EP0440967B1 - Group control for elevators with direct allocation of calls from a call input register located on the floor - Google Patents

Abstract

With this group control, the cages of a group of lifts can be selected for embarking passengers in such a way that the embarking passengers arrive at the shaft door of the selected lift before the selected cage, thus reducing unnecessarily long stops. For this purpose, every lift is provided with a memory (15), in which the times required by a passenger on a floor to move from respective actuated call registering and display devices to the shaft doors of the lifts are stored. A comparator (16) connected to the memory (15) compares the time allocated to the actuated call registering and display device with the time required by the cage to move to the call input floor. If the travelling time is less than the time required by the passenger to reach the shaft door concerned, a switching device (17) connected to the output of the comparator (16) becomes active in such a way that the lift concerned is excluded from the call allocation method. <IMAGE>

Description

The invention relates to a group control for elevators with instant assignment of destination calls depending on the call entry location on a floor, with call registration and display devices arranged on the floors, which have a keyboard for the input of calls for desired destination floors, with the elevators assigned to the group of the store memories are connected to the call registration and display devices, a call characterizing the input floor and a call characterizing the destination floor being stored in the call memories when a call is input on a floor, with load memories in which the number of people present in the respective elevator car per floor Persons are stored with the elevators of the group associated with travel time memories and cabin position registers according to the preamble of claim 1.

EP-A 0 356 731 discloses a group control similar to the device according to the preamble, which uses the shortest waiting time of all passengers as a criterion for the assignment of the cabins to the calls entered. With this control, the travel destinations can already be entered on the floors, for example by means of call registration and display devices proposed with EP-A-0320 583. Immediately after the registration and transmission of a call into a call memory structured according to the input and destination floors, a computer in the form of a microprocessor determines an amount for each cabin, based on elevator-specific data, which corresponds to the waiting time, which corresponds to the waiting time for the passengers to service the call would arise. The operating costs are recorded in a cost register immediately after the calculation transferred and then immediately compared with the operating costs of the other elevators by means of a comparison device. In this case, an allocation instruction that has the lowest operating costs is stored in an allocation memory of the elevator. Immediately after the cabin / call assignment has been made in this way, the elevator and its location in question are displayed in a display field of the activated call registration and display device, so that the passenger can go to the assigned landing door in good time.

With the group control described above, optimal results can be achieved with regard to the smallest waiting times of the passengers. In larger systems with several elevators, however, it must be expected that, depending on the location of the activated call registration and display device, a passenger will need more or less time to get to the landing door of the assigned elevator. For this reason, the elevator door must be kept open after the arrival of the cabin in question, so that the most distant passenger can still get in. In the case of cabins arriving early, there is not only a loss of time for the people in the cabin, but also for the overall system, so that the quality and quantity of operation are impaired.

The invention has for its object to improve the control mentioned in the prior art in such a way that cabins in which a loss of time would occur due to door hold-open times that are too long would be excluded from the call allocation.

This object is achieved by the invention characterized in claim 1. In this case, a memory is provided for each elevator, in which times are stored which a passenger needs for the routes between the respectively activated call registration and display device and the shaft doors of the elevators. A comparator connected to the memory compares the time assigned to the activated call registration and display device with the travel time of the cabin to the call input storey. If the travel time is less than the time required by the passenger to the landing door of the elevator in question, a switching device connected to the output of the comparator becomes effective in such a way that the operating costs cannot be fed to the comparison device and the elevator in question is excluded from the call allocation.

The advantages achieved by the invention can be seen in the fact that a passenger always reaches the landing door of the selected elevator before the arrival of the cabin, so that no additional time is lost for the overall system and the operating quality achievable with the call allocation method used is not impaired.

Fig. 1

eine schematische Darstellung der erfindungsgemässen Gruppensteuerung für zwei Aufzüge einer Aufzugsgruppe,

Fig. 2

eine schematische Darstellung eines einem Aufzug zugeordneten Teiles der Gruppensteuerung gemäss Fig. 1,

Fig. 3

auf einem Stockwerk angeordnete Rufregistrier- und Anzeigeeinrichtungen für eine aus vier Aufzügen bestehende Aufzugsgruppe,

Fig. 4

eine schematische Darstellung von den Aufzügen zugeordneten Speichern für die Zeiten, die ein Fahrgast für die Wege zwischen den Rufregistrier- und Anzeigeeinrichtungen und den Schachttüren benötigt, und

Fig. 5

eine Schaltungsanordnung für die Feststellung einer auf einem Stockwerk betätigten Rufregistrier- und Anzeigeeinrichtung.

