JPS63343B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a group management and control system for elevators, and more particularly to a group management and control system using a digital computer suitable for reallocating hall calls to optimal elevators.

In recent years, elevator group management control devices using digital computers such as microcomputers have been put into practical use and have become popular. Incidentally, this kind of group management control device employs a method of calculating the predicted arrival time and the like, and allocating the hall call to the most suitable elevator based on the result. In this case, even if the hall call is assigned to the elevator selected as the most suitable when the hall call occurs,
Due to the service of hall calls or car calls on other floors that occurred before the hall call, if the hall call is expected to be full, unloaded, or have a long wait, it will be reassigned to another elevator. I try to do that.

By the way, if the traffic demand within the bank is low as a whole and the service deteriorates only for a specific elevator or a specific assigned hall call, this can be dealt with by reallocating based on the prediction of the above-mentioned accidental service decline. However, lower floor descending (DN) hall calls that occur when all medium-speed elevators that service all floors (approximately 20 floors) are concentrated on the departure floor, and hall calls during busy times such as lunchtime, can be handled by any elevator. Since a long wait is expected, once allocated, reallocation must be instructed periodically. Furthermore, since the optimal elevator changes one after another depending on the elevator situation and car call, it is necessary to reallocate to a different elevator each time.

Therefore, the predicted arrival time changes each time, making the overall allocation control unstable. In addition, in elevators with service reservation lights, the lighting of the service reservation light changes each time, so passengers have to move to the elevator landing each time the service reservation light lights up. Reassignment is limited to cases where the time is expected to be abnormally long, such as 2 to 3 minutes, and even when a car is full, reassignment is limited to only hall calls within the range up to the first car call mentioned above. Was.
However, this has the disadvantage that service is not directed to other elevators until the car is actually full, even if it is clearly predicted that the car will be full. Another disadvantage is that it is not possible to reduce hall calls that have a long waiting time of 1 to 2 minutes.

Further, as a method for reducing reservation changes in the case of an elevator with a service reservation light, there is a method of not reassigning a hall call when the service evaluation value of the hall call to be assigned is equal to or higher than a predetermined value.

In addition, in elevators with service reservation lights, as mentioned above, when the most suitable elevator is selected and a hall call is assigned, the service reservation light of that service elevator is turned on, and the waiting passengers move from the hall accordingly. However, in the past, the service reservation light was changed each time the hall was reassigned, so during lunch and clock times when there are many hall calls and the hall is often full, reassignment and service reservations are required. This caused problems in that the lights had to be changed frequently and passengers had to move from place to place more frequently.

Therefore, in order to limit the number of times the service reservation light can be changed to one time, another idea is to turn off the service reservation light of the elevator assigned at the time of the hall call, once the elevator that will arrive in response to the hall call is determined, so that the arrival time is The special public interest law was established in 1973 to turn on the service reservation light of the elevator that has been decided.
Proposed in No. 22335.

However, with this method, the service reservation light is changed at the time of arrival (2 to 15 seconds before the door opens), not when the service reservation is changed, so if the reserved elevator hall and the arriving elevator hall are different, When the elevators are at both extreme positions, the problem arises that it takes time for passengers to move and they may miss the elevator.

The present invention has been made in view of the above, and its purpose is to reduce the occurrence of long waiting hall calls without impairing the serviceability of group-controlled elevators to meet traffic demand as a whole, and to improve service to passengers. The object of the present invention is to provide an elevator group management control device that can be improved.

The features of the present invention include a means for storing an assigned elevator selected at the time of new assignment of a hall call as a reserved elevator, and lighting a reservation light corresponding to the assigned elevator, and a means for predicting that the reserved elevator will have a long wait. In this case, a means for storing the reassigned elevator separately selected by the reassignment means for reassigning the hall call to another elevator according to predetermined conditions, and a means for keeping the reservation light turned on even once the reassigned elevator is stored. and means for returning the assigned elevator from the reassigned elevator to the reserved elevator when the long waiting time for the reserved elevator is resolved.

The present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the embodiments shown in FIGS. 3 to 8 and FIGS. 1 and 2.

