JPH072573B2 - Group management control method for elevators - Google Patents

Description

Description: TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to an elevator group management control method, and in particular, a distributed group management function is provided to each elevator in a distributed manner to reduce costs and strengthen the system. Type elevator group management control method.

[Technical background of the invention and its problems]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, an elevator system that uses group management control to operate a high floor and a large number of elevators with high efficiency has come to be widely used.

It is not uncommon for buildings such as hotels to which such a system is applied to exceed 30 stops. For this reason, the damage at the time of failure becomes large. Therefore, the group management centralized control unit, etc., which centrally controls hall call registration and allocation, is made redundant and the important functions are multiplexed to maintain reliability. .

However, at the same time, failure modes are diversifying as the group functions become complicated.

However, at present, if the group management centralized control unit fails,
Since hall call registration cannot be performed, each elevator is forced to skip or stop operation on each floor, which causes a problem that damage is particularly large in a high-floor building.

These problems indicate the necessity of further improving the reliability of the group management centralized control unit and further improving the backup function at the time of the failure. FIG. 17 shows a schematic configuration of a conventional group management system.

In the figure, A is a group management centralized control unit, which is composed of a group management unit 1 and a hall call registration unit 2. In addition, 3 is a hall lamp drive for driving hall lamps, 4 is a hall gate for hall calls, which is provided for each service floor and pushes a button on the floor to make a hall call on that floor. It is a circuit to generate. A main control unit 5 is provided for each elevator and controls the operation of each elevator. The hall call registration unit 2 registers the hall call data given from the hall gate 4 and registers the hall call data. Also, the hall call registration unit 2 responds to the hall call which is assigned from the elevator main control unit 5 and is landed. Delete the registered hole data. Further, in order to light the registered hall lamp on the floor, a control output is given to the driving hall lamp live 3. In addition, the group management unit 1 allocates the floor of each elevator based on the data registered in the hall call registration unit 2 and controls various other controls.

The hall call registration unit 2 has recently been made into a microcomputer instead of the conventionally used hard logic structure, and has been changed to software control. Then, in addition to the functions as described above, there has appeared a device that can perform backup when the group management unit 1 fails. At the same time, the hall call registration unit 2 has various options such as disconnecting the designated floor hall gate, canceling, and system separation.

Further, in the CD (cost reduction) type and the like, one in which one microcomputer has both the functions of the group management unit 1 and the hall call registration unit 2 has appeared.

Further, the group management unit 1 performs allocation and the like for hall call registration, but this is also becoming more sophisticated and complicated such as a type having a learning function and the like. Also, this group management unit 1
Has also appeared to back up the basic functions of the hall call registration unit 2.

As described above, the group management centralized control unit A has become more reliable due to the multiple functions, and at the same time, problems such as diversification of failures accompanying such higher functions have arisen.

Therefore, in a system with a centralized control unit,
At the same time as the sophistication, the sophistication of the backup function at the time of failure of the group management centralized control unit is becoming important, and the complexity and cost increase accordingly. On the contrary, a device having a simple centralized control unit has a structure that is extremely vulnerable to a failure, and has a drawback of lacking reliability even if it is inexpensive.

[Object of the Invention]

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to obtain a system resistant to failure with low-cost hardware, which is inexpensive and greatly improves reliability. An object of the present invention is to provide a group management control method for elevators.

[Outline of Invention]

That is, in order to achieve the above object, the present invention controls a single elevator in a group management system that activates a plurality of elevators for a plurality of service floors and performs hall call allocation and peak hour operation. As a main station, each elevator control unit of an elevator has a distributed response evaluation function for hall calls, and a specific standalone elevator control unit has a hall information registration unit that holds hall call information. By adding the function of, the hall gate signal that becomes a hall call is input to the stand-alone elevator control section that is the main station, registration is performed, and the hall information registered in the stand-alone elevator control section that becomes the main station is the information for each elevator control section. The evaluation results obtained are sent to and received from each single elevator control section to obtain the optimum response. The feature is that a hall call can be answered by making a call answered.

Example of Invention

According to the present invention, a hall gate signal is input to a part of a plurality of main control units that control a single elevator, and a hall call registration can be performed in the main control unit that is the main. All main control units forming a group are connected by a loop-shaped transmission line so that information can be sent and received. If the group management centralized control unit becomes abnormal, the above main main control unit registers the hall call and sends it to each main control unit. Further, the main main control unit receives the hall call deletion data from each main control unit, and registers and deletes the hall call.

