WO2014111127A1

WO2014111127A1 - Elevator group

Info

Publication number: WO2014111127A1
Application number: PCT/EP2013/050648
Authority: WO
Inventors: Janne Sorsa; Marja-Liisa Siikonen; Mirko RUOKOKOSKI; Juha-Matti Kuusinen
Original assignee: Kone Corporation
Priority date: 2013-01-15
Filing date: 2013-01-15
Publication date: 2014-07-24

Abstract

The invention refers to an elevator group (12) comprising at least two elevators cars (14, 16, 18) serving several floors which cars are controlled by a common elevator control (34), whereby in connection with the elevator control a car allocation system is provided. The car allocation system is configured to allocate the best elevator car to a given landing call. At at least one floor at least one passenger detector (28) is provided in the lobby (10) of the elevator group, which passenger detector is configured to detect the numbers of passengers (20) in the lobby, and that a passenger number calculation unit (32) is provided in connection with the elevator control, which calculation unit calculates from the signals of the passenger detector a passenger number signal which is fed to the call allocation system to be considered in its call allocation procedure. This elevator group allows an improved car allocation, particularly in destination call allocation systems.

Description

Elevator group

The present invention relates to an elevator group comprising at least two elevator cars serving several floors whereby the cars are control led by a common elevator control. In connection with the elevator control, a car allocation system is provided to allocate the best elevator car to a given landing call. The best elevator car is according to current practice an elevator car for which a cost function of different parameters is minimal. These parameters comprise passenger riding time, passenger waiting time, energy consumption and other parameters per se known in car allocation. The car allocation process under use of a cost function is per se known and shall not be discussed here in more detail. A problem with the current car allocation is that the elevator control does not really know how many persons are waiting behind a call. For example, in conventional up/down push button control, further passengers refrain from giving a call when they acknowledge that already one passenger before has issued an up or down call, which is always indicated in the lobby. Accordingly, the elevator control does not know how many persons want to travel up or down. Also in the destination call control wherein a user inputs the destination floor the passenger issuing the call could be one person of a group travelling with the same target. In this case, the further passengers of said group do not issue a call on their own.

To provide better information regarding the passenger flows for the elevator control some prior technology works with traffic forecast data which is provided based on the travel history of the elevator. Although this method is helpful in gaining more accurate data with respect to the number of passengers, this data is not sufficiently reliable, particularly un- der the consideration that the elevator traffic flows may deviate essentially from week to week or even daily.

It is therefore object of the present invention to provide an elevator group which allows an improved call allocation. Furthermore, it is target of the invention to provide a method for providing improved and reliable call allocation.

The above-mentioned object is solved with the features of the independent claims 1 and 10. Preferred embodiments of the invention are subject-matter of the dependent claims. According to the invention, at least one passenger detector is provided in a lobby of the elevator group. The term "lobby" designates the area in front of an elevator group, which is used by people wanting to travel with the elevator group. Such a lobby is provided in every public floor of the building. Preferably, the passenger detector is located at least in the entrance/exit lobby of the building, but the passenger detector can also be located on other floors or on all floors of the building. The passenger detector is a per se known person sensor as e.g. a camera or an infrared sensor giving any kind of information about people in the lobby. The signal of the passenger detector is then fed to a passenger num- ber calculation unit wherein a passenger number is derived from the signal of the passenger detector. This passenger number is then fed to the call allocation system to allow an improved faster and more reliable elevator car allocation. As with the present invention, the elevator control and the allocation system of the control has better information about the number of passenger waiting or moving in a lobby of the elevator the estimations of the allocation system about the number of persons behind a call become much more exact and reliable. Accordingly the present invention improves the quality and performance of the call allocation of the elevator control.

In this connection the term "elevator control" is designated as that part which is in charge of the call allocation. This could be an elevator group control, a multi-group control in large buildings having several elevator groups or even the elevator control of a single elevator if the call allocation of the elevator group is transferred to said elevator control. The elevator control might be a single unit or may be realised in different modules located at one or different place in the elevator group. Accordingly, it is well-known to separate those parts of the elevator control which relate to the car allocation and a second part of the elevator control which relates to the control of an elevator drive.

