ES2664948T3 - Operation of a lift via touch screen - Google Patents

Abstract

System for controlling at least one elevator, with - a control computer (20) for controlling at least one elevator (12a, 12b) - and at least one control terminal (30) on the floor side with a screen touch (34) for the input of a transport request, - the control computer (20) and the control terminal (30) being connected to each other via a network connection (32), - characterized in that the computer control (20) is configured as a server to provide a presentation description (36) of the presentation for the command terminal (30) so that it can be consulted via the network (32), - and the command terminal (30 ) is configured as a client to query and present the presentation description (36) from the server.

Description

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DESCRIPTION

Operation of a lift via touch screen

The invention relates to a system and a method for controlling at least one elevator as well as an elevator system. In particular, the invention relates to the control of an elevator by means of at least one control terminal with a touch screen for the input of a transport demand.

In known elevator systems with one or more elevators, a control element is usually provided on the side of the floor in the elevator housing, with which a transport demand can be introduced. As control elements, on the one hand, simple push buttons are known, with which a directional call can be made in particular (direction of travel up / down). The corresponding buttons are then connected via wired connections with an elevator control.

In the case of a destination call control in which not only the travel direction is entered but also the desired travel destination directly when the elevator is called, other control elements have also been disclosed. For example, EP 1 276 691 B1 discloses a destination call control for elevators, in which the destination is entered via a numeric keypad.

In GB 2 241 090 A an elevator control is described with which both the directional call and the destination call control must be implemented. On the floor side, touch screen terminals are provided, which through an local area network, which is made as an example as RS422 through a twisted cable, are connected to different control computers.

EP 1 043 260 B1 describes a procedure for communication with a transport system in which a control unit with computer and working memory as well as a touch screen is provided as a man-machine interface. Authorized scrolling destinations of a user can be displayed on the touch screen, which can be selected individually by touching the display unit. Additional information can be consulted using window technique or displacement technique. The travel destinations are not presented as actual place indications, such as for example a number of plants, but by means of flags, which describe the travel destination for example in a functional manner.

EP 1 779 326 describes an elevator call entry with a touch screen. In one mode, the display shows only conventional call buttons, while in another mode a destination call control is possible.

Document US 6 315 083 B1 describes a transport system with a man-machine interface. A control has access to a source of information for example in the form of a table with designations for places of destination as well as the actual place parameters for it. Several human-machine interfaces with touch screen are connected via cables or without cables to the control. On the touch screen, a user selects names for destinations. The selection is transmitted to the control. The control informs the user through an indicator on the touch screen, for example, which of the various elevators, and to what floor, presents the best connection.

EP 2 471 735 A1 describes a control element for elevators with a touch panel. An elevator control display unit can be displayed on the touch panel. The touch panel has a scanner function and recognizes a user's fingerprint.

WO 2007/0468047 A1 describes a computer-controlled touch screen as a destination call control of an elevator.

The purpose of the invention is to propose a system and procedures for the control of an elevator as well as a corresponding elevator system, in which a control that can be carried out in a particularly flexible and simple manner is possible.

This objective is solved by a system for control by at least one elevator according to claim 1, by an elevator system according to claim 9 and by a control procedure according to claim 10. The dependent claims are they refer to advantageous embodiments of the invention.

The system according to the invention for controlling an elevator comprises at least one control computer as well as at least one floor-side control terminal, preferably at least one such control terminal on each floor. The control computer is used to control at least one elevator. The actual control of the elevator is carried out in this respect in preferred embodiments not directly by the control computer connected to the control terminal, but by an independent elevator control for each elevator.

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The floor-side control terminals comprise a touch screen for the entry of a transport demand. They are connected to the control computer through a network connection. While in principle discretionary digital network interfaces may be used, wired network connections are preferred, in particular through CAN.

According to the invention, the control computer is configured as a server, so that according to a suitable network protocol it provides a presentation description of the presentation for the command terminal, that is, its indication or display, so that it can Check through the network. In this regard, a description of the presentation should be understood as digital information preferably in the form of a file containing instructions or bookmarks, which lead during the interpretation or realization through the command terminal to the desired graphic presentation. Preferably, in the case of the presentation description it is a file that is written in a presentation description language. In this respect, different known presentation description languages can be used, such as for example XML or PDF, especially preferred is the use of HTML files.

According to the invention, the command terminal is configured as a suitable client for the server to consult and thus present the presentation description from the server through the network. For this, the control terminal preferably has a parser for the presentation description language used. Particularly preferably, the command terminal can use a browser to present the presentation description, preferably in HTML format.

In the procedure according to the invention, the control terminal consults the presentation description from the server and presents on the touch screen the predefined graphic presentation in this sense for the entry of transport demands.

