WO2018151895A1

WO2018151895A1 - Real-time intelligent egress system for high rise building

Info

Publication number: WO2018151895A1
Application number: PCT/US2018/014159
Authority: WO
Inventors: Jie XI; Zhen Jia; Jie Mao; Kai Zhang
Original assignee: Carrier Corporation
Priority date: 2017-02-16
Filing date: 2018-01-18
Publication date: 2018-08-23
Also published as: CN108449370A

Abstract

The present invention provides a control system and a guidance system for a building, wherein the control system comprises: a control module; a monitoring module associated with the control module; and a positioning module associated with the control module, wherein, when an occurrence of a special situation is received, the control module generates a recommended route based on a location of the terminal and pushes the recommended route to the terminal through the positioning module. The control system and the guidance system according to embodiments of the present invention push the recommended route to people in the building under the special situation to overall guide evacuation of the people in the building, and all escape routes in the building are effectively utilized.

Description

REAL-TIME INTELLIGENT EGRESS SYSTEM FOR HIGH RISE BUILDING

TECHNICAL FIELD

[0001] The present invention relates to the technical field of automation of buildings/premises, in particular to a guidance system for providing guidance when a special situation occurs in a building.

BACKGROUND ART

[0002] In the prior art, when a special situation such as a fire occurs in a building especially high-rise premises, generally an alarm system is started to notify people in the building to evacuate. Since people in the building cannot acquire clear indication information at first time, chaos, crowdedness and even accidents may be easily caused.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

[0003] The purpose of the present invention is to push a recommended route to people in a building under a special situation, so as to overall guide the people in the building to evacuate and effectively utilize all escape routes in the building.

[0004] The purpose of the present invention is to accurately provide guidance information to people in a building in real time under a special situation.

[0005] The purpose of the present invention is to overall dispatch an elevator system, a sign system, an alarm system and the like in a building under a special situation.

[0006] The purpose of the present invention is to solve or at least relieve the problem existing in the prior art.

[0007] In order to realize the above-mentioned or other purposes, according to one aspect of the present invention, the present invention provides a control system for a building, comprising: a control module;

a monitoring module associated with the control module, the monitoring module receiving an occurrence of a special situation at each location in the building sent by a monitoring system of the building and notifying the control module; and

a positioning module associated with the control module, the positioning module being capable of communicating with a terminal to acquire a location of the terminal and feeding back the location of the terminal to the control module,

wherein, when the occurrence of the special situation is received, the control module generates a recommended route based on the location of the terminal and pushes the recommended route to the terminal through the positioning module. [0008] According to another aspect of the present invention, the present invention provides a guidance system for a building, comprising:

a control system according to each embodiment of the present invention;

a monitoring system associated with the control system, the monitoring system monitoring an occurrence of a special situation at each location in the building and notifying the control system; and

a positioning system associated with the control system, the positioning system further communicating with a terminal to acquire a location of the terminal and feeding back the location of the terminal to the control system,

wherein, when the occurrence of the special situation is known, the control system generates a recommended route based on the location of the terminal and pushes the recommended route to the terminal.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0009] The disclosure of the present invention will become easier to understand with reference to the drawings. One skilled in the art could easily understand that these drawings are only used for the purpose of description instead of limiting the protective scope of the present invention. Besides, similar numbers in the drawings are used for expressing similar components, wherein:

FIG. 1 illustrates a schematic view of a guidance system for a building according to the embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0010] It can be easily understood that one skilled in the art could put forward various structural forms and implementation modes which can be mutually replaceable according to the technical solutions of the present invention without changing the essential spirit of the present invention. Therefore, the following specific implementation modes and drawings are only used for exemplarily describing the technical solutions of the present invention, and shall not be considered as all of the present invention or be considered as limitations or restrictions to the technical solutions of the present invention.