It is furthermore not only possible to monitor the number of passengers waiting in the lobby but also the number of passengers entering or leaving an elevator car. Via this measure also information about the destination of passengers can be obtained.

Preferably, the call allocation system is a destination call allocation system where the destination floor is input by the passengers into a destination call panel in the lobby. In this case, the elevator control gets via the passenger detector information about how many persons are heading to certain destinations. The elevator control obtains this information by monitoring the passenger flow in the lobby via the passenger detector, particu- larly when a call has been issued and when an elevator car is entering and leaving the lobby.

Accordingly, the present invention is specifically advantageous in case of destination call control in which the elevator car is immediately al located after the destination call has been given by a passenger. By the fact that this passenger moves to the corresponding elevator car, the control knows from the number of persons moving to said specific car that these passengers are heading to the destination(s) served by said particular car.

By making several measurements with the passenger detector in a certain time interval, it is possible for the passenger calculating unit to provide to calculate from these momentary signals a passenger flow in the lobby and/or into/from the elevator cars. This additional information is also very helpful in making better call allocation decisions.

Of course, the signal of a load measuring unit can also be used in an advantageous em- bodiment of the invention to provide additional information about the passenger number entering or leaving an elevator car. This additional data together with the data of the passenger detector can be used to get better information about the passenger flows between the elevator car and the lobby. In an advantageous embodiment of the invention, also a car passenger detector can be provided in at least one car of the elevator group, of course preferably in all elevator cars. Also the signals of the car passenger detectors of the different cars can then be fed to the passenger calculating unit which thus obtains a comparably exact image of all passengers and passenger flows within the elevator group.

In this connection, it has to be added that preferably on all floors a passenger detector should be located in the lobby so as to obtain the number of passengers waiting on all floors. This gives total limit of all passengers travelling with the elevator group and thus enables the allocation system to handle with very accurate data about the passenger flows.

Of course, the present invention can be combined with a per se known traffic forecast unit which estimates the number of passengers based on statistical data particularly on the travel history of the elevator group. This data from the traffic forecast unit can then additionally be used if for example the lobbies are very crowded during peak hours and the passenger detector is not able to differentiate between single passengers. Therefore, also in this case, at least the accuracy of the known car allocation systems can be upheld.

Preferably, the passenger detector comprises or is a sensor array which is able to differentiate the position of persons in different parts of the lobby. Via this differentiation, the elevator control is able to obtain information about the position of the passengers and their movements in the lobby. This helps in the calculation of people flows between the lob- bies and the elevator cars.

The invention refers further to a method for allocating elevator cars in an elevator group controlled by common elevator control for said group. Also for the method all the above statements regarding the invention hold true.

The invention will now be described in connection with the enclosed drawing. This shows a schematic top view of an elevator lobby.

The figure shows the lobby 10 of an elevator group 12 comprising three elevators 14, 1 6, 18. The lobby' specifies the area which is used by passengers 20 to enter or exit the elevators 14, 16, 18 of the elevator group 12 and/or to issue a destination call. The passengers 20 are illustrated as small black dots in the lobby 12 of the figure.

In the lobby a destination call terminal 22 is provided comprising a keyboard 24 for input- ting a destination floor and a display 26 for indicating the allocated elevator car 14, 1 6 or 18. The complete lobby 10 is monitored by a passenger detector 28 which is mounted preferably in an unobtrusive place so that the complete lobby 10 is detected in the detection range 30 of the passenger detector. The passenger detector may be a simple camera or infrared detector or any other per se known detector for person detection. The passenger detector 28 is connected to a passenger calculating unit 32 which is part of the elevator control 34. The elevator control 34 is provided for the car allocation of elevator cars 14, 1 6, 18 of the elevator group 12 to landing calls issued via the destination call terminal 22. Via the passenger detector 28, it is possible for the elevator control and for the car allocation system implemented in the elevator control to better estimate the numbers of passengers behind a destination call.

