JP2015157664A - communication system and communication method of elevator - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To accurately associate a radio terminal for a hall with a floor number by eliminating an influence by reflection and diffraction of electric waves in radio communication.SOLUTION: A communication system for an elevator includes: a radio terminal 30 for a car provided in an elevator car; a plurality of radio terminals 20-23 for a hall for performing radio communication with the radio terminal 30 for a car provided at each floor; and a position detection device 8 for detecting a car position of the elevator in a hoistway. The radio terminal 30 for a car configures direct communication paths 40-43 respectively between itself and the plurality of radio terminals 20-23 for a hall, detects radio field intensity respectively between the radio terminal 30 for a car and the plurality of radio terminals 20-23 for a hall at the plurality of car positions detected by the position detection device 8, and sets floor numbers to the plurality of radio terminals 20-23 for a hall on the basis of the result of the radio field intensity at each car position.

Description

  The present invention relates to an elevator communication system and communication method, and more particularly to an elevator communication system and communication method for accurately associating a hall wireless terminal with a floor number by wireless communication.

  The elevator operates mainly based on the information of the hall call button installed at the landing on each floor and the destination registration button installed in the car. These pieces of information are collected in an elevator system control device that controls the elevator, and elevator dispatch control is performed.

  Therefore, the hall call buttons installed at the landings on each floor are connected to the hall terminals provided on each floor, and the destination registration button in the car is connected to the car terminal provided on the car. The state of each button (hall call button, destination registration button) is sequentially transmitted from each terminal (hall terminal, car terminal) to the control device of the elevator system mainly using communication. That is, the elevator system control device is a communication host terminal.

  Conventionally, a host terminal and a hall terminal or between a host terminal and a car terminal are connected by a cable for transmitting an electrical signal, and information is transmitted by wired communication. However, in the technology of connecting the host terminal, the car terminal and the hall terminal with a cable, the cable becomes longer in proportion to the height of the building where the elevator is installed. In addition, when the floor of a building is high, it is necessary to install a relay station and provide a plurality of transmission systems due to insufficient transmission capacity. Furthermore, since the cable between the host terminal and the car terminal always goes up and down as the car moves up and down, there is a possibility of disconnection due to bending, and periodic inspection is also necessary.

  As a method for solving the problems caused by wired communication as described above, there is a method using wireless communication as described in Patent Document 1, for example.

JP 2003-146546 A

  In the prior art using the above-described wireless communication, the one described in Patent Document 1 describes a method for automatically setting a floor number in a hall terminal attached to each floor, and in particular, a car terminal. A method of setting floor numbers in the order in which hall terminals enter the communication range is disclosed with reference to the communication range.

  However, the method of Patent Document 1 has the following problems. First of all, wireless communication is usually used in a closed space such as a hoistway where an elevator is installed. Since radio waves are reflected here, the range in which wireless communication is possible due to diffraction and interference of radio waves is not necessarily from the terminal. There are situations that are not proportional to distance. Moreover, since the structures in the hoistway are different depending on the building, the reflection of the radio wave is different depending on the building, and wireless communication may not be possible. Furthermore, the strength of the radio wave also changes depending on the individual difference of the wireless terminals. For this reason, there is a problem that the floor number does not always match the order in which the hall wireless terminals have entered the communication range of the car wireless terminal.

  In addition, when the floor number is automatically set in the hall wireless terminal, it is necessary to check whether the setting has been performed correctly. Particularly in high-rise buildings, the number of stopped floors is large, and there is a problem that it takes a lot of time for the installation work to check that the correct setting has been made for the radio terminal for the hall.

  An object of the present invention is to solve the above-described problems of the prior art, and in particular, to accurately associate hall wireless terminals with floor numbers by eliminating the influence of radio wave reflection and diffraction in wireless communication.

  In order to solve the above problems, in the present invention, a wireless terminal for a car provided in an elevator car, a plurality of wireless terminals for halls that perform wireless communication with a wireless terminal for a car provided on each floor, and an elevator in a hoistway The position detection device for detecting the position of the car is provided, and the wireless terminal for the car configures a direct communication path with the plurality of wireless terminals for halls, and is used for the plurality of car positions detected by the position detecting device. The radio field strength between the radio terminal and the plurality of hall radio terminals is detected, and the floor number is set for the plurality of hall radio terminals based on the result of the radio field intensity at each car position.