The system and method according to the invention is therefore extraordinarily flexible. The design, installation and configuration of the control terminal can be done largely universally, while each adaptation to the elevator system to be controlled, its operating status and / or special operating conditions are possible only on the computer of control. All changes in the system can therefore be carried out on the server without requiring an individual adaptation of the terminals. The terminals need only the respective query address of the presentation description on the server.

Above all, easily available current hardware and software components can be used on the sides of the terminals, in particular preferably each operating system, which can control the touch screen, enables a network query and has a syntactic analyzer for the description language side employee. In particular, operating systems such as Linux, Android or iOS can be used, for example, preferably in a kiosk mode, in which a browser with the predetermined address is directly consulted without the user being able to handle other components of the operating system.

According to an improvement of the invention, the presentation predefined by the presentation description comprises a number of representations for transport destinations. for example it can be buttons presented graphically. Representations can be activated by pressing on the touch screen. For this, they can be preferably characterized in the presentation description as active elements, so that the activation leads to signaling to the control computer. This indicates the selection made by the user to the control computer, so that it can handle and process the transport demand accordingly. This can also be done especially preferably through the browser of the respective operating system of the command terminal when the representations, in particular plant buttons, are stored as active elements, in particular as a link in the language of description of the side used, of so that the respective activation leads to a signaling to the server and to the query of the new presentation description supplied later by the server.

It is especially preferred that the transport destinations are presented at the command terminal, that is, in particular the plants, or denominated by functional names or simply by plant numbers, one above the other in the correct location. This is achieved by an appropriate presentation description on the server, which is then interpreted and presented by the command terminal.

In order to be able to present sufficiently large control elements on the touch screen, it is preferred that only a part of the transport destinations available at any given time be present, and additional transport destinations may also be presented and selected by travel.

In principle, the system and method according to the invention can be used both for the directional call and for the destination call control. Especially preferred is the use in a destination call control in which a transport destination is selected in the command terminal, and not just a direction of travel. According to an improvement of the invention, the control computer is configured to control a plurality of elevators. Upon receipt of a transport request, the control computer can select an elevator for transport. The control computer then preferably works as a deliveryman, which in turn controls the elevator controls of the different elevators. Is in particular

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In this case, it is preferable that the control computer as a distributor for the destination call control makes a selection for a transport demand, in which, upon receipt of the transport demand through information on the current position of the elevators and demands of transport received before, according to an optimization algorithm, an elevator is selected for transport, so that together the transport performance can be optimized. An optimization algorithm may be designed to optimize downtimes by taking people in the proper direction of travel. An optimization means in this respect not necessarily a shortening of each individual transport time, since the success of the optimization depends on a plurality of factors, in particular on a series of corresponding transport wishes. Together, with an optimization algorithm of this type, however, an improvement in the transport performance of an elevator or in particular of an elevator system with several elevators can be achieved.

After the selection of one of several elevators, the command terminal preferably shows, after obtaining a transport demand, which of several elevators was selected to meet the transport demand. This is preferably predefined by the control computer in the form of a presentation description, particularly preferably in turn HTML page, and is transmitted to the command terminal.

An embodiment of the invention is described in more detail below by drawings. In this regard, they show:

Figure 1 in schematic representation, elements of an elevator system with two elevators; Figure 2 in schematic representation, elements of a control system of the elevator system of Figure 1;

Figure 3 in schematic representation, a server and a command terminal as a client within the system according to Figure 2.

In Figure 1 a part of an elevator system 10 with two elevators 12a, 12b is shown schematically by way of example, respectively having an elevator car 14a, 14b with a drive 16a, 16b and an elevator control 18a, 18b A control computer (distributor) 20 controls the elevator control 18a, 18b by predefining the elevator floors 12a, 12b to which it will approach in each case.

In Figure 1, three of the floors 22, 24, 26 managed by the elevator system 10 are shown schematically. A control terminal 30 is provided on each floor and positioned in such a way that it can be easily seen and operated by a user.

As can be seen in particular in Figure 2, the terminals 30 are connected through a network connection 32 as a local area network (LAN) with the distributor 20. Preferably it is a wired network.

The distributor 20 is configured in this respect - in addition to its control function. as an HTTP server, so that it provides HTML-encoded files in the presentation description language so that they can be consulted through the network connection 32.

In the representation in Figure 3, the control terminal 30 is shown in more detail. It has a touch screen display unit 34. In a preferred example, an Android operating system is installed on the touch screen terminal 30, which operates in kiosk mode, so that it only starts a browser with a predefined address. Operation is possible for a user of the elevator system, therefore, only inside the navigator as long as a blockage of the kiosk mode is not carried out with the key symbol represented in Figure 3 and the subsequent introduction of a password, by For example, to perform configuration and maintenance work with the help of an extended user interface.