The present invention can be applied to a system in which when a hall call occurs, the optimum elevator is selected and assigned to the hall call, and the assigned elevator is immediately displayed at the landing using a reservation light. In combination with reallocation, we aim to further improve operational efficiency and prevent first-come-first-served calls due to car calls.Furthermore, reservation lights save the minimum amount of time (approximately 7 to 7 hours in time required for hall movement). This system allows passengers to be notified of new service elevators earlier than 20 seconds) to minimize passenger confusion. In addition to the above-described hall call allocation method, the present invention can also be applied to an allocation method in which hall calls occurring on each floor are automatically selected according to a prescribed procedure and these hall calls are sequentially allocated.

First, the overall operation of the present invention will be explained using FIGS. 1 and 2.

Figures 1 and 2 are explanatory diagrams of the overall operation of the group management control device according to the present invention.
The example shows the case where the 8th floor is serviced. Figure 1 shows the state at time T _a , and Figure 2 shows the state at time T a.
The state at time T _b after T〓 is shown. time
At T _a , as shown in Figure 1, elevator cars E1, E2, and E3 of units 1 to 3 are located on the floors shown in the figure, and all cars are in the ascending direction. It is assumed that the door is open and the No. 2 car is running. In addition, Unit 1 has car calls 3C1, 4C1, and 8C1 on the 3rd, 4th, and 8th floors, and Unit 2 has car calls 7C2 on the 7th floor, and descending hall call 8D2 on the 8th floor has been assigned. 3
The descending halls on the 7th and 6th floors are designated 7D3 and 6 in Unit No.
Assume that D3 has been allocated.

At time T _a in such a state, when a descending hall call for the third floor is registered, elevator No. 3 is selected as the optimal elevator and the assigned hall call 3 is selected.
Suppose it becomes D3. Although there are various new hall call assignment methods, it is also possible to select a service elevator using the same process as the flowchart of the hall call reassignment program shown in FIG. 5, which will be described later. In this case, a service evaluation function is determined in step 420, and it is determined in step 430 that the occurrence of full occupancy is not predicted. This is repeated for newly generated hall calls and hall calls that have already been assigned (steps 450 and 460).
In step 445, the maximum evaluation value is determined. The above process is carried out for units 1 to 3 (step
480), and machine No. 3 is selected as the machine with the lowest evaluation value among all the machines (step 490).

Here, the array table of predicted car weight for No. 3 car
The value of WT (i, j, k) is as shown in Figure 1,
If it is predicted that 4 people will board on the 7th floor and 5 people on the 6th floor, there will be a total of 10 people when they arrive on the 3rd floor, and if the car capacity is 24 people, it will not be full.
Unit 3 can be the assigned elevator (step
Do not pass 440. ).

Next, the time from the 3rd floor hall call generation time T _a
Suppose that the state shown in FIG. 2 is reached at time T _b , which has elapsed. That is, during time T〓, 3
The aircraft served descending hall calls on the 7th and 6th floors, and 7 and 9 passengers boarded, respectively, exceeding expectations, and were subsequently assigned the descending hall calls 5D3 and 4D3 on the 5th and 4th floors. Let's say that four people boarded the plane when it arrived on the fifth floor. In this case, the number of passengers in car E3 of Unit 3 is 20, and the predicted number of passengers getting on and off on the 4th floor is 4.
If there are two people getting off the train, it is predicted that two more people will arrive on the third floor. Therefore,
Even if Unit 3 were to service the allocated hall call 3D3, when the expected number of passengers on the third floor was 6, the total would be 28, and since the capacity is 24, 4 people would be left unloaded. is expected.

When such a full house occurs, when a full house is predicted to occur, when a long waiting time is predicted to occur as described later, or when a first-come-first-served car call occurs, at that time T _b , reallocation processing is performed according to Fig. 5, and the allocation of car No. 3 is made. Hall call 3D3 is deleted and the hall call is newly assigned to machine No. 2.

By the way, in the past, the reserved light was moved from Unit 3 to Unit 2 at this point. However, in the present invention, the following steps are taken.