In addition, each main control unit, for each hall call registration,
The estimated arrival time etc. is evaluated from the self data and this evaluation value is sent to all main control units through the main main control unit. Then, each elevator responds to the hall call with the best evaluation value of itself. However, when the waiting time for a hall call exceeds a predetermined limit as a measure for long waiting, a plurality of elevators are made to respond to the hall call. With such a distributed system configuration and control method, it is possible to maintain the basic group management function at low cost. Further, by providing a main station and a sub-main station and setting a certain rule, it is possible to strengthen the subordinate group management system.

Of course, the above-mentioned loop-shaped transmission line is an example, and a bus line-shaped transmission line can also be used. Further, although the predicted arrival time is used as the evaluation function, another function can be used. In addition, it is possible to add a prediction of fullness, a prediction of first arrival of a car, and the like.

An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of a system to which the present invention is applied. In the figure, 3 is a hall lamp drive, 4 is a hall gate, 5 is a main control unit of each elevator, and these are different from the conventional ones described above. The functions are the same.

The main control unit 5 is shown with subscripts a to h corresponding to elevators A to H, respectively.

The following is further added in the present invention. That is, as a newly added part, a loop transmission serial I / O unit (hereinafter, abbreviated as SIO) 11 to each main control unit 5 of the elevator, and a loop-shaped transmission cable 12 that connects these SIOs 11, There is also transmission and simplified group management software for the main station 13 set in one of the main control units 5 and the sub-station 14 set in the other main control units 5. Also, one of the sub stations is the main station 13
Sub-main station 15 which becomes the main station instead of this when an abnormality occurs
Is set.

Further, the gate data of the hall button is input to the main station 13. (When the lamp drive is also performed, the output is connected in parallel to the hall registration data bus.) In this embodiment, a serial transmission line by an optical loop is used as the transmission line. Since the transmission is between control panels (main control unit 5), the cable can be a low-cost plastic cable. Also, the transmission and reception units operate at 5V TTL level, and the baud rate is 19200bps, so it is a general-purpose serial cable. A transmission LSI (large-scale integrated circuit) can be used and can be configured at low cost. The data link method can be an application of a general polling / selecting method having a (master station) main station and a (slave station) sub station, or a normal HDLC (high-level data link control procedure). With these general-purpose software, when viewed from the software of each main control unit 5a-5h
Data can be sent and received in the same way as I / O. Further, by providing the main station 13 and the sub-main station 15 and having a certain rule therein, the lower system is strengthened even at low cost.

Next, the operation of the above embodiment will be described with reference to the flowcharts of FIG.

When the program starts, in step 3-1 initialize the RAM (random access memory) table,
Each LSI is initialized and the system clock and transmission interrupts are enabled. Then, after passing RSP (repeat start point), the elevator control program of step 3-2 is executed. Here, normal control of the elevator alone is performed.

Next comes the part that has been added in the present invention. That is, step 3-3 is entered in which the group management process is first performed. And when these 3-3 steps are over, RSP is again
Return to and repeat the above steps. The auxiliary group management processing routine at step 3-3 has a structure as shown in FIG.

That is, when step 3-3 is executed, the routine shown in FIG. 3 is entered. Here, first, step 4-0 is executed, and in this routine, it is checked whether or not the own station is the main station. (If the main station is abnormal, the sub-main station becomes the main station.) If it is not the main station, the process after 4c is performed. If it is the main station, proceed to the next 4A routine. Tables necessary for hall call registration include HCALL, IHCALL, HGAT, etc. shown in FIG.
Fig. 5 shows an example with a maximum of 32 stops. One bit indicates one floor, is divided into UP (up) / DOWN (down), and is a RAM table composed of a total of 8 bits of "0" to "7" bits. HCALL is a hall call registration data table, IHCALL is a hall call registration deletion data table,
HGAT is a Hallgate data table.

In the 4A routine, first, steps 4-7 are executed to disconnect the abnormal machine. Next, in step 4-3, the hall call registration operation is turned on (HCALL $ O
N $ FLG = 1). Also, a request for erased data is made.

The hall call registration operation will now be described with reference to FIG.