The navigator of the touch screen terminal 30, which is, for example, on the first floor 26, is preset, for example, for querying a particular HTML file. This HTML file 36 that can be consulted on the server 20 is delivered according to the demand of the browser of the terminal 30 from the server 20 through the network 32 to the terminal 30. It is, in this respect, an HTML page with a presentation of the different floors that can be selected from the elevator system, respectively - as can be seen from Figure 3 - represented as number buttons.

As shown in Figure 3 by way of example, the different floors are presented in this respect on each other in the correct location. However, only a part of the floors that can be selected together is presented on the limited presentation surface of the terminal 30. The others can be reached by displacement. The current scrolling position in each case is usually shown by a scroll bar 38. The movement on the touch screen can be caused by sweeping gestures above in the respective direction of travel.

The distributor 20 is connected, as shown in the schematic presentation in Figure 2, in the elevator controls 18a, 18b of the two elevators 12a, 12b. In this way, during the entry of destination call transport demands from the control terminal 30 of the different floors through existing information through the current position in each case of the elevator cars 14a, 14b and through demands for transport

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received before, the deliveryman 20 can set a criterion on it, whereby the elevator must meet an incoming transport demand. According to an optimization algorithm, the distributor 20 selects the appropriate elevator and transmits to the respective elevator control 18a, 18b the travel destination to which it will approach.

The communication of the distributor 20 with the control terminals 30 for the reception of transport demands and the return through the elevators selected to meet the demand is carried out through the network 32 in HTTP protocol. For this, the distributor 20 provides for each of the terminals 30 an HTML page with the travel destinations to be selected; The exact address and name of the HTML file in question within the network 32 is set at each of the control terminals 30. In this respect, the selected travel destinations (plants) are presented as active elements, so that a selection is communicated to the HTTP server of the distributor 20 and leads to the query of an answer page from there.

In this way the signaling of the selected travel destination is made to the distributor 20 and - once the suitable elevator is selected there - the presentation of the feedback with the indication of the elevator selected in the control terminal 30.

The presentation on the terminals 30 can be adapted flexibly in this respect, for example simply by exchanging the files provided. In this way, for example, blocked floors can be presented, as shown in Figure 3 as an example for floor 17, as non-activatable ("in gray"). For adaptations, no work is required in the control terminal 30 on the individual floors.

Additional control functions can be predefined via control terminal 30. For example, a user who needs more time to enter or exit due to a disability can communicate it by activating a corresponding switching surface 40, which is communicated to the distributor 20 through the network 32 and is taken into account by the elevator control 18a , 18b when adjusting the door opening time

Claims (10)

5 10 fifteen twenty 25 30 35 40 1. System for controlling at least one elevator, with - a control computer (20) for the control of at least one elevator (12a, 12b) -and at least one control terminal (30) on the floor side with a touch screen (34) for the entry of a transport demand, - the control computer (20) and the control terminal (30) being connected to each other through a network connection (32), - characterized because the control computer (20) is configured as a server to provide a presentation description (36) of the presentation for the control terminal (30) so that it can be consulted through the network (32), - and the control terminal (30) is configured as a client to consult and present the presentation description (36) from the server. 2. System according to claim 1, wherein - the presentation includes a number of representations for transport destinations, - the representations can be activated by pressing on the touch screen. 3. System according to claim 2, wherein - the representations are characterized in the presentation description (36) as active elements, so that the activation leads to a signaling to the control computer (20). 4. System according to one of the preceding claims, wherein - the control terminal (30) presents on the touch screen (34) a part of the available transport destinations, - Additional transport destinations may be presented by travel. 5. System according to one of the preceding claims, wherein - in the control terminal (30) the transport destinations are presented one above the other in the correct location. 6. System according to one of the preceding claims, wherein - the control computer (20) is configured to control a plurality of elevators (12a, 12b), - the control computer (20) being configured, upon receipt of a transport request by means of information through the current position of the elevators (12a, 12b) and transport requests received before, to select an elevator (12a, 12b ) For transport. 7. System according to one of the preceding claims, wherein - the control computer (20) is configured, after obtaining a transport demand and selecting one of several elevators (12a, 12b), to transmit the selection to the control terminal (30) for display. 8. System according to one of the preceding claims, wherein - the presentation description (36) is written in a presentation description language, - and the control terminal (30) has a parser for the presentation description language. 9. Elevator system with one or several elevators and a control system according to one of the preceding claims. 10. Procedure for the control of at least one elevator, in which at least one control terminal (30) on the floor side consults, via a network connection (32) from a control computer (20) configured as server for the control of at least one elevator, a presentation description (36) and it is presented on a touch screen (34) for the entry of a transport demand.