(1) If machine No. 2 becomes full due to the assigned descending hall call 7D2' after time T _b or the assignment of a new descending hall call, there is a possibility that the reallocation process will be performed again and the hall call assignment will be transferred to machine No. 1. Therefore, when Unit 1 approaches the 3rd floor, the reservation light will be transferred from Unit 3 to Unit 1, and the descending hall call 3D1'', which has undergone a guidance change, will be given priority to 1.
The unit is instructed to perform service, and control is performed so that the number of reserved light changes is one as much as possible.

(2) If Unit 3 reaches the 4th floor before the reservation light is changed and 15 people get off instead of the expected 2 people, and it is no longer full, immediately change the descending assigned hall call 3D2 of other units. ' and 3D1'', and
Set the descending assigned hole call 3D3 of the machine number,
As a result, changes to reserved lights were prevented. For example, this type of problem tends to occur when there is a dining room or a large conference room on the fourth floor, but in this case, the effect is great.

Hereinafter, an embodiment of the group management control device of the present invention for achieving the above will be described.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing one embodiment of the hall call allocation calculation control section of the group management control device of the present invention. In FIG. 3, the hall call registration control unit 1
When a new hall call registration is detected at 0, the new hall call assignment control unit 20 selects the elevator to be assigned to the hall call, stores the selected elevator in an assigned hall call table and a reserved hall call table (not shown), and then starts the service. Reservation hall call control unit 6
Reserved light group 1 due to the reserved hall call stored in 0
The reservation light for the floor of the elevator in question from 00 to 120 is turned on to guide passengers to the front of the service elevator (hall call assigned elevator).

Further, the contents of the assigned hall call table and the reserved hall call table are also input to each elevator control device 70 to 90, so that at least one elevator is controlled to service a hall call.

Reference numeral 30 denotes a hall call reassignment control unit that performs prediction and hall call reassignment control in the event that the elevator to which the hall call has been assigned becomes unavailable due to the occurrence of each of the conditions described above, failure, maintenance, suspension, etc. A detailed processing example is shown in FIG.

40, when the reserved hall call elevator and the assigned hall call elevator are different due to the occurrence of reassignment, the hall call reassigned elevator is faster and with a higher probability than the elevator whose service has been announced by the reservation light. Change reserved hall calls when service is expected to be available;
This is a service reservation light change control unit that changes the reservation light for the hall call. Further, 50 is an assigned hall call control unit that performs a reset process when a service is completed.

The above calculations for reallocation control and reserved light change control are performed using a microcomputer. The program for this will be explained below.

The data used by the program is
It is arranged in the random access memory (RAM) of the microcomputer, and the input information for each elevator includes the elevator's operating direction, position, weight inside the car, car call, and door opening/closing. In addition, there is data arranged in RAM created by the parallel elevator's group management control device, and data for read-only memory (ROM) that is given in advance as part of the specifications. The main data tables are shown below. However, the variable i corresponds to the floor, j corresponds to the direction, and k corresponds to the car number.

(a) Assigned hall call table (two-dimensional array of i, j) (b) Hall call duration table (two-dimensional array of i, j) (c) Predicted arrival time table (three-dimensional array of i, j, k) ) (d) Predicted car weight table (three-dimensional array of i, j, k) Note that the program flowcharts for processing (a) to (d) are the same as those already known, so they will not be described here. Description is omitted.

(e) Reservation hall call table (two-dimensional array of i, j) This table stores the reservation elevator selected at the time of new assignment, is updated by the reservation light change control, and is further updated by the service reservation hall call control unit 60. When the hall call is reset upon completion, the reserved elevator is controlled to be reset.

(f) Service priority level table (two-dimensional array of i, j) This table has traditionally been used for hall calls such as lobby and executive floor hall calls, which are given priority as far as possible over other hall calls. However, in the present invention, after the reservation is changed, the priority is increased, and the hall call whose reservation has been changed is serviced as soon as possible so that a new hall call on another floor is difficult to be assigned to the changed car. It can also be used to make things easier.