The invention is explained in more detail below with reference to an embodiment shown in the drawing. Show it:

Fig. 1

1 shows a schematic representation of the group control according to the invention for two elevators of an elevator group,

Fig. 2

2 shows a schematic illustration of a part of the group control according to FIG. 1 assigned to an elevator,

Fig. 3

Call registration and display devices arranged on one floor for an elevator group consisting of four elevators,

Fig. 4

a schematic representation of the elevators associated memories for the times that a passenger needs for the routes between the call registration and display devices and the landing doors, and

Fig. 5

a circuit arrangement for the detection of a one floor operated call registration and display device.

In Fig. 1, two elevators of an elevator group are designated by C and D, with each elevator a car 2 guided in an elevator shaft 1 is driven by a conveyor 3 via a conveyor cable 4 and fifteen floors E0 to E14 are served. The carrier 3 is controlled by a drive control known from EP-B-0 026 406, the setpoint generation, the control functions and the start of the stop being realized by means of a microcomputer system 5 which is connected to measuring and actuating elements 6 of the drive control. The microcomputer system 5 also calculates, as is known, for example, from EP-A 0 356 731, from elevator-specific data a sum corresponding to the waiting time of all passengers, also called service costs, which is used as the basis for the call allocation process. The cabin 2 has a load measuring device 7, which is also connected to the microcomputer system 5. On the floors, for example, call registration and display devices 8 known from EP-A-0 320 583 are provided, which have 10-keyboards, by means of which calls for trips to desired target floors can be entered. In the method of programmed input assumed, for example, the call registration and display devices 8 are connected to the microcomputer system 5 via an address bus ab and a data input conductor DL. The call registration and display devices 8 of a floor are connected to one another and can be assigned to more than one elevator of the group, those of elevator C being connected to the microcomputer system 5 of elevator D via coupling elements in the form of multiplexers 9. The microcomputer systems 5 of the individual elevators of the group are connected to one another via a comparison device 10 known from EP-B-0 050 304 and a party line transmission system 11 known from EP-B-0 050 305 and form together with the call registration and Display devices 8 a group control similar to the aforementioned EP-A 0 356 731. The call registration and display devices 8 are also connected to the microcomputer systems 5 via conductor L as described in more detail below. A signal can be transmitted via the conductor L, by means of which the microcomputer systems 5 can identify an actuated call registration and display device 8.

The part of the microcomputer system 5 that is schematically shown in FIG. 2, for example, assigned to elevator A, has a call memory RAM1 and a first and second allocation memory RAM2, RAM3, which have memory locations corresponding to the number of floors for each direction of travel, only those for the upward calls allocated memory are shown. The call memory RAM1 consists of a first and a second memory RAM1.1, RAM1.2, wherein in the first memory RAM1.1 the calls denoting the respective input storey and in the second memory RAM1.2 the calls denoting the destination storeys are stored, and wherein the first memory RAM1.1 is assigned to the first allocation memory RAM2 and the second memory RAM1.2 to the second allocation memory RAM3. R1 denotes an operating cost register intended for storing the operating costs and R2 denotes a cabin position register. A selector R3 in the form of a further register forms the addresses corresponding to the floor numbers, by means of which the memory locations of the memories RAM1.1, RAM1.2, RAM.2 and RAM3 can be addressed. While the selector R3 in each case indicates the floor on which the moving car 2 could still stop, the car position register R2 in each case shows the floor in the area of which the car 2 is actually located. The call memory RAM1 and the first and second allocation memories RAM2, RAM3 are read-write memories which are connected to the bus SB of the microcomputer system 5. The calls stored in the call memory RAM1 according to the example in FIG. 2 and those stored in the allocation memories RAM2, RAM3 Allocation instructions are symbolically marked with "1", with floors E2, E3, E5 and E11 being assigned (dashed connecting line) and E10 and E13 being new, not yet assigned calls (hatched fields). Numeral 12 denotes a load memory, 13 a door time memory and 14 a travel time memory, which are also connected to the bus SB of the microcomputer system 5. The memories 12, 13, 14 known from EP-A 0 356 731 cited above are read-write memories in which data for the calculation of the service costs are stored. Load values in the form of a number of persons are stored in the load storage device 12 per floor, and are located in the respective elevator car at a future stop or while driving past a floor, and which are calculated on the basis of the calls entered. Load values formed from incorrect call inputs can be corrected by comparison with the values determined by the load measuring device 7. The door opening and closing times of the elevator concerned are stored in the door time memory 13 for each floor, while the journey times of the elevator car concerned between a particular floor and every other floor are stored in the travel time memory 14. 15 denotes a further memory connected to the bus SB, in which the times required by a passenger on one floor for the distances between the respectively activated call registration and display device 8 and the shaft doors of the elevators are stored. A comparator 16, which is formed, for example, by the processor of the microcomputer system 5, is connected on the input side to the travel time memory 14 and the further memory 15. The service cost register R1 is connected to the comparison device 10 via a switching device 17 in the form of tristate buffers, the activation connections of the tristate buffers being connected to the output of the comparator 16.