Hall call registration is performed during timer interruption (10 msec timer). This timer interrupt causes the routine of FIG. 6 to be entered. Then, the registers and the like are first pushed, and then step 7-1 is entered to increment the system timer. Next, in step 7-2, the system monitor is performed. Next, it is judged whether the hall call registration operation is ON,
When the hall call registration operation is ON (HCALL $ ON $ FLG = 1), step 7-3 is entered and the hall call registration deletion processing is performed. This part is explained in detail in FIG. That is, when entering step 7-3, the routine of FIG. 7 is entered, and step 8-1
Is processed by the DO loop of 0 to 7. This is the hall call registration data table HCAL in FIG.
This is because 8 bytes are processed because 32F MAX (maximum floor 32) is used in the example of L and the like. When the processing for the index is completed, step 8-2 is entered in which the hall gate is input and the operation is transferred to HGAT (I). Next, go to step 8-3 and enter the hall call registration data HCAL
It takes an OR (logical sum) with L (I), and then goes to HCALL (I). In order to perform hole erasing here, NOT logic of IHCALL (I) (hole erasing data) and A in step 8-4.
It takes ND logic and goes to HCALL (I). If it has a lamp drive circuit (that is, if the hall lamp 3 is connected from the main station machine in Fig. 1)
HCALL (I) is output (step 8-5).

In the configuration of FIG. 1, this circuit is omitted for cost reduction. Next, it is determined whether or not the I of the DO loop has reached 7, and if it has not reached, I is incremented and the above operation is repeated, and when I reaches 7 and the above operation at that time ends, it returns. . Now step 7-
3 ends, the pushed register is hopped, and the timer interrupt returns. In this way, the hall call registration operation is performed. In the case of the sub station, the data of the hall call registration data table HCALL from the main station is used as it is.

Next, the routine proceeds to 4A in FIG. In this routine, the abnormal machine or the like is disconnected in step 4-7. Here, the transmission at the time of abnormality will be described together with steps 4-0. (Incidentally, if the reception control signal ACK does not come even after several retries for a transmission abnormality, it is regarded as abnormal.) That is, in step 4-7, the transmission abnormality is checked by test transmission and it is normal. When it becomes, it will be restored. (However, the abnormality here does not indicate only the case of transmission abnormality.) Now, it is assumed that the loop has a configuration as shown in FIG. In the figure, A is the main station and E is the sub-main station, and the hall gate is input. Normally, E is the same as the sub main station. If the main station A becomes abnormal at this point, the main station A
Is not performed, the sub main station E becomes the main station by detecting this in step 4-0. The E station cuts the abnormal A station (step 4-7).

Next, as shown in FIG. 10, it is assumed that the station A is normal and the loop is divided between the stations C and D. In this case, the transmission data is normally transmitted by returning from the C and D stations, and the machine is not disconnected. If the station A is normal and any of the sub stations B to H becomes abnormal, the abnormal station is disconnected in step 4-7.

Next, as shown in Fig. 11, when the C and D stations are separated from the F and G stations and a serious failure occurs, the D, E, and F stations are seen from the group connected to the A station side. Becomes abnormal and these are separated (step 4-7). Seen from the group connected to the E station side, the initiative transmission from the A station disappears, so the E station becomes the main station (step 4-0) and the A to C, G, and H stations become abnormal. Disconnected (Step 4-
7). In this way, the group management control is performed by dividing into two groups.

Next, as shown in FIG. 12, when C and D stations, F and G stations, and G and H stations are severed and a major failure occurs, the A station side group determines the A station as described in FIG. 11. Main station, H with H, B, C as sub stations
-A-B-C, and the group on the E station side is group-controlled and controlled in the form of D-E-F in which E station is the main station and D and F are the sub stations, and only G station is no control. . In this case, only Unit G is skipped or stopped on each floor for the first time. Previously all units were in this state,
As described above, in the present invention, even if a serious failure occurs, only the station that is left behind is skipped or stops on each floor,
In other cases, group management operation can be implemented within each group.

From the above description, it is understood that according to the present invention, even this low-cost configuration can withstand a considerable number of serious failures. Further, even if the sub-main station E is not used, it is possible to cope with some failures.

Next, the description proceeds to step 4-3. In step 4-3, the hall call registration data is transmitted and the hall call deletion data is requested. They are replaced with the transmission code, the number of bytes, (the number of bytes of the next transmission data) and data in the format shown in Fig. 4 and transmitted (however, STX: start text, ETX: end text, BCS: block check). sequence). In this routine, when the hall call registration data is transmitted, the data is 8 in the hall call registration data table HCALL.
It can be considered that the bytes were sent and the erase data received was 8 bytes of the hall call registration data table IHCALL. HCAL
ON bit registered for L, and O for IHCALL
N bit indicates erase.

