EP1522518B1 - Elevator system and method for controlling an elevator system - Google Patents

Description

The invention relates to a method for controlling an elevator installation, which has a passenger transporting between floors of a building elevator car. The method provides that the travel wishes of the passengers are input via a destination call control and booked by the destination call control as destination calls. In addition, an instantaneous load in the elevator car is determined by a load-measuring device at a definable time. The invention further relates to an elevator installation which is provided with an elevator car, a load measuring device which determines an instantaneous load located in the elevator car and a destination call control, by means of which travel requests of passengers to be transported can be entered and booked as destination calls.

In tall buildings, especially skyscrapers, lifts are used that are controlled by a destination call control. Each passenger must enter the destination by means of a numeric keypad or another type of input device before departure. The control of the elevator system assigns the passenger an elevator due to his destination call input, which guarantees an optimized travel time for the passenger. An elevator system with destination call control, for example, in the WO 01/72621 A1 described. The basis for the functioning of an elevator system based on a destination call control is a disciplined inputting of the destination calls.

However, such disciplined behavior of the passengers can not always be assumed. It can happen the situation that only one Person of a group makes a destination call input, or it may happen that a person enters several destination call inputs for a group, but the number of people does not match the number of destination call inputs. This undisciplined input of the destination calls, where the destination call control is not operated correctly, often occurs when many people at the same time have to be transported from one floor to the ground floor, for example, with the mass of passengers knowing that all elevators are moving in the direction of the ground floor. An undisciplined input of destination calls is then regularly noted when fixed hours and many employees of a company almost simultaneously leave their offices to go to the ground floor. As a result, the elevator cars are usually already fully loaded in the upper floors, without each passenger has individually booked his destination by means of the destination call input. The destination call control, which allocates the elevators, only starts from the booked destination calls.

Therefore, there arises a problem that destination call inputs of passengers in the lower floors are assigned to elevator cars that are fully loaded so that these passengers can not be carried with the assigned elevator car. However, in spite of the full load, the elevator car stops on each floor in which a destination call input has been issued and a destination call has been assigned to the corresponding elevator car. This can lead to the situation that a passenger who wants to get off in a floor above the ground floor, assigned to an already fully loaded elevator car. The elevator car then stops in the floor in which the passenger intends to enter, but can not, because the elevator car is full. The elevator car consequently also stops in the floor in which the passenger wanted to get off, although nobody gets off.

Due to the undisciplined input of the destination calls, there are significant increases in transport times, and ultimately this leads to a Reduction of transport capacity, which leads to very long waiting times, especially in buildings with already low transport capacity.

In the EP 0 301 173 A1 For example, a group control for elevators is described which has a monitoring circuit which prevents the allocation of a destination call to an elevator with overload. However, a careful input of the destination calls is assumed since the overload is determined on the basis of the booked passengers.

In the WO 03/026997 A1 An elevator system is described in which the elevator load is measured by means of a continuous load measurement, so that the number of passengers who have not entered a destination call input can be determined.

The present invention has for its object to avoid the aforementioned problems with incorrect operation of the destination call and to provide a method for controlling an elevator system and an elevator system, which optimize the transport time and maximize the transport capacity.

This object is achieved in a method for controlling an elevator system with the above features according to the invention in that the instantaneous load is compared with a full load parameter and on exceeding of the full load, a bypass function is activated. The bypass function is activated for floors for which destination calls are booked and which are still passed during a half round of the elevator car. A half-round in the sense of the present invention is understood to mean a travel of the elevator car between the reversal points of the elevator car.

The above object is further achieved by an elevator system claim 9.

The invention is based on the idea that peak times, which are also referred to as down-peak traffic in the case of a predominant downward travel, occur only at certain times. With the method according to the invention uniform waiting times and an optimized utilization of the transport capacity are achieved in these peak times even with possibly incorrect operation of the destination call control. By means of the bypass function, it is ensured that a fully loaded elevator car drives directly to the next exit destination and destination calls of passengers waiting in intermediate storeys are shifted to a next elevator half round.

Advantageous embodiments of the method according to the invention can be found in claims 1 to 8 and the elevator installation according to the invention in claim 10.

In an advantageous embodiment of the invention, the elevator car is activated bypass function, the floors for which are booked by the destination call control destination calls and on which passengers want to enter the half-rounds, as long as not approach until the instantaneous load is again below the Vollastparameter. This ensures that a fully loaded elevator car drives directly from the higher floors to the ground floor or to a main storey floor, without stopping on already booked floors and thus wasting transport time.

