WO2008043877A1

WO2008043877A1 - Sign system

Info

Publication number: WO2008043877A1
Application number: PCT/FI2007/000233
Authority: WO
Inventors: Aapo Puskala; Pekka Korhonen; Niko Rusanen; Rauno Hatakka
Original assignee: Kone Corporation
Priority date: 2006-10-12
Filing date: 2007-09-20
Publication date: 2008-04-17
Also published as: FI118963B; FI20060905A0; FI20060905A

Abstract

Method and system for optimizing the route of a passenger. The passenger selects the route he/she wants from at least two different route options, of which at least one of the route options comprises a passenger transport appliance. According to the method the most suitable route at the time is determined for the passenger, about which information is conveyed to the passenger through a guide sign or a portable terminal device.

Description

SIGN SYSTEM

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a passenger transport service. More particularly the present invention relates to a method and to a system for optimizing the route of a passenger and for guidance on the optimal route.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION In large buildings .there are often many route options, all of which lead to the same destination. For example, in a department store a choice can be made between an elevator, an escalator and stairs or it is possible to choose between many groups of elevators . In a large office building or hospital it may even be necessary to move from one end of the building to the other or to change from an escalator to an elevator just to get to a certain department of a certain floor.

The selection of the route can be decisively influenced by which part of the building the passenger is at the time. Often the choice is made on the basis of which of the options is closest or which appears to be the easiest. When going to another floor, an elevator is not necessarily the fastest option, especially if the passenger himself/herself happens to be near the stairs. Instead, many passengers consider that walking to a higher floor along the stairs feels wearisome and for this reason select an elevator.

Since the passengers themselves can make the choice between route options, it is possible that a large proportion of users select the same elevator group, e.g. the elevator nearest the parking place or the elevator nearest the main door of a department store. From this it follows that some elevators may be in very great use while other elevators are used substantially less.

Even if it were planned that passengers would use two different elevator groups, passengers may collect to use mainly only one elevator group, which could cause congestions. The movements and destination floors of users are difficult to estimate reliably, so that predicting the utilization rate of elevators is awkward.

PURPOSE OF THE INVENTION

The purpose of the present invention is to eliminate or at least to alleviate the aforementioned problem areas and deficiencies of prior-art technology. The purpose of the invention is also to disclose a solution with which one or more of the following objectives are achieved: - congestions in elevator systems are reduced, the travel times of passengers in buildings are shortened, the transportation capacities of elevator systems are optimized, - forthcoming congestions are taken into account by means of statistical data in giving directions to passengers, general satisfaction with traveling in buildings is improved, - a passenger is guided to the optimal route option at as early a stage as possible when the passenger arrives in the building, the servicing, fault and other such special situations of the transport systems are taken into account in the route optimization, special situations prevailing in the building are taken into account in the guidance, such as e.g. evacuation situations.

The purpose of the present invention is to present a new method and system for optimizing the route of a passenger and for conveying the optimal route to the passenger to guide the passenger's selection from the different route options.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The method according to the present invention is characterized by what is disclosed in the characterization part of claim 1. The system according to the invention is characterized by what is disclosed in the characterization part of claim 7. Other embodiments of the invention are characterized by what is disclosed in the other claims. Some inventive embodiments are also discussed in the descriptive section of the present application. The inventive content of the application can also be defined differently than in the claims presented below. The inventive content may also consist of several separate inventions, especially if the invention is considered in the light of expressions or implicit sub-tasks or from the point of view of advantages or categories of advantages achieved. In this case, some of the attributes contained in the claims below may be superfluous from the point of view of separate inventive concepts.

The present invention discloses a method for optimizing the route of a passenger, in which method the passenger selects the route he/she wants from at least two different route options, of which at least one of the route options comprises a passenger transport appliance. According to the method the most suitable route is determined for the passenger on the basis of at least one criterion, about which route option information is conveyed to the passenger through a guide sign or a portable terminal device.

According to one embodiment of the invention the passenger is identified before determining the most suitable route option.

According to another embodiment of the invention the criterion, on the basis of which the best suitable route is determined for the passenger, is the estimated travel time, total travel time, waiting time, utilization rate of the transport appliance, statistical information, the walking distance of the route and/or the personal profile of the passenger.