(g) Various constants (T ₁ to T ₁₁ , K ₁ to _{K 4} ) These constants may be used as spec values given to the ROM, but they can also be used as ROM spec values arranged by traffic demand zone, time zone, or driving pattern. It is preferable to select one from the group and transfer it to RAM for use. Furthermore, it is most preferable to create some of these constants by learning. For example, a limited number at the time of long-wait reassignment.
T ₂ performs learning to calculate the time limit with a long waiting rate of 5% or 40 seconds, whichever is greater, in the relevant traffic flow zone, by inputting the traffic flow distinction, collection, and hall call duration time. Do it like this.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing an embodiment of the hall call reassignment control program. First, initial values for processing all hall calls are set (step 305), and then it is determined whether there is a hall call on any i floor and whether it has been reassigned (step 310). ). If the reassignment has been completed and the reservation has not yet been changed, the process jumps to step 380, and it is further determined each time whether or not there is an optimal elevator. The flowchart of the hall call reassignment control program in step 380 is shown in FIG. 5, and is periodically activated as an operating system task every 1 or 5 seconds.

Next, it is determined whether a large number of car calls have occurred before the assigned hall call, or whether the predicted arrival time has become abnormally long due to maintenance, suspension, or failure (step 320), and a constant T ₁ (60 to 90 If it is determined that the time limit (seconds) is exceeded, the hall call is reassigned and the process jumps to step 380.

Next, the sum of the above-mentioned predicted arrival time and hall call duration time is calculated as the predicted long waiting time, and it is determined whether the value exceeds the time limit of constant T ₂ (90 to 120 seconds) (step 330). ), if the predicted arrival time exceeds the time limit of constant T ₃ (20 to 40 seconds), it is determined (step 335), and a hall call with a predicted long wait of constant T ₃ or more is assigned. If the predicted time for the elevator to service this hall call is relatively large, then the process jumps to step 380 and performs the reassignment.

Next, it is determined whether the weight of the elevator car to which the hall call on floor i has been assigned has exceeded a constant K ₁ (full capacity) (step 340), and furthermore, the predicted car weight of that elevator car has been determined to be a constant K ₂ It is determined whether or not the hall call has been exceeded (predicting a full hall) (step 345), and if it has been exceeded, this hall call is reallocated (step 380).

Furthermore, a car call with the same service as the hall call is newly registered on the same floor as the i floor, and the difference in predicted arrival time (first arrival time) is a constant T ₄ (10 to 30
If it is determined that the time limit (seconds) has been exceeded, the
350), reassign the hall call (step
380).

The above processing is performed for the ascending (UP) hall calls and descending (DN) hall calls of all floors, and when the processing is completed (step 390), this program is terminated.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing an embodiment of a control program for hall call reassignment processing in step 380 of FIG. FIG. 5 shows a new hall call assignment program (explanation is omitted here).
Since the process is almost the same as the above, and the outline of the process has already been explained, only the points particularly related to the present invention will be explained here.

First, service priority level processing will be explained. The evaluation function TKW of step 420 is TKW=T _s +T _c +T _v ……(1) where, T _s ; Predicted arrival time to the hall call in the j direction on the i floor of car K; T _c ; the i floor, j Hall call duration time in direction _Tv ; Service priority level for hall calls on floor i and direction j. Here, if the service priority level of a specific floor (reservation light change floor) is increased, the machine to which the hall call of that floor is assigned will be uniformly given the service evaluation function TKW when the hall call of any floor is assigned or reassigned. When the value becomes large, the machine with the assigned hall call is determined (step 460), and the maximum evaluation function TK(k) of that machine is set to a large value (step 445).

Therefore, the elevator is less likely to be selected as the optimal elevator for other hall calls (step 490).

Secondly, area control (priority allocation control of hall call services in the vicinity of stopped elevators) will be explained. This is generally called lockout control, and if there is a car call with the same service as the hall call to be allocated, the evaluation function of that car is
The time constant T ₉ (5 to 40 seconds) is subtracted from TK(k), and control is performed so that priority allocation is made easier by that amount (step 470).

In addition, a control (step
475).