  According to the present invention, the elevator communication system uses the car position information obtained from the position detection device and the car radio measured at the car position as a direct communication path between the car radio terminal and the hall radio terminal. By detecting the radio wave intensity between the terminal and the hall radio terminal, it is possible to more accurately associate the hall radio terminal with the position of the floor number from the relationship between the radio wave intensity and the car position.

The figure which shows the whole structure of the communication system of an elevator. The flowchart which shows the communication method of this invention. The figure which shows the example of the table which matched the measurement result of the electromagnetic wave intensity | strength with the cage position.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 1 is an overall configuration diagram of an elevator communication system according to the present invention. In the elevator, a car 7 that moves across a plurality of floors in a hoistway formed in a building is connected to a weight 6 via a rope 5. The car 7 is moved when the sheave 3 is driven by the electric motor 2. The electric motor 2 is supplied with electric power for driving by an elevator system 1 including a power converter and a control device, and is braked by a brake (not shown) used when stopping the car. Reference numeral 4 denotes a relay sheave.

  Further, a position detector 8 for detecting a car position in the hoistway is provided in the car 7, and a floor detector 9 is fixedly arranged on the building structure side that forms the hoistway. Thereby, the floor position is detected by the fact that the movable position detector 8 and the fixed floor detector 9 exist at the opposing positions by the height movement of the car. The car position information detected in this way is transmitted from the car 7 to the elevator system 1 by wired communication using a cable or wireless communication using the car wireless terminal 30.

  In the embodiment of FIG. 1, the car position detection device 8 is installed on the car 7 side. For example, a pulse generator such as an encoder attached to the electric motor 2 is used to count the pulses, thereby counting the number of pulses in the hoistway. The car position may be detected. Further, as another position detecting device, a magnetic tape may be installed in the hoistway and the car position may be detected by detecting the magnetic tape, and the position detecting device in the present invention does not depend on the means of the detecting method.

  A car wireless terminal 30 is provided in the car 7, and hall wireless terminals 20, 21, 22, and 23 are provided in halls on each floor. The elevator system 1 is provided with a host wireless terminal 10. The broken-line arrows 40, 41, 42, and 43 shown in FIG. 1 illustrate communication paths by one-to-one communication between the car radio terminal 30 and the hall radio terminals 20, 21, 22, and 23 on each floor. is there.

  Next, a method for automatically setting a floor number to a hall wireless terminal on each floor will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

  First, in step S101, the elevator system 1 of FIG. 1 moves the car 7 to the vicinity of the lowest floor. In the following description, it is assumed that the lowest floor is the first floor.

  In step S102, the current car position in the hoistway is recorded. This car position is a position detected by the position detecting device 8, and the first floor which is the lowest floor is registered first.

  Next, in S103, the car radio terminal 30 records the unique codes of the hall radio terminals 20, 21, 22, and 23 that perform radio communication in this state (near the first floor, which is the lowest floor). The unique code may be a terminal number designated for the hall wireless terminals 20, 21, 22, 23, or a MAC address used for a network device. Note that the MAC address (Media Address Control address) is a physical address that is uniquely assigned (in principle) to the hardware of a network device such as a LAN card that is set to identify each node on the network. Address.

  Here, for example, the unique code of the first floor hall wireless terminal 20 is A, the unique code of the second floor hall wireless terminal 21 is B, the unique code of the third floor hall wireless terminal 22 is C, and the fourth floor hall. It is assumed that the unique code of the wireless terminal 23 is D and the unique code of the fifth floor hall wireless terminal is E.

  When communicating between the car radio terminal 30 and the hall radio terminals 20, 21, 22, 23, each terminal transmits a part of the transmission signal transmitted by itself including a unique code promised to itself, Each terminal on the receiving side can distinguish and specify the unique code held in a part of the received signal.

  Next, in step S104, a 1: 1 communication path (direct communication path) is provided between the car radio terminal 30 and the hall radio terminals 20, 21, 22, 23 for each unique code recorded in step S103. Build and measure and record the field strength at this car position.

  For example, in the initial state where the car 7 is located near the lowermost floor (for example, the first floor), the hall wireless terminals capable of wireless communication are connected to the first and second floors 20, 21 ( Therefore, if the unique codes are only A and B), the radio wave intensity in the 1: 1 communication path 40 constructed between the car radio terminal 30 and the hall radio terminal 20 on the first floor (unique code A) is Suppose that it was 30 db. Similarly, it is assumed that the radio field intensity in the 1: 1 communication path 41 constructed between the car radio terminal 30 and the hall radio terminal 21 (unique code B) on the second floor is 20 db. However, in the measurement at the lowest floor, it is assumed that wireless communication is impossible from the third floor to the upper floor, and the radio field intensity is not recorded here.