The invention also relates to a system for optimizing the route of a passenger. In the system the passenger selects the route he/she wants from at least two different route options, of which at least one of the route options comprises a passenger transport appliance. The system also comprises an information system for determining the most suitable route for the passenger on the basis of at least one criterion as well as means for conveying information about the best suitable route to the passenger.

According to one embodiment of the invention the means for conveying information to the passenger comprises a guide sign and/or a mobile messaging appliance.

According to one embodiment of the invention the system further comprises means for identifying a passenger. Bluetooth, RFID or barcode technology can be used as an embodiment of the invention for identifying the passenger. The passenger has an RFID identifier or similar short-range identification appliance, from which the remote reader in the lobby identifies the passenger automatically. The RFID identifier can be e.g. the pass card of a regular user of the building, which contains one or more programmed favorite route options that are specific to the passenger.

In large buildings the control of passenger traffic is distributed among many transport appliances e.g. in exactly the way that an elevator is at both ends of the floor. Passengers may gather to use mainly only one of the elevators, and thus can cause congestion for the elevators in question. The dynamic control of passenger traffic according to the invention is designed so that passengers are directed mainly to uncongested elevators, but taking into account also e.g. that someone may want to stay specifically at one end of the building and not to walk needlessly backwards and forwards .

The purpose of the present invention is to eliminate the problem areas that are presented in conjunction with the description of prior art. The route optimization and sign system according to the invention also has significant advantages compared to prior art. The method and system according to the present invention effectively reduce congestion in the transport system, such as in the elevator system, and also reduce the travel times of passengers by offering guidance to the best route option at that moment.

Since passengers are distributed better (more evenly) between many different route options, the capacity of the transport appliances is utilized more efficiently.

Thus it is possible to reduce the maximum capacity of the elevators and to improve the efficiency of the transport systems. In addition the travel times and waiting times become shorter for passengers, in which case the system also reduces the frustration of passengers and improves travel satisfaction. One advantage of the invention is also that the passenger can be guided to the optimal route in good time before he/she arrives at the transport appliance serving him/her, in which case the total travel time used by the passenger becomes shorter than before. In addition, by means of the invention it is possible to compile statistics about traffic flows for the different travel routes and, based on the statistics collected, endeavor to prevent congestion forming in advance.

LIST OF FIGURES

Fig. 1 presents an example of the route options of a passenger in a building, and

Fig. 2 presents one example of the system according to the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Fig. 1 presents an embodiment of the method and the system according to the present invention for optimizing the route of a passenger and for giving directions on the optimal route to the passenger.

Fig. 1 presents a building, such as an office building or department store, in which a passenger has many route options. If the passenger 106 wants e.g. to end up at the point 104 on the third floor, he/she can choose whether to go with an elevator of the elevator group 100 or 102, or using the escalator 108. The passenger can also choose to himself/herself walk the stairs 110.

According to the invention the most suitable route for the passenger is determined from the different options and information about the best suitable route is conveyed to the passenger e.g. with the guide sign 100a or 102a in the lobbies.

Fig. 2 presents a route guidance system according to the invention. The control system of the elevator system (200 and/or 202) or some other information system 206 collects information about passenger events on the basis of defined criteria, e.g. average total travel times (of landing calls to the destination floor given) in the elevator systems (200, 202) . In the system the estimated total travel time of each route option from the point of departure in the building to the different destinations are compared and the most suitable route option is inferred e.g. on the basis of the total travel time. When defining the most suitable route option it is also possible to use other criteria and/or also to take into account the fact that one of the transport systems is being serviced or that passage is blocked at some point on a route.