Here, in the present invention, in the case of reallocation,
For elevators with reserved lights on, the constant T ₉ is reduced as if there is a car call for the same service (step 470), and when the elevator is no longer full, a reserved elevator (elevator with a reserved light on) is assigned again. It is controlled to be selected as an elevator.

In addition, the allocated hall calls, including those for the same service, are set to a constant T ₁₀ (5 to 5) in step 475.
In addition to being used for control to reduce the time (40 seconds), it is also used to calculate the predicted arrival time table.

Third, fullness prediction control for allocated hall calls will be explained. Conventionally, fullness prediction control has been performed for hall calls to be allocated, but fullness prediction control has not been implemented for hall calls that have already been allocated. However, for example, 5 of unit 3 in Figure 2
When allocating the descending hall call, by predicting and determining whether or not the already assigned third floor descending hall call 3D3 will be filled with passengers,
It is possible to prevent the occurrence of crowds and the accompanying changes in guidance. Therefore, in Fig. 5, the predicted car weight value WT is calculated for both new hall calls, assigned hall calls, and assigned hall calls.
(i, j, k) (step 430), and constant K ₃
(110 to 130%) or more is expected to be excluded from new hall call allocation elevators, and the value is given as the maximum evaluation function TK(k).

On the other hand, a constant is set to the value of the service evaluation function TKW for allocated hall calls that are expected to be more than the constant K ₁ (full).
It is controlled to add the time T ₁₁ (30 seconds) and allocate it to other machines as much as possible.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing one embodiment of the reservation light change control program. This program is also activated periodically, and searches for different floors of reserved elevators and assigned elevators for all hall calls (steps 605, 610, and 690). In other words, a hall call that has been reassigned is searched. It is determined whether the reserved hall call and the assigned hall call match (step 610), and it is determined whether the predicted arrival time of the assigned elevator is within a predetermined range (greater than time limit _T5 and less than _T6 ). Judgment (step)
615), if the predicted car weight is determined to be less than the constant _K4 within a predetermined range (step 620), the reserved hall call is changed to the assigned hall call in order to change the reserved elevator (step 670).

In addition, to prevent repeated reservation changes, the service priority level is set to a constant _T8 (step
680). Note that when the hall call is reset, the service reservation hall call control section 60 performs processing to return it to the original value.

On the other hand, even if the predicted arrival time is not within the predetermined range, if there is a car call for the same service (step 630) and the predicted car arrival time is smaller than the constant _T7 (step 640), the reservation is not changed. Execute (step 670).

This makes it possible to change the guidance earlier than usual if a car call and a reassigned hall call overlap.

As described above, according to the embodiment of the present invention, conventionally, when a hall call was reallocated due to the occurrence of a full hall call or a long waiting hall call, the service reservation light was changed each time. In the invention, an assigned hall call table and a service reservation hall call table are provided, and the reservation light can be changed without changing.
For hall calls that are predicted to have a long wait, a different elevator is ordered to be serviced, and the service reservation light is changed when it is predicted that service is almost certain, so the reservation light can be changed. The number of times can be reduced. In addition, if a hall call is reassigned due to the occurrence of a full hall call, the full or full forecast may be resolved after the reassignment. As a result, there is no need to change the reserved lights, and the service time can be shortened compared to the conventional method.

Next, other embodiments of the present invention will be described.
FIG. 7 is a flowchart of a hall call reassignment control program corresponding to FIG. 4 showing another embodiment of the present invention, and the same parts as in FIG. 4 are designated by the same reference numerals. In FIG. 7, reallocation can be performed not only when the vehicle is full, but also when it is predicted that the vehicle will be full or that there will be passengers left behind. The point corresponding to FIG. 4 is that a step 339 is added before step 340 to determine whether the predicted car weight of the reserved elevator exceeds a constant K ₃ (significantly full level of 110 to 130%). When it is determined that _K3 has been exceeded, hall call reallocation is immediately performed in step 380. As a result, service using another elevator can be started earlier, and serviceability can be improved.