In a further advantageous embodiment of the invention, it is provided that destination calls booked prior to the occurrence of the exceeding of the full load parameter, which were not served on the half round, are shifted into a priority half round with the same direction of travel, preferably the priority half rounds from the elevator car following the first Semicircles is traversed. This ensures that after arrival of the fully loaded elevator car on the ground floor or on the main floor the elevator car drives directly to the upper floors and picks up the passengers who were already assigned to this elevator and could not be transported due to the fully loaded elevator car at the first downlink round.

In an advantageous embodiment of the invention, the floor on which the exceeding of the full load parameter has occurred only then approached again by the elevator car, if all booked before the occurrence of exceeding the full load parameter destination calls on a first half round and / or following priority half rounds not were operated, are served. This avoids that the elevator moves in its upward rounds back to the floor on which not all passengers have entered their destination calls and the elevator car was fully loaded without the passengers were already booked. Thus, a repetition of the situation of the first downbeat rounds is avoided.

In a further advantageous embodiment of the invention, it is provided that the elevator is set to a normal mode (operation without bypass function) after all the destination calls booked before the exceeding of the full-load parameter have been operated. This ensures that only after all non-transported passengers from floors that were not approached due to the bypass function, are transported to the ground floor or in the main hold floor, the elevator of the destination call control again entered destination calls can be assigned.

The measurement of the instantaneous load is advantageously made at the time of door closing. Thus, it is achieved that no change in the load of the elevator can adjust more, so that when comparing the instantaneous load of the elevator car with the Vollastparameter no errors can occur.

In a further advantageous embodiment of the invention, a number of free seats is calculated from the outgoing and incoming passengers booked by destination call control, wherein the elevator car only starts a floor when the number of free seats is greater than the number of destination calls from passengers to be boarded at the semicircular to passing floors is. With this configuration, it is possible that vacant seats, which arise by leaving passengers in front of the main hold in the elevator car, despite busy bypass function can be occupied. The calculation of the number of free seats allows the elevator to stop in such a case only if the number of free seats is sufficient to accommodate all passengers waiting on one floor. Thus, unnecessary stops are avoided. A floor lying between the floor at which the full load parameter has passed and the ground floor is deemed not to have arrived when at least one passenger's destination call on that floor has not been operated. Floors on which the elevator car has passed without stopping are deemed not to have traveled. On the other hand, floors that have been approached despite the activated bypass function, as passengers have exited, are considered approached when all passengers have been transported from this floor.

In a further advantageous embodiment of the invention, a counter is provided, which counts the launches of trips of the elevator car, in which the instantaneous load is greater than the Vollastparameter. The bypass function is activated in such an embodiment only when a predetermined, adjustable value for the maximum number of such Vollastfahrten is exceeded. Such a configuration makes it possible that a single faulty operation of the destination call control does not lead immediately to an activation of the bypass function, so that omitted for the passengers inconceivable driving movements of the elevator car.

In this context, it is advantageously provided that the value of the counter is decremented each time the elevator car is started with a smaller instantaneous load than the full load parameter. Thus, activation of the bypass function is avoided, if not absolutely necessary, for example, when a fully loaded elevator car has occurred only at random and not within predetermined time periods or in typical situations. In addition, advantageously, the activation of the bypass function may be monitored by a period of time, wherein the time period is used together with the value of the counter for activating and / or deactivating the bypass function. For example, the time period is set to 5 minutes, and the value of the counter for activating the bypass function is periodically decremented every 2 minutes, for example. The bypass function is only deactivated when both the time period of 5 minutes has elapsed, and the value of the counter due to the periodic decrementation is below a value for activating the bypass function and no priority half circle exists any more.

In an advantageous embodiment of the invention, it is provided that the activation of the bypass function is performed at a counter value which is greater than the value for deactivating the bypass function. In this way, a hysteresis function is achieved, which avoids a non-beneficial switching back and forth between activated and deactivated bypass function.

In a further advantageous embodiment of the invention, the elevator system comprises a group of elevators, wherein the bypass function can be activated separately for each elevator of an elevator group, so that the half-rounds to be pushed in to transport the passengers who are not being transported on the non-approached floors leave the elevator in question alone or operated. In an alternative embodiment, the bypass function is activated jointly for all elevators belonging to a group, whereby only a part of the elevators for the operation of the unused floors with the waiting passengers during the Priority half rounds is used. Consequently, the other elevators belonging to this group can already work again in normal mode, or they can continue to work in the bypass function, in that the floor in which the overload has occurred is preferably operated.

In a further advantageous embodiment of the invention, all input destination calls are assigned to the first downlink priority round in the activation of the bypass function and an upward direction. This is necessary in particular when, with the bypass function activated, the elevator car is located on the ground floor or in the main retaining floor and its next direction of travel is the upward direction of travel. In this case, it is ensured that the passengers left in the uphill direction in the undelivered floors are approached at the following downward priority half rounds and their destination calls are served.