[0011] Orientation terms such as "upper", "lower", "left", "right", "front", "rear", "front side", "back side", "top" and "bottom" which are mentioned or are possibly mentioned in the description are defined relative to structures shown in the drawings, they are relative concepts and thus may be correspondingly changed according to different locations and different use states thereof. Therefore, these or other orientation terms shall not be explained as restrictive terms. [0012] Firstly, referring to FIG. 1 which illustrates a structural schematic view of a guidance system for a building according to the embodiment of the present invention. The guidance system mainly comprises a control system 11; a monitoring system 13 associated with the control system 11, the monitoring system 13 monitoring an occurrence of a special situation at each location in the building and notifying the control system 11 ; and a positioning system 12 associated with the control system 11, the positioning system 12 further communicating with a terminal 20 to acquire a location of the terminal 20 and feeding back the location of the terminal 20 to the control system 11, wherein, when the occurrence of the special situation is known, the control system 11 generates a recommended route based on the location of the terminal 20 and pushes the recommended route to the terminal 20.

[0013] In some embodiments, the control system 11 may be a computer or a server such as a cloud server. The control system 11 may be associated with the monitoring system 13 through a wired or wireless network. In some embodiments, the monitoring system 13 may comprise a plurality of smoke detectors distributed at different locations on each floor of the building. The smoke detectors may monitor smoke and in turn monitor fires. Further, the monitoring system may further comprise a plurality of image pickup devices such as 2D or 3D image pickup devices distributed at each location on each floor in the building. The image pickup device may monitor occurrences of various other special situations, and can cooperate with the smoke detectors to more accurately and timely monitor situations such as fires. The image pickup devices can further extract various types of information based on the picked-up images, including the number of people at certain locations, the people flow and the like, and even can be used for acquiring information such as smoke concentrations. It shall be understood that the smoke detectors and the image pickup device may utilize a part of an existing monitoring system in the building. In other embodiments, the monitoring system may further comprise any device capable of acquiring field information or capable of monitoring an occurrence of a special situation. By associating the monitoring system

13 with the control system 11, a building manager may remotely observe the state of the building in real time and manage the building. The monitoring system 13 communicates with the control system 11 to notify the control system 11 at first time when an occurrence of a special situation is monitored.

[0014] The guidance system further comprises a positioning system 12 and the positioning system 12 may position a terminal 20 in the building. A location of the positioning system in the building is known, and an existing positioning system in the building may determine an accurate location of the terminal. In some embodiments of the present invention, the positioning system can position the terminal in the building through a hybrid wireless network positioning system based on WIFI and Bluetooth signals. Specifically, the terminal 20 may be a mobile phone, a tablet computer or a smart wearable device, for example. An application software may be installed on the terminal 20, and the application software is configured to request for agreeing the positioning system 12 to position the terminal 20 and the control system 11 to push information to the terminal 20. Through the positioning performed by the positioning system 12 to the terminal 20, the control system 11 can acquire the distribution of the terminal 20 in the building to estimate the people flow or a population density in the building. In some embodiments, people who frequently enter the building, such as office staffs or managers in the building may install an application on their terminals 20 in advance and agree to relevant protocols, such that the control system 11 has the right to push information to the terminals 20 of these people. These people can receive guidance information when special situations occur, which has a field commanding effect. For people who occasionally enter the building, their terminals may be connected with the guidance system through building WIFI and acquire the information pushed by the control system 11 by means of browsers for example.

[0015] When the monitoring system 13 monitors an occurrence of a special situation, the monitoring system 13 notifies the control system 11 at first time to enter an event state, for example, or the building manger may manually trigger the control system 11 to enter the event state according to an observed field situation. Under the event state, the control system 11 executes a plurality of operations, including generating a recommended route based on a location of the terminal 20 when the occurrence of the special situation is known and pushing the recommended route to the terminal 20. In the case that the special situation is a dangerous situation such as a fire, the recommended route may be an evacuation route or an escape route, and the evacuation route or the escape route may be from the location of the terminal to a location of an exit. When other special situations occur, the recommended route may provide other types of guidance. A software may be built in the control system 11 in advance to simulate the recommended route, or the control system may compute the recommended route based on a determination on the field situation. The information pushed by the control system 11 to the terminal 20 may further comprise a building map which may be a partial area map or an entire map of