing device 103 determines whether the received initial load value satisfies a predetermined condition, and determines the initial load value satisfying the predetermined condition as the no-load initial load value. The empty initial load value is then used by the computing device 103 to adjust the load correction relationship or correspondence used in estimating the number of passengers to estimate a more accurate result.

In average passenger weight correction 604, under a particular scenario or period: the technician lets the elevator ride different numbers of passengers to estimate the different passenger numbers and inputs the respective actual passenger numbers to the computing device 103, e.g. through an input interface of the computing device 103 or the user device 106; the computing device 103 then determines whether to correct the average passenger weight based on a comparison of the estimated passenger number and the actual passenger number, after which the corrected average passenger weight may be used in estimating the passenger number. Average passenger weight correction 604 enables methods (e.g., methods 100 or 600) and systems (e.g., system 100) according to the present disclosure to be better suited for use in scenarios where average passenger weights are different.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the method proposed by the present disclosure is validated using two elevator sites. One 1000kg capacity elevator for a building and the other 1600kg capacity elevator for B building, the calculation device estimation results and the site observation results of which are shown in tables 1 and 2, respectively, and wherein a further estimated passenger number range based on the estimated passenger number is also shown, e.g., if the estimated passenger number is rounded to obtain the value n, the passenger number range is estimated to be n to n+1. In the example of Table 1, for W _avg Is 71kg; the representation in Table 2In the example, for W _avg Is 55kg, default W _avg 70.1kg.

Table 1 comparison of actual passenger count with estimated passenger count for 1000kg capacity elevator in A building

Table 2 comparison of actual passenger quantity with estimated passenger quantity for 1600kg capacity elevator of B building

It can be seen from tables 1 and 2 that the estimated number of passengers has a good agreement with the actual number of passengers, i.e. the error is not substantially more than 0.4 person. Notably, in a B building 1600kg capacity elevator, the best estimate of average passenger weight (55.1 kg) is less than the default value (70 kg), approximately 20% less. As previously mentioned, this may involve a variety of reasons, such as passenger group type, etc. Nevertheless, even with a default value of 70kg, an estimate of a reasonable number of passengers can be obtained, e.g. the estimated passenger ranges are identical or at least coincide.

According to embodiments of the present disclosure, the hint information is information associated with the number of passengers for provision to a user (e.g., user device 106) derived by computing device 103 from the estimated number of passengers. Depending on the specific configuration of the system 100, the reminder information may be displayed on the display of the computing device 103, or the reminder information provided by the computing device 103 may be displayed on a client application 107, such as a WeChat, on the user device 106, and the user may request the reminder information for one or more elevators from the computing device 103, e.g., by way of the client application 107 or an input interface of the computing device 103, e.g., sending a request for a particular elevator. The computing device 103 may respond to receiving a request sent by a user and provide corresponding alert information to the user (e.g., user device 106) based on the request.

The hint information may be directly the number of passengers calculated by the computing device 103; information after processing the calculated number of passengers, for example, converting the number of passengers into a range of number of passengers, as shown in tables 1 and 2; but also information derived in connection with information of other elevators, e.g. information recommending a certain elevator to the user in connection with the number of passengers of a plurality of elevators.

The user device 106 may receive the prompt information and may display the prompt information in various manners, such as precisely displaying or blurring the number of passengers. Accurate display means that there are several passengers accurately displayed, for example, when the prompt information is 4 passengers, 4 passengers are directly displayed; when the prompt information is 3.5 passengers, the prompt information is directly displayed as 3.5 passengers or displayed as 4 rounded passengers. The blurred display means that several passengers are not precisely displayed, but a range of the number of passengers or a level of the degree of congestion of the elevator, etc.

Since the calculation of the number of passengers is an estimation, even if the calibration or correction as described above is adopted, there may be an error between the resulting number of passengers and the actual number of passengers for various reasons. Also, the user may not need to know the exact number of people, but only information such as that the elevator that wants to get on is not crowded or which elevator to get on can avoid crowding. Thus, a "blurred display" may be employed to provide the user with prompt information.