Preferably, the passenger detector 28 is a sensor array which is able to differentiate the position of persons 20 in different parts of the lobby 10. Via this differentiation, the elevator control 34 gets information on the positions of the passengers before the different elevator cars and accordingly to the different destinations of these passengers.

It is obvious for the skilled person that the above embodiment is not limited to an elevator group with three elevators but the number of elevators in the elevator group can deviate in this embodiment. Furthermore, this embodiment is not limited to destination call control but instead of a destination call terminal 22, a conventional up/down terminal can be placed there to issue per se known up/down calls. The invention can also be applied to a multi-group system having several elevator groups.

Furthermore, several passenger detectors can be located around the lobby 10 or within the lobby 10 to get a better resolution of the numbers and positions of the passengers waiting or moving in the lobby. The invention may deviate from the above embodiments within the scope of the appended patent claims.

Claims

Claims:

1 . Elevator group (12) comprising at least two elevators cars (14, 16, 18) serving several floors which cars are controlled by a common elevator control (34), whereby in connection with the elevator control a car allocation system is provided, which car allocation system is configured to allocate the best elevator car to a given landing call, characterized in that at least one passenger detector (28) is provided in the lobby (10) of at least one floor of the elevator group, which passenger detector is configured to detect the numbers of passengers (20) in the lobby, and that a passenger number calculation unit (32) is provided in connection with the elevator control, which calculation unit calculates from the signals of the passenger detector a passenger number signal which is fed to the call allo- cation system to be considered in its call allocation procedure.

2. Elevator group (12) according to claim 1 , wherein the call allocation system is a destination call allocation system (DCS).

3. Elevator group (12) according to claim 2, wherein a destination call terminal (22) is provided in the lobby (10) having a keyboard (24) for issuing a destination call and a display (26) for indicating the allocated elevator car (14, 16, 18).

4. Elevator group (12) according to one of the preceding claims, wherein the passenger detector (28) is a camera.

5. Elevator group (12) according to one of the preceding claims, wherein the passenger detector (28) is configured to make several measurements in a certain time interval, and wherein the passenger calculating unit (32) is provided to calculate from the several measurements passenger flow data.

6. Elevator group (12) according to one of the preceding claims, wherein the passenger number calculation unit (32) further uses the signals of a load measuring unit of the elevator car for the passenger number calculation.

7. Elevator group (12) according to one of the preceding claims, wherein further a car passenger detector is provided in at least one car (14, 1 6, 18) of the elevator group, whereby the signals of the car passenger detector (28) are fed to the passenger calculating unit (32).

8. Elevator group (12) according to one of the preceding claims, wherein further a traffic forecast unit is provided in connection with the elevator control, whereby the signals of the traffic forecast unit are fed to the passenger calculating unit (32).

9. Elevator group (12) according to one of the preceding claims, wherein the car alloca- tion system is an algorithm implemented in the elevator control (34).

10. Method for allocating elevator cars (14, 16, 18) in an elevator group (12) controlled by a common elevator control (34), in which allocation method an allocation system allocates the best elevator car to a given landing call, in which method the number of passen- gers (20) is considered in the call allocation system, characterized in that the signals of at least one passenger detector (28) provided in the lobby (10) of at least one floor of the elevator group are fed to a passenger number calculation unit (32), which calculates from the signals of the passenger detector the numbers of passengers to be considered in the car allocation system, which number is fed to the car allocation system.

1 1 . Method according to claim 10, wherein several measurements from the passenger detector (28) are used by the passenger calculation unit (32) to determine passenger flow data.

12. Method according to claim 10 or 1 1 , wherein the signals of at least one car passenger detector (28) is fed to the passenger calculation unit (32) to be considered in the car allocation system.

13. Method according to one of claims 10 to 12, wherein the call allocation system uses destination call allocation.

14. Method according to one of claims 10 to 13, wherein the signals of a load measuring unit of the elevator car are fed to the passenger number calculation unit (32).

15. Method according to one of claims 10 to 14, wherein further a traffic forecast unit is provided in connection with the elevator control (34), and the data of the traffic forecast unit is considered by the passenger calculating unit (32) to calculate the correct passenger flow.