In FIG. 3, the shaft doors of the elevators A, B, C and D arranged on one floor are, for example assumed adopted elevator group. The shaft doors 18 may have the same distances from one another, the call registration and display devices 8 each being arranged in the middle between two shaft doors 18. With t is a time derived from experience, which a passenger needs for the route between the call registration and display device 8 actuated by him and the shaft door 18 in the vicinity. In the arrangement selected according to the example, a passenger would therefore need a time of 5 t to actuate the call registration and display device 8 between the elevators A and B and the assignment of the elevator D to the relevant shaft door 18.

The further memories 15 assigned to the elevators A, B, C and D according to FIG. 4 have a number of memory locations corresponding to the number of call registration and display devices 8 provided on one floor. 3, the further memories 15 each have three memory locations, which are designated AB, BC and CD in the order of the elevators. The stored times entered in FIG. 4 result from the definition of the time t given in the description of FIG. 3, the time 5t mentioned as an example being to be found in the memory location AB of the further memory 15 assigned to the elevator D.

5, 20 denotes the multiplexers assigned to the elevators and call registration and display devices 8 of a floor, which have a number of inputs corresponding to the number of call registration and display devices 8 of a floor, the inputs assigned to the same call registration and display device 8 in each case all multiplexers 20 are interconnected. One input each of the multiplexers 20 is connected to the output of an AND gate 21, the inputs of which are connected to outputs Q of memory cells 22 of the associated call registration and display devices 8. The multiplexers 20 are connected to the address buses from the assigned microcomputer system 5 and are connected on the output side via the conductor L to the further memory 15 of the assigned microcomputer system 5 (FIG. 2). The other outputs Q of the memory cells 22 are, as is known from EP-A-0 320 583 and EP-B-0 246 395, for the purpose of querying the calls entered on one floor with inputs from the multiplexers assigned to the respective call registration and display devices 8 23 connected.

The group control described above works as follows:

After entering a call, for example in accordance with FIG. 2 on floor E10 for floor E13, a call characterizing the input floor is transferred to the first memory RAM1.1 and a call characterizing the target floor is transferred to the second memory RAM1.2 of the call memory RAM1 of all elevators. The multiplexers 20 are then queried, it being assumed that the call from floor E10 was entered by means of the call registration and display device 8 arranged between the elevators A and B. In this case, the output of the relevant AND gate 21 and thus also the inputs of all the multiplexers 20 assigned to the activated call registration and display device 8 become logic "0" (FIG. 5). When the address assigned to the respective input occurs, the microprocessors of the microcomputer systems 5 interpret the signal "0", which is located on the conductors L in such a way that the content of the memory location AB of the further memory 15 must be fed to the one input of the comparator 16 ( Fig. 4.2). Then, depending on the car position contained in the car position register R2 and the address of the call input storey E10, the assigned travel time is taken from the travel time memory 14 and fed to the other input of the comparator 16. It may now be assumed that the travel time of the elevator D car is shorter than that in the storage location AB Memory 15 stored time 5t. Here, the logic state at the output of the comparator 16 changes such that the switching device 17 is switched to a high-resistance state and the service cost register R1 is separated from the comparison device 10. After the load values of the load storage device 12 have been corrected in accordance with the newly entered call on floor E10, the service costs for the input and destination floor of the new call are calculated for all elevators, one known for example with the already mentioned EP-A 0 356 731 Formula is used. It is assumed here that the new stops that may take place at the entry and destination floors would result not only in waiting times for the new passengers, but also in all calls made to the elevator by the road users. As already mentioned above, the computer takes the opening and closing times of the door time memory 13 from the door time memory 13, the number 12 of the people already in the cabin from the load memory 12 and the travel time memory 14 from the current position to the input or Target floor.