The primary task of the information system 206 is to collect up-to-date information about passenger events from different routes, to evaluate the merit (suitability) of the different routes compared to each other on the basis of the given criteria and to control local guide signs to guide passengers to the evaluated routes. A criterion can be one or more performance indicators describing the merit of a route, which are e.g.: the utilization rate of the transport appliance of the route, travel time, waiting time, total travel time, walking distance, statistical information and personal profile. The utilization rate of a transport appliance means in this context how large a proportion of the maximum capacity of the transport appliance is in use. The travel time of the route in this context means the time spent by the passenger on the transport appliance. The total travel time means the time taken for the passenger to go from the guide sign or from the destination call appliance to the destination point of the route. The overall travel time can be comprised of, among other things, transfer times, waiting times and/or the travel time spent on the transport appliance. Some of the times can assumed to be constant (e.g. transfer time from a guide sign to an escalator) and recorded in advance in the memory (not presented in Fig. 2) of the information system 206. For evaluating the merit of different routes it' is possible to use a so-called cost function, in which selected criteria are weighted with the desired weighting factors for calculating the so-called total cost of each route. The route option with the smallest overall cost is selected as the most suitable route, which is informed to passengers e.g. with the guide signs. Cost functions are, in themselves, generally known e.g. from methods of allocation of the elevators of an elevator group and they are not examined in more detail in this application.

In practice guidance is often arranged to the transport option that has more free transport capacity, thus generally the fastest option at that moment. The fastest option can also be the escalator or the normal stairs. When one or more elevators of an elevator group are being serviced, it is probable that the elevator group in question will become congested. The system according to the invention monitors passenger events, and if it detects that there is congestion in some elevator system (e.g. the utilization rate of a certain elevator system grows and/or total travel time grows) , it directs arriving passengers to another elevator group or to some other route option.

Another task of the information system 206 is the collection of statistical information about the flows of passengers in the building (passenger events) on different routes at different times of the day and/or of weekdays. The statistical information can be utilized in evaluating route options such that future congestions are also forecast in the cost function and such that the passenger flows are directed from routes forecast to be congested to uncongested routes before the congestion has started to form. In practice forecasting can take place already many minutes before the start of the predicted congestion. By means of the statistical data effective use of the transport appliances is made more efficient than before and the occurrence of congestion is prevented in advance. One or more items of statistical data linked to time or to a specific route can be recorded in the statistical data, which are e.g.: average waiting time, average travel time, average total travel time and/or average utilization rate of a transport appliance. The collection of statistical data can be continuous or it can be collected for a desired period of time (e.g. for a week) and utilized in route optimization only after the period of time has expired.

In one embodiment describing the invention the elevator system 102 is congested whereas there is spare transport capacity in the elevator system 100. The information system 206 detects the situation in question on the basis of the information it has collected. The information system 206 compares the merit of different travel routes to each other on the basis of given criteria and detects that it is most advantageous to use the elevator system 100 when traveling to other floors from the arrival lobby of the elevator system 100 whereas from the arrival lobby of the elevator system 102 it is most advantageous to use the escalator 108. The information system 206 directs passengers arriving in the lobby of the elevator system 100 by means of the guide sign 100a in the lobby to use the elevator of the elevator system 100 and correspondingly passengers arriving in the lobby of the elevator system 102a to use the escalator 106. The guidance information is thus dependent on place and changes dynamically according to the traffic situation prevailing in the building, as a result of which the guidance information of the guide signs can also, in terms of its content, be different for the same destination in the building.

In high-rise buildings the floors can be divided into one or more zones comprised of a floor, the travel routes (the merit of the travel routes) between which can be evaluated in the information system 206. Zoning can be fixed or can change dynamically according to the traffic situation in the building. When the optimal travel routes between different zones have been evaluated, the guide signs notify which route it is worth using to get to the zone on that floor. The guide sign can include e.g. the following guidance information:

Floors 4-10, go to lobby A ->

Floors 2-3, use escalator B ^-

The guide signs can be very distant from the transport appliances themselves, e.g. in the parking hall, in which case a passenger receives guidance in good time before going to the transport appliance. The guide signs are preferably situated in the entrance lobbies of the building and in any nodes for passenger traffic. The guide signs are situated preferably also in the elevator cars (100b, 102b) for guiding passengers to any onward routes already before exiting from the elevator car.

When a passenger arrives at an elevator lobby, the guide sign 203 or the display appliance 212 can show information about what the transport capacity of each elevator system is at that moment e.g. by showing the estimated waiting times and/or estimated total travel times of routes. With the guide sign it is possible to show examples of which route is the shortest or fastest to a certain point in the building. It is also possible with the guide sign to flash an arrow indicating the direction of travel to the optimized route option.