Next, enter 4B and proceed to the routine 4-4. In this routine, the request for the evaluation data of the hall call registration floor and the collected data are transmitted to all units. Its data format is
It looks like Figure 13 (a). These are replaced with the transmission code, the number of bytes, and the data in FIG. 4 and sent. However, "OFF" H (indicating "OFF" in hexadecimal) is set as the worst evaluation for abnormal stations. That is, the 1st byte is the hall call registration floor direction UP / DOWN and position data, the 2nd byte is the unanswered time of that floor ("OFF" H and above is "OFF" H), 3 to 10
The byte is the evaluation value of the A to H machines (example of 8 units). The unanswered time of the second byte is 0 → 1 for hall call registration.
When it becomes, it can be obtained by activating the timer HRCT1 (Fig. 8) on that floor. HRCT1 corresponds to HS (Hall Sub Index) corresponding to 32D (down 32nd floor) ~ 1U (up 1st floor) ~ 31U (up 31st floor) when considering 32 stops in this example as shown in Fig. 8. It is prepared. If it is not zero, it will be counted up by the timer every 1 second. This count-up starts from "000" H and ends with "O".
When it goes to FF "H, it is not counted up any more.
Thus, by reading HRCT1, the non-response time is obtained. HRCT1 on the floor is cleared when the hall call is cleared. Then, in the routine after 4C of the routine of FIG. 3, these data are 32D from the receiving buffer.
It is saved in the table H $ HRCT1 (HS), YRESP (HS (Hall Sub Index), CAR (Unit)) of the Hall Sub Index HS corresponding to ~ 31U (Fig. 13 (b)). At the same time, hall call registration data table HC
ALL data is also saved from the receive buffer to the HCALL $ TR (Fig. 4) table. However, the main station saves the data that came back around one lap.

Next, the routine proceeds to step 4-5. This routine is a routine for deciding the self-response sharing, and is composed of the following routines (a) and (b).

(A) Response of self-assessment to the optimal floor.

(B) Response to the long waiting floor.

Of these, the routine (a) is shown in FIG. That is, when this routine is entered, the hole sub-index (HS) 0 to 61 (32D to 31U) is checked in step 16-1.

Next, in step 16-2, the presence or absence of hall call registration is checked from the transmission data HCALL $ TR (see FIG. 5). If there is no hole condition table, HCT (HS) = 0 in FIG. If yes, step 1
6-3 Enter and save data here YRESP (HS, CAR)
(Refer to Fig. 13 (b)) Check the CAR data from 0 to 7, and the response to the floor where the hall call is registered is optimal.
Know CAR from its evaluation value. If the self is optimal, HCT (HS) = 1, and if not, HCT (HS) = 0
And HCT (HS) is a response table to the hall call on that floor. "1" indicates a response and "0" indicates no response.

Next, the long waiting check routine of (b) will be described.
This description is shown in FIG. The hole sub-index HS searches sequentially from "0" to "61". Non-response time of transmission data H $ HRCT1 (HS) (See Fig. 13 (b))
When the limit value H $ LMT (40 sec in this example) is exceeded, the response table is turned on in step 19-1.

As a result, the hall call response was set in the HCT (HS). When the above routine is completed, the process goes to 4D in FIG. Then, steps 4-6 are executed. This step 4-6 is a routine for calculating the predicted arrival time. Enter the explanation.

In the example of the present invention, the estimated arrival time to the floor is used as the evaluation value, but there are various other evaluation methods. As an evaluation method, for example, a full value of the predicted value is added, or a function of the predicted arrival time is used. However, in this example, the predicted arrival time is used for simplification. In order to calculate the predicted arrival time, in addition to the data such as its own position, the hole condition table HCT and the car condition table KCT showing the car call state shown in FIG. 8 are required.

HCT: Hall call stop floor is 1.

KCT: The car call stop floor is 1.

Using these, the predicted arrival time I $ YRESP (HS) on the HS floor is calculated by the following formula.

Here, TRAN (αm, βm) indicates the traveling time of the car from the αm floor to the βm floor, and TLOS (βm) indicates the total time of door opening / closing operation time, passenger entry / exit time, and door opening time on the βm floor, Also, l indicates the number of floors in which the car stops halfway before reaching the HS floor (including the HS floor).

From the above, the estimated arrival time I $ YRESP (HS) of each floor can be obtained. However, "OFF" H (hexadecimal) or higher is "OFF" H. These data are used when there is a transmission request. HCT and KCT are the factors that determine the operation of the car.