FIG. 8 is a sixth embodiment showing still another embodiment of the present invention.
This is a flowchart of the program corresponding to the figure, in which the same parts as in FIG. 6 are designated by the same reference numerals. In Figure 6, there is a possibility that the assigned elevator with the assigned hall call for which additional service has been ordered due to reassignment will become the first-arrived elevator without changing the reservation, with the possibility that there is a seed left on the hall call floor. Therefore, Fig. 8 has been improved in this respect.

In other words, if it is determined that the predicted car weight of the newly allocated elevator is greater than or equal to the constant T ₄ (step 620) and the predicted arrival time is greater than or equal to the constant T ₅ and less than or equal to T ₆ (step 615), the elevator car will be assigned a new elevator by multiple elevator assignment processing. 3
(step 660) and change the reservation for an already assigned elevator (step 660).
670), and passengers who are expected to be left behind can use the third elevator, allowing congestion on that floor to be resolved even more quickly. Note that step 612 is performed by the machine control device 70.
This was added in order to immediately change reservations in the event that group management is not performed (unmanaged) or reservation lights 100 to 120 remain off due to a failure of light 90 or a failure of the service reservation light drive circuit. be.

In addition, as another method, backlog is predicted and
If the predicted arrival time is within the constant _T5 , the service priority level is raised to a constant _T8 (120 seconds) in step 680, and the reserved light is reassigned to the third elevator. It may also be possible to change the number of items and prevent items from being left unloaded.

As explained above, according to the present invention, an assigned hall call table and a guidance hall call table are provided, and the reservation light of an elevator once guided is changed to a different number after the final reassignment change, and , reallocation takes into account predicted arrival time, predicted long waiting time, car weight, and predicted car weight, so long waiting hall calls can be easily handled without impairing the serviceability of the entire group managed elevator to meet traffic demand. This has the effect of significantly reducing occurrence.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

1 and 2 are explanatory diagrams of the overall operation of the elevator group management control device according to the present invention, and FIG. 3 shows an embodiment of the hall call assignment calculation control section of the elevator group management control device of the present invention. 4 is a flowchart showing an example of the hall call reassignment control program, FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing an example of the program of step 380 in FIG. 4, and FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing an example of the program for changing reservation lights. FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing one embodiment of the control program; FIG. 7 is a flowchart corresponding to FIG. 4 showing another embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing yet another embodiment of the present invention; FIG. This is a flowchart corresponding to . 10...Hall call registration control unit, 20...New hall call assignment control unit, 30...Hall call reassignment control unit, 40...Service reservation light change control unit,
50... Assigned hall call control unit, 60... Service reservation hall call control unit, 70-90...1-3
Unit control device, 100-120...Service reservation light.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. Elevators in service between multiple floors, means provided in each elevator hall for registering hall calls to summon elevators, and means for selecting an elevator appropriate for the generated hall call. A group management system for elevators, comprising a hall call allocation means for allocating a hall call, a reassignment means for reallocating the hall call to another elevator according to a predetermined condition, and a reservation light lighting means for lighting a reservation light corresponding to the allocated elevator. In the control device, means for storing an assigned elevator selected at the time of new assignment of a hall call as a reserved elevator and turning on the reserved elevator; and when it is predicted that the reserved elevator will have a long wait, the reassignment means means for storing the re-allocated elevator separately selected in the re-assigned elevator, means for keeping the reserved lamp lit even once the re-assigned elevator is memorized, and means for storing the re-assigned elevator when the long waiting time for the reserved elevator is resolved. An elevator group management control device comprising means for returning the assigned elevator to the reserved elevator. 2. Provide means for changing the contents of the reserved elevator storage means to the reassigned elevator when the stored predicted arrival time and predicted fullness value for the hall call of the reassigned elevator are below a predetermined value, and change the lighting of the reservation light. An elevator group management control device according to claim 1, wherein the elevator group management control device is configured to: 3. The elevator group management control device according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the reallocation means is configured to periodically execute reallocation of the reallocated hall calls. 4. Provide means for additionally allocating the hall call to another elevator when the predicted fullness value is greater than or equal to a predetermined value even if the predicted arrival time for the hall call of the stored reassigned elevator is within a predetermined range. An elevator group management control device according to claim 1.