The invention can also be connected to so-called destination call elevators, in which the destination call is given already in the elevator lobby with the call appliance 212. The magnitude of the utilization rate of the elevator can be inferred e.g. on the basis of the calls given or by monitoring the travel times in each elevator system. Likewise, the utilization rate of escalators can be detected e.g. by means of photoelectric cells in connection with the escalators.

Passengers can also be identified by means of an identifier card 210 utilizing RFID technology or a barcode, or by means of some other identifier. The passenger can be identified with the reader appliance 212 in the elevator lobby, which detects the arrival of an identifier card in the identification area of the reader appliance. The pass card of the passenger can, in addition to functioning as identification of the passenger, also function as a destination call appliance or in access control of the passenger such that for each holder of a pass card access to only certain destinations is permitted.

It is possible to define a personal profile for regular users of the system, in which the favorite routes and/or the special needs (transportation of the handicapped, etc.) of the user can be programmed in advance, in which case determining the best route can be performed utilizing also the profile information of the user. The use of escalators or steps is not proposed for handicapped customers, but instead the route proposal is determined from the available elevator systems.

Information about the most suitable route option can be sent to a passenger also to the portable terminal device 208 of the passenger, in which case the passenger is identified by means of the terminal device or based on the aforementioned RFID technology.

In an emergency situation the building is evacuated, in which case the system can propose the fastest route out of the building. It is indicated to the passenger whether it is worth exiting along the stairs or waiting for an elevator. If the control system detects that an evacuation route is congested, it changes the guidance of the guide signs accordingly. It is also possible that there are problems in the electrification of the building, in which case the screen can be arranged into emergency mode. In emergency mode the guide sign 204 or the display appliance 212 can use its own current source, or a certain control signal can be left switched on in an emergency. In this case all passengers can e.g. be directed to the stairs.

The invention is not limited solely to apply to the embodiments described above, but instead many variations are possible within the scope of the inventive concept defined by the claims below.

Claims

1. Method for optimizing the route of a passenger, which comprises at least two route options, of which at least one of the route options comprises a passenger transport appliance, characterized in that the method comprises the phases: the most suitable route option is determined for the passenger on the basis of one or more criteria; and information about the best suitable route is conveyed to the passenger.

2. Method according to claim 1, charac teri zed in that information about the best suitable route is conveyed to the passenger by means of a guide sign (204) .

3. Method according to claim 1 or 2 , charac t er i z ed in that information about the best suitable route is conveyed to the passenger by means of a portable terminal device (208) and/or a display device (212) .

4. Method according to any of claims 1 - 3 above, characteri zed in that the method further comprises the phase: the passenger is identified before determining the most suitable route option.

5. Method according to any of claims 1 - 4 above, characterized in that statistical information is collected about passenger events to forecast congestions on the different routes.

6. Method according to any of claims 1 - 5 above, characteri zed in that the aforementioned criterion is the estimated travel time, total travel time, waiting time, utilization rate of the transport appliance, walking distance, the statistical information of the route and/or the personal profile of the passenger.

7. System for optimizing the route of a passenger, which route comprises at least two route options, of which at least one of the route options comprises a passenger transport appliance (100, 102, 200, 202, 108) c h ar a c t e r i z e d i n t ha t the system further comprises: an information system (206) for determining the most suitable route for a passenger on the basis of one or more criteria; and means (100a, 100b, 102a, 102b, 204, 208, 212) for conveying information about the best suitable route to the passenger.

8. Arrangement according to claim 7 , charac t eri z ed in that the aforementioned means for conveying information about the best suitable route to the passenger comprises a guide sign (100a, 100b, 102a, 102b, 204) .

9. System according to claim 7 or 8, charact eri z ed in that the aforementioned means for conveying information about the best suitable route to the passenger comprises a portable terminal device (208) and/or a display device (212).

10. System according to any of claims 7 - 9 above, charac teri z ed in that the information system (206) is arranged to collect statistical information about passenger events in order to forecast congestions traffic on the routes .

11. System according to any of claims 7 - 9 above, charac teri z ed in that the aforementioned criterion is the estimated travel time, total travel time, utilization rate of the transport appliance, waiting time, walking distance, the statistical information of the route and/or the personal profile of the passenger.