  The radio wave intensity may be measured by, for example, specifying the car radio terminal 30 to transmit radio waves to the hall radio terminals 20, 21, 22, 23, and measuring the car radio terminal 30. The radio terminals 20, 21, 22, and 23 may transmit radio waves, the hall radio terminal 30 may measure the radio field intensity, and the result may be returned to the car radio terminal 30. In this way, by limiting the communication paths 40, 41, 42, 43 of the car radio terminal 30 and the hall radio terminals 20, 21, 22, 23 of each floor to 1: 1 each time the radio field intensity is measured, It is possible to accurately grasp the positional relationship between the floor and the hall wireless terminals on each floor.

  After performing step S104 for all the unique codes recorded in step S103, it is determined in step S105 that the car has reached the vicinity of the top floor of the hoistway.

  If the car has not reached the vicinity of the top floor of the hoistway, the car is moved a predetermined distance in step S106. This predetermined distance may be a distance equivalent to the first floor, for example, or may be set based on a standard reach distance of radio waves.

  Therefore, when the predetermined distance is a distance equivalent to the first floor, the car is moved to the second floor after measurement on the first floor, and the radio wave intensity is measured in the same manner. This movement and the measurement of the radio field intensity are repeated until reaching the top floor. As described above, after the car is moved a predetermined distance in step S106, steps S102 to S104 are repeatedly executed. This is repeated until the car reaches near the top floor of the hoistway.

  When the car is moved by a predetermined distance in step S106 and the car 7 is near the second floor, the hall wireless terminals capable of wireless communication are 20, 21, 22, 23 (therefore, the unique code) from the first floor to the fourth floor. Is A to D). In this case, it is assumed that the radio field intensity in the 1: 1 communication path 40 constructed between the car radio terminal 30 and the hall radio terminal 20 on the first floor (unique code A) is 20 db. Similarly, it is assumed that the radio field intensity in the 1: 1 communication path 41 constructed between the car radio terminal 30 and the hall radio terminal 21 (unique code B) on the second floor is 30 db. Similarly, it is assumed that the radio wave intensity in the 1: 1 communication path 42 constructed between the car radio terminal 30 and the hall radio terminal 22 (unique code C) on the third floor is 10 db. Further, it is assumed that the radio wave intensity in the 1: 1 communication path 43 constructed between the wireless terminal 30 and the hall wireless terminal 23 on the fourth floor (unique code C) is also 10 db.

  When the car has reached the vicinity of the top floor of the hoistway, in step S107, the correspondence between the unique code and floor number of the hall wireless terminal for each floor is determined based on the car position measured so far and the radio wave intensity for each unique code. To do.

  After the association processing is completed, in step S108, the car wireless terminal transmits the floor number associated with the unique code to the hall wireless terminal on each floor, and the hall wireless terminal uses the received information based on the received information. Set the floor number.

  With reference to FIG. 3, an example in which the unique code is associated with the radio wave intensity at the car position in step S107 will be described. FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of a table in which the measurement result of the radio wave intensity is associated with the car position.

  In the table of FIG. 3, the vertical axis indicates the floor position by mechanical detection of the car 7 (detection result by the position detection device 8 or the like), and the horizontal axis indicates the unique codes A, B, C, D and E are taken. At the intersection of the vertical and horizontal matrixes, the communication strength for the unique code in which communication is established at the floor position of the car 7 is described. That is, the car position and the radio wave intensity for each unique code described above are described.

  According to this notation example, when the car position was on the first floor, communication was ensured only with the unique codes A and B, and the strength at this time was 30 db for the unique code A and 20 db for the unique code B. Since the upper floors cannot secure communication, it is indicated that there is no strength information.

  Similarly, according to this notation example, when the car position is on the second floor, communication with the unique codes A, B, C, D is ensured, and the strength at this time is 20 db for the unique code A, 30 db for the unique code B, The inherent codes C and D were 10 db.

  Although the case where the car position is on the third, fourth, and fifth floors is not particularly described, it is assumed that the situation is illustrated. On the basis of the relationship between the car position and the radio wave intensity for each unique code, in step S107, the correspondence between the detected position of the mechanical car 7 and the unique code of the hall wireless terminal for each floor is the highest unique. The code is determined to be a unique code on the machine detection floor.