Fig. 7 shows an example schematic diagram of a blurred display in a hint information according to embodiments of the present disclosure. The blurred display may be a display representing a range of passenger numbers, for example, as shown in fig. 7, the blurred display 1 represents an estimated range of passenger numbers in the form of cartoon small persons, wherein the number of cartoon small persons represents the number of passengers, and the small person with the blurred right-most face represents the possibility or the absence of the passenger, so that the blurred display 1 in fig. 7 represents "the current passenger number is 3 to 4 persons". The fuzzy display may also display the level of elevator congestion, such as three congestion levels of "crowded", "comfortable" and "idle". The number of passengers corresponding to the congestion level may be set according to the capacity of a specific elevator, the application scenario, etc., for example, "congestion" corresponds to "6 or more", "comfort" corresponds to "3-5" and "idle" corresponds to "2 or less". When a level indicating the current congestion level is required, a corresponding typeface may be displayed on the interface of the user equipment. To more intuitively express the degree of congestion of the elevator, it is also possible to use different colors or other display features to display the degree of congestion. For example, as shown in fig. 7, the blurred display 2 is displayed in three different colors to indicate the level of the elevator congestion, for example, dark gray indicates "congestion", medium gray indicates "comfort", and light gray indicates "idle", but other color display methods may be adopted. In the example of fig. 7, if the current level of elevator congestion is "congestion", the word "congestion" and the area of the color representing "congestion" may be lit (the brightness of the color thereof is enhanced to a predetermined level).

The reminder may also include a suggestion for boarding an elevator, for example, suggesting that the user board a number of elevators. The user device can display the prompt message to the user when receiving the prompt message, for example, a text message "you good, the elevator is almost full, the north 2 elevator is empty, or you can select the escalator". In this case, computing device 103 may compare the current estimated passenger numbers or congestion levels of the plurality of elevators and recommend to the user an elevator with a lesser passenger number or a lesser congestion level (e.g., a north 2 elevator).

In one embodiment, the calculated passenger number may be used in elevator group control technology. For example, the user may send a request to the computing device 103 to pick up an elevator (e.g., the request may include a starting floor) via a presence button or the user device 106, and then the computing device 103 calculates a number of real-time passengers or a corresponding congestion level for the plurality of elevators and allocates the elevator to the user according to the result of the calculation. For example, an elevator with a lesser number of passengers (e.g., a number of passengers less than a set congestion threshold) or a minimum or "idle" or "comfortable" condition is preferentially allocated to reach the user's departure floor.

In one embodiment, computing device 103 may also predict future congestion levels of elevators and transmit to user device 106 to provide a reference for a user to take an elevator. Computing device 103 may receive an elevator ride schedule from a user device that includes one or more particular time periods and predict a number of passengers corresponding to the elevator ride schedule based on the elevator ride schedule and a historical number of passengers associated with the elevator ride schedule. For example, if a particular time period contained in the elevator ride schedule is 8-half to 9-half on weekdays, then the computing device 103 may calculate a predicted number of passengers corresponding to the time period 8-half to 9-half on weekdays from the number of historical passengers for 8-half to 9-half on weekdays for the past month of the elevator, such as an average of the number of historical passengers for 8-half to 9-half on weekdays for the past month. The predicted number of passengers may be used by the user to determine which elevator to take during that time period to avoid congestion, or whether it is necessary to select other time periods to avoid congestion. In this way, the user experience of the user is even further improved. Alternatively, the predictions may be made by the user device 106 using the client application 107 based on the entered elevator ride schedule and the historical passenger count obtained from the computing device 103. According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the user device 106 may also be a computing device with a display screen installed at each floor outside the elevator, which may display the current number of passengers per elevator in real time and/or the predicted number of passengers per elevator to the current floor during the current time period.

In summary, the present disclosure proposes a method and a system for elevator traffic guidance, which can bring about technical effects of low cost, easy implementation, high versatility and efficiency. The method and system may also include average passenger weight correction and elevator empty weight determination to more accurately estimate the number of passengers in the car.

The block diagrams of apparatus, devices, systems referred to in this disclosure are only illustrative examples and are not intended to require or imply that the connections, arrangements, configurations must be made in the manner shown in the block diagrams. As will be appreciated by one of skill in the art, these circuits, devices, apparatuses, devices, systems may be connected, arranged, configured in any manner so long as the desired purpose is achieved.