In a further advantageous embodiment of the invention, when the bypass function and a downwards direction are activated, all input destination calls are operated below the elevator car position in the first downlink priority round and all destination calls entered above the elevator car position are served in the next consecutive downlink priority round. This allows the destination calls below the elevator car position in the first downlink priority round to be served with the bypass function activated and a position of the elevator car within the upper floors and the destination calls above the floor in which the congestion has occurred in the next consecutive downlink priority round to be served.

Fig. 1

ein Diagramm zur Veranschaulichung des Problems bei fehlerhafter Bedienung der Zielrufsteuerung gemäß dem Stand der Technik und

Fig. 2

ein Diagramm zur Veranschaulichung der Bypassfunktion gemäß der vorliegenden Erfindung;

The invention will be explained in more detail with reference to an embodiment which is shown schematically in the drawings. Hereby show:

Fig. 1

a diagram illustrating the problem in incorrect operation of the destination call control according to the prior art and

Fig. 2

a diagram illustrating the bypass function according to the present invention;

In Fig. 1 is schematically illustrated the problem of incorrect operation of the destination call control. Fig. 1 symbolizes 18 floors of a building. Furthermore, half rounds HR1 to HR5 are shown by arrows. An elevator car EC is located at floor 15. The following situation is conceivable in order to explain the problem.

In the building there is a normal public traffic, at the same time in floor 10 a conference is finished. Practically all conference participants want to head to the main stop in floor 1, but only a few push the terminals for the destination call input. As a result, the destination call controller is misinformed about the number of persons waiting and assigns destination calls from accessing persons to the floor 10 to the elevator.

This will be explained below by means of a numerical example. The elevator car size is defined with 15 persons. In floor 10, 7 addressees are assigned by the destination call control, which have the destination 1. That is, only 7 participants of the conference have entered a destination call. On floor 8, 2 entrants are assigned who have the destination floor 5. In floor 6, 1 person is assigned, who has the destination floor 1, and in floor 12 are assigned 3 Zusteiger who want to go to the floor 15. The rides of the elevator car EC are scheduled in so-called half-rounds HR1, HR2, HR3, HR4 and HR5. In this case, a half-round HR represents a journey in one direction between two reversal points, whereby intermediate stops are also included. The floors where at least 1 passenger is allocated are marked with a plus "+". The floors, in which 1 passenger wants to get off, are marked with a minus "-". If 15 passengers board at floor 10 instead of the 7 registered passengers, the elevator car EC is fully occupied and can no longer accommodate passengers in the floors 8 and 6. However, the elevator car EC still stops in the floors 8 and 6. In floor 5, the elevator car EC also holds for the booked boarding passenger from floor 8, who found no place in the elevator car EC, since the elevator car EC was already fully occupied in floor 8.

Following the semicircles up to floors 12 and 15, further arrivals will board the 10th floor. Even if the still waiting passengers in floor 8 and 6 again enter their destination call and these are marked in half round HR3, the elevator car could be filled in floor 10 again so that it is fully occupied, so that the situation for passengers in would repeat the floors 8 and 6.

Fig. 2 schematically shows the inventive method. There are again 18 floors shown, the elevator car EC is located in the floor 15. The number of passengers is as in the previously based on Fig. 1 explained example. Already during the first half-round HR1, as soon as the full load of the elevator car EC has been detected by a load measuring device measuring the instantaneous load of the elevator car EC, the bypass function activating the destination calls of the passengers in the floors 8 and 6 into the next priority half round HR3 and the up call of Floor 12 on floor 15 from the half round HR2 into the half round HR4 moves. All newly entered destination calls, for example in floor 10, are accordingly shifted to the half rounds HR4, PHR5 after the priority round PHR3. Thus, following the unloading of the passengers in the floor 1, the elevator car EC moves up into the floors 8, 6, 5 in order to convey the passengers who were not transported due to the bypass function in the first half round HR1. The passengers At floor 12, HR4 is carried to floor 15 in the next upward round. Only after all forgotten passengers have been transported will later-entered destination calls from floor 10 be taken into account. When allocating new destination calls, any further lifts in the elevator system will help defuse the situation.

The activation of the bypass function can also be activated depending on other circumstances, except in the situation described above. This avoids unnecessary activations of the bypass function, which result from only accidental incorrect entries of the destination call control. To make this possible, a counter is provided which counts the starts of the elevator car at which the full load is exceeded, with the value CFLDP. After that, the bypass function is activated, for example, only when the full load has been exceeded three times (CFLDP = 3) for consecutive half-round HR. If the full load is not exceeded in a half-round HR, then the value CFLDP is decremented again. Thus, the need to activate the bypass function is more accurately determined.