  From the data when the machine position is the first floor, the unique code A indicating the maximum strength of 30 db is the first floor, and from the data when the machine position is the second floor, the unique code B indicating the maximum strength of 30 db is used. From the data when the machine position is the third floor and the machine position is the third floor, the unique code C indicating the maximum strength of 20 db is the third floor.

  In the data when the machine position is the fourth floor, 20db is the maximum intensity, but the unique codes D and E indicate the intensity. Therefore, the floor cannot be determined from only this part of the information. However, in the data when the machine position is the 5th floor, the data indicating the maximum strength of 20 db is the unique code E. The remaining unique code D is recognized as the fourth floor.

  In the case of the conventional method, depending on the measurement position of the car, the radio wave intensity may not be measured or the radio wave intensity may be at the same level. According to the present invention of the above method, in order to solve this, the position of the hall wireless terminal for each floor can be accurately determined by moving the car position and measuring the radio field intensity a plurality of times.

  In the present invention, specific means for constructing a 1: 1 communication path between the car radio terminal 30 and the hall radio terminals 20, 21, 22, 23, 24 is based on frequency division, A time-sharing system can be used. In the former case, communication at different frequencies may be executed for each of the communication paths 40, 41, 42, 43, and 44. In the latter case, after performing communication using the first unique code, the second, third, and fourth unique codes are sequentially communicated in time series, and this series of communications is repeatedly executed. I will do it.

  According to the above invention, the car radio terminal provided in the elevator car, the plurality of hall radio terminals provided on each floor and performing radio communication with the car radio terminal, and the elevator car position in the hoistway The position detecting device for detecting the car wireless terminal constitutes a direct communication path with the hall wireless terminal, and between the car wireless terminal and the hall wireless terminal according to the position of the car detected by the position detecting device. By detecting the radio wave intensity and configuring the floor number to be set for multiple hall radio terminals based on the results of the car position and radio wave intensity, car position information and car radio measured at that car position By detecting the radio field strength between the terminal and the hall radio terminal, it becomes possible to more accurately associate the position of each hall radio terminal with the floor number from the relationship between the radio field intensity and the car position. .

  Needless to say, the present invention can be appropriately modified without departing from the spirit of the present invention. For example, in the embodiment, an example is shown in which measurement is performed while sequentially rising from the lowest floor, but this may be measured while sequentially descending from the top floor, or may be appropriately performed on an arbitrary floor. In short, it is only necessary to obtain information on the communication strength at the mechanical position for each floor.

  If the presence of reflected waves is taken into consideration, the detection results at other floors are not necessarily extracted and determined at the maximum intensity, but the intensity width is set and multiple unique codes within the width range are detected. It is also possible to determine the most appropriate one in consideration of the above.

1: Elevator system 2: Electric motor 3, 4: Sheave 5: Rope 6: Weight 7: Car 8: Car position detector 9: Floor detector 10: Host wireless terminals 20, 21, 22, 23: Hall Wireless terminal 30: Car wireless terminal 40, 41, 42, 43: Communication path by 1: 1 communication

Claims (4)

  A car wireless terminal provided in an elevator car, a plurality of hall wireless terminals provided on each floor for wireless communication with the car wireless terminal, and a position detection device for detecting the position of the elevator car in the hoistway The car radio terminal forms a direct communication path with each of the plurality of hall radio terminals, and the car radio terminal and the plurality of halls at a plurality of car positions detected by the position detecting device. An elevator communication system, comprising: detecting a radio field intensity between radio terminals for a vehicle; and setting floor numbers for the plurality of radio terminals for halls based on a result of the radio field intensity at each car position. The elevator communication system according to claim 1,
Elevator communication characterized in that the floor number detected by the position detecting device is set for the hall radio terminal that has obtained the highest radio field intensity among the radio field intensity measured at each car position. system. A direct communication path is formed between the car radio terminal provided in the elevator car and the hall radio terminal provided on each floor, and a position detection device for detecting the elevator car position in the hoistway is provided.
Locating the car at the car position detected by the position detecting device to detect the radio field intensity between the car radio terminal and the plurality of hall radio terminals;
Change the car position and detect the radio field strength between the car radio terminal and the hall radio terminals again,
An elevator communication method comprising: setting floor numbers for the plurality of hall wireless terminals based on the result of the radio wave intensity at each car position. The elevator communication method according to claim 3,
Elevator communication characterized in that the floor number detected by the position detecting device is set for the hall radio terminal that has obtained the highest radio field intensity among the radio field intensity measured at each car position. Method.

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