It will be appreciated by persons skilled in the art that the above-described embodiments are merely examples and that various modifications, combinations, partial combinations and substitutions may be made to the embodiments of the present disclosure according to design requirements and other factors, provided that they fall within the scope of the appended claims or their equivalents, i.e., within the scope of the claims to be protected by the present disclosure.

Claims

1. A method for calculating the number of passengers of an elevator, comprising:

Detecting an initial load value of the elevator by a load weighing device;

obtaining, by a computing device, the initial load value from the load weighing apparatus;

automatically adjusting, by the computing device, a correspondence between a predetermined initial load value and a number of passengers according to an empty initial load value associated with a weight of an item within a floor at which the elevator is stopped and/or disposed, wherein different weights of different floors and/or the item are associated with different empty initial load values, wherein the computing device predetermines the correspondence for any one of the floors and/or any one of the weights of the item; and

calculating by the computing device the number of passengers of the elevator from the initial load value and the adjusted correspondence,

wherein the correspondence between the predetermined initial load value and the number of passengers is determined by a load correction relation of the initial load value and the actual load value and an average passenger weight, and the load correction relation is linear when the initial load value is within a first range, and is nonlinear when the initial load value is within a second range.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the initial load value of the elevator at rest for a predetermined time is determined by the computing device as an empty initial load value of the elevator.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

a plurality of initial load values and a corresponding plurality of actual load values are received by the computing device, and the load correction relationship is determined from the plurality of initial load values and the corresponding plurality of actual load values.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising correcting, by the computing device, the average passenger weight, wherein the correcting the average passenger weight comprises:

comparing the number of passengers calculated based on the correspondence between the predetermined initial load value and the number of passengers with an actual number of passengers; and is also provided with

If the calculated number of passengers deviates from the actual number of passengers by more than a predetermined threshold value, the average passenger weight is corrected.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

a request for the elevator by a user device is received by the computing device and a prompt corresponding to the number of passengers is transmitted to the user device based on the request.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

the number of passengers for the plurality of elevators is calculated by the computing device and the elevators are allocated to the user according to the number of passengers for the plurality of elevators.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

an elevator ride schedule including one or more particular time periods is received by the computing device from a user device, and a number of passengers corresponding to the elevator ride schedule is predicted from the elevator ride schedule and a historical number of passengers associated with the elevator ride schedule.

8. A system for calculating the number of passengers of an elevator, comprising:

the load weighing device is used for detecting an initial load value of the elevator;

a computing device configured to

Acquiring the initial load value from the load weighing device, and

automatically adjusting a correspondence between a predetermined initial load value and the number of passengers according to an empty initial load value associated with the weight of an item within the elevator car and/or the floor at which the elevator is stopped, wherein different weights of different floors and/or the item are associated with different empty initial load values, wherein the computing device predetermines the correspondence for any one of the floors and/or any one of the weights of the item;

Calculating the number of passengers of the elevator according to the adjusted corresponding relation,

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the computing device is further configured to determine an initial load value of the elevator at rest for a predetermined time as an empty initial load value of the elevator.

10. The system of claim 8, wherein the computing device is further configured to:

and receiving a plurality of initial load values and a plurality of corresponding actual load values, and determining the load correction relation according to the initial load values and the actual load values.

11. The system of claim 8, wherein the computing device is further configured to correct the average passenger weight, wherein the correcting the average passenger weight comprises:

12. The system of claim 8, wherein the computing device is further configured to receive a request for the elevator from a user device and transmit a reminder message corresponding to the number of passengers to the user device based on the request.

13. The system of claim 8, wherein the computing device is further configured to calculate a number of passengers for a plurality of elevators and assign an elevator to a user based on the number of passengers for the plurality of elevators.

14. The system of claim 8, wherein the computing device is further configured to receive an elevator ride schedule from a user device that includes one or more particular time periods, and predict a number of passengers corresponding to the elevator ride schedule from the elevator ride schedule and a historical number of passengers associated with the elevator ride schedule.