Immediately after the calculation, the service costs are transferred to the service cost register R1 and compared with the service costs of the other elevators by means of the comparison device 10, for example, according to EP-B-0 050 304, the elevator D being excluded from the comparison as described above. It may now be assumed that elevator A has the lowest operating costs, so that an allocation instruction is written in the first allocation memory RAM2 at floor E10 and in the second allocation memory RAM3 at floor E13 (dashed arrows, FIG. 2). Immediately after the assignment, the selected elevator A and its position are displayed in a display field of the call registration and display device 8 actuated by the passenger, whereupon the latter goes to the correspondingly marked landing door 18 and arrives there before the cabin arrives.

If the selector R3 switches to the newly allocated floor E10 in continuation of an assumed upward travel of the cabin located, for example, in the area of the floor E4, the deceleration is initiated when the braking application point is reached in accordance with the drive control EP-B-0 026 406, which has been assumed, for example.

Claims (4)

1. Group control for lifts with immediate allocation of destination calls in dependence on the call input location on a storey, with call-registering and indicating equipments (8), which are arranged on the storeys and comprise a keyboard for the input of calls for desired destination storeys, with call storage devices (RAM1), which are associated with the lifts of the group and connected with the call-registering and indicating equipments (8), wherein - on the input of a call on a storey - a call identifying the input storey and a call identifying the destination storey are stored in the call storage devices (RAM1), with load storage devices (12), in which the number of the persons present in the respective lift cage is stored for each storey, with travelling time storage devices (14), cage position registers (R2) and computers as well as a comparing equipment (10), which are associated with the lifts of the group, wherein the computer computes operating costs corresponding to the waiting times of passengers from data specific for the lift, with an operating costs register (R1), which is connected with the computer and with the comparing equipment (10), and with allocation storage devices (RAM2, RAM3), which are associated with the call storage device (RAM1), wherein the operating costs are compared one with the other and the call concerned is allocated to that lift cage, which displays the least operating costs, by inscription of an allocation instruction into the allocation storage devices (RAM2, RAM3), and wherein the lift concerned and its position are indicated on an indicating field of the actuated call-registering and indicating equipment (8) immediately after the allocation of the call, characterised thereby,

   - that a further storage device (15), in which the times needed by a passenger for the paths between the respectively actuated call-registering and indicating equipment (8) and the shaft doors (18) of the lifts are stored, is provided for each lift,

   - that a comparator (16) is provided, which is connected at the input with the further storage device (15) and the travelling time storage device (14),

   - that the operating costs register (R1) is connected to the comparing equipment (10) by way of a switching equipment (17), and

   - that the comparator (16) at the output stands in connection with the switching equipment (17),

   - wherein the switching equipment (17) switches the operating costs register (R1) off from the comparing equipment (10) and the lift is excluded from the comparison in the case of a lift cage travelling time which is stored in the travelling time storage device (14) and dependent on the cage position and the call input storey and which is shorter than the time needed by a passenger to reach the shaft door (18) of the lift concerned.
2. Group control according to claim 1, characterised thereby, that the switching equipment (17) is formed of tristate buffers, the activation terminals of which are connected to the output of the comparator (16).
3. Group control according to claim 1, wherein the call storage device (RAM1), the allocation storage devices (RAM2, RAM3), the load storage device (12), the travelling time storage device (14) the cage position register (R2), the operating costs register (R1) and the computer are components of microcomputer systems (5) associated with the lifts, characterised thereby, that the further storage device (15) and the comparator (16) are further components of the microcomputer systems (5), wherein the further storage device (15) is a fixed value storage device which comprises storage places corresponding with the number of the call-registering and indicating equipments (8) of a storey.
4. Group control according to claim 3, wherein the call-registering and indicating equipments (8) comprise storage cells (22) for the storage of the calls entered on the storey, characterised thereby

   - that a multiplexer (20), which comprises inputs corresponding with the number of the call-registering and indicating equipments (8) of a storey, is provided for each lift and storey, wherein those inputs of all multiplexers (20), which are respectively associated with the same call-registering and indicating equipment (8), are connected together,

   - that the multiplexers (20) are associated with the call-registering and indicating equipments (8) and outputs (Q) of the storage cells (22) of each call-registering and indicating equipment (8) are connected with inputs of an AND-gate (21),

   - that the output of the AND-gate (21) stands in connection with the concerned input of the multiplexer (20) and

   - that the multiplexer (20) is connected to the address bus (ab) of the associated microcomputer system (5) and the output of the multiplexer (20) stands in connection with the further storage device (15) by way of a conductor (L).

Images