With the above, the calculation on each floor ends and the process returns. Then, the process returns from 4E in FIG. 3 to the main program. After that, from REPT in FIG. 2, the operation jumps again to RSP (repeat start point) and the same operation as described above is repeated.

The operation of the present invention has been described above.

As described above, according to the present invention, the centralized central control device is not required, and accordingly, the system can be configured with low-cost hardware, and the basic group management control can be performed even in the case of some failure. It will be a reliable group management system, such as being able to perform without loss.

The present invention can also be used as a backup for the group management centralized control unit, and in this case, the hardware that must be added to the conventional system can be low cost. Also, other group management functions, such as peak operation, can be similarly controlled by the main station by exchanging data between the units. These can be implemented by a combination of the above-described information transmission method and a conventionally used algorithm.

〔The invention's effect〕

As described above in detail, according to the present invention, a plurality of main control units for controlling the elevator alone are proliferated on the transmission path to transmit information, and at the same time, each main control unit has the response sharing evaluation function for hall calls distributed. It has a group management operation, and instead of using a centralized central control unit that controls the entire control, each single main control unit has a group management operation in a distributed manner. By connecting these in the transmission line and exchanging information and allocating hall calls, it is possible to manage the group with inexpensive hardware, robust against failures, and with sufficient functions.
Therefore, it is possible to provide a highly reliable elevator group management control method which is less expensive than the conventional one and has features such as fail-safe and greatly improved fail-soft level.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG.
FIG. 3, FIG. 6, FIG. 7, FIG. 7, FIG. 14, FIG. 15, and FIG. 16 are flow charts for explaining the embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 4 and FIG. Data structure diagram used in the invention, FIG. 5, FIG. 8 and FIG. 13 (b) are configuration diagrams of the table used in the present invention, and FIGS. 9 to 12 are model diagrams used in the description of the present invention, FIG. The figure is a block diagram showing the configuration of a conventional system. 3 …… Hall lamp drive, 4 …… Hall gate, 5
a, ~ 5h …… Main control unit of elevator, 11 …… Serial I / O unit, 12 …… Loop transmission cable, 13 …… Loop transmission main station, 14 …… Loop transmission sub station, 15 …… Loop transmission sub Main station.

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. In a group management system for activating a plurality of elevators for a plurality of service floors, allocating hall calls and operating during peak hours, a single elevator control unit for each elevator that controls individual elevators. In addition, each has a response sharing evaluation function for hall calls in a distributed manner, and a specific single elevator control section has a hall information registration section for holding hall call information to add a function as a main station, A hall gate signal that is a hall call is input to this single-unit elevator control unit that is the main station to register, and hall information registered in the single-unit elevator control unit that is the main station is sent and received by each elevator control unit to share the response. Each evaluation is performed, and the obtained evaluation results are given and received by each single elevator control unit, and the optimum one is responded to. A group management control method for elevators, which is capable of answering a hall call. 2. A plurality of single elevator control sections are provided with a hall information registration section to add a function as a main station, and a hall gate signal is given to these elevator control sections having a main station function. In the elevator control unit having the function, the highest order elevator control unit is determined in advance as the master station, and the others are slave stations, and the hall call registration unit of the highest order elevator control unit normally registers the generated hall call. Hall information transfer to and from other elevator control units is performed using information transmission means, and when an abnormality occurs in the main elevator control unit, the next elevator control unit is operated as the main elevator control unit, The elevator group management control method according to claim 1, wherein a hall call response is possible. 3. An evaluation value of each elevator unit for hall calls is calculated on each unit side of each elevator control unit,
2. The single-elevator control unit is sent to each single-elevator control unit via a loop-shaped information transmission means, and only the single-elevator elevator of the optimum evaluation is answered by the hall call. Elevator group management control method. 4. A loop-shaped transmission line is used for transmission, and when the transmission line is abnormal, a turning point is preset according to the abnormal point, and individual elevator control units are grouped according to the turning point.
The elevator group management control method according to claim 2, wherein a predetermined single elevator control unit of each group is caused to function as a main station. 5. The elevator group management control method according to claim 3, wherein the estimated arrival time is used as the evaluation value. 6. A transmission method for a hall call, wherein a holding time is added to the data, and a plurality of elevators are made to respond to a hall call that has been waiting for longer than a predetermined time. 5. The elevator group management control method according to any one of claims 3 to 4 in the range.