The deactivation of the bypass function can also be time-controlled. For this purpose, a period TDP and the value CFLDP is used. The time period TDP starts to run after the first full-load parameter is exceeded. It can also be provided that the period of time TDP begins to run only after the first start, in which the instantaneous load of the elevator car EC is less than full load. However, the bypass function is only deactivated when the value CFLDP has additionally reached a predetermined value DPOFF. In this example, the value CFLDP of the counter is periodically decremented.

To avoid unnecessary switching between activation and deactivation of the bypass function, a hysteresis can be implemented in the DPON and DPOFF values for activating or deactivating the bypass function.

The above-described method for controlling an elevator installation is characterized by a tolerance against a faulty operation in the destination call control. This is primarily due to the bypass function, which prevents a fully loaded elevator car during a half round HR stops on floors 8, 6, 5, for which destination calls are booked, but where due to the loading of the elevator car EC no passengers can board. The method thus contributes to an optimized utilization of the transport capacity of the elevator car EC and also ensures a speedy transport of the passengers.

Claims (10)

1. Method for controlling a lift system having a lift car (EC) which transports passengers between floors (for example 1 to 18) of a building, having the following method steps:

   a) the journey requests of the passengers are input on floors via a destination call controller and are booked as destination calls to destination floors (for example 8, 6, 5) by the destination call controller, and

   b) an instantaneous load in the lift car (EC) is determined by a load measuring device at a determinable point in time,
   characterized in that

   c) the instantaneous load is compared with a full load parameter and a bypass function is activated if the full load parameter is exceeded, the bypass function being activated for those destination floors (for example 8, 6, 5) for which destination calls have been booked and which are still passed during a half-circuit (HR1) of the lift car (EC).
2. Method according to Claim 1, characterized in that, when the bypass function is activated, the lift car does not approach the destination floors (for example 8, 6, 5) for which destination calls have been booked and which are passed during the half-circuit (HR1) of the lift car (EC) until the instantaneous load is below the full load parameter again.
3. Method according to Claim 1 or 2, characterized in that destination calls which were booked before the full load parameter was exceeded and have not been handled on the half-circuit (HR1) on account of the activated bypass function are moved into a priority half-circuit (PHR3) with the same direction of travel, the priority half-circuit (PHR3) preferably being covered by the lift car (EC) during the journey following the half-circuit (HR1) in the same direction of travel.
4. Method according to one of Claims 1 to 3, characterized in that the floor (10) on which the full load parameter has been exceeded is approached by the lift car (EC) again only when all destination calls which were booked before the full load parameter was exceeded and were not handled on a first half-circuit (HR1) and/or following priority half-circuits (PHR3, possibly PHR5, ...) have been handled.
5. Method according to one of Claims 1 to 4, characterized in that a number of free spaces is calculated from the exiting and entering passengers booked by each destination call controller, the lift car (EC) approaching a floor when the number of free spaces is greater than the number of destination calls of boarding passengers on the floors to be passed during the half-circuit (HR1).
6. Method according to one of Claims 1 to 5, characterized in that a counter (CFLDP) counts the starts of journeys of the lift car (EC) during which the instantaneous load is greater than the full load parameter, the bypass function being activated if a predetermined value for activating the bypass function is exceeded.
7. Method according to Claim 6, characterized in that the value of the counter is decremented each time the lift car (EC) is started with a smaller instantaneous load than the full load parameter.
8. Method according to Claim 6 or 7, characterized in that, after the bypass function has been activated, monitoring is carried out for a period of time and the value of the counter is periodically decremented, the bypass function being activated only when the period of time has elapsed and the value of the counter is below the value for activating the bypass function.
9. Lift system having a lift car (EC), a load measuring device which determines an instantaneous load in the lift car (EC), and a destination call controller which can be used to input journey requests from passengers to be transported on floors and to book said requests as destination calls to destination floors (8, 6, 5), characterized in that the instantaneous load is compared with a full load parameter and a bypass function is activated if the full load parameter is exceeded, the bypass function being activated for those destination floors (8, 6, 5) for which destination calls have been booked and which are passed during a half-circuit (HR) of the lift car (EC).
10. Lift system according to Claim 9, characterized by a counter (CFLDP) which increments a value for activating the bypass function each time the lift car (EC) is started with an instantaneous load greater than the full load parameter, and activates the bypass function when a predetermined maximum value is reached, the counter decrementing the value for activating the bypass function during each journey of the lift car (EC) with an instantaneous load smaller than the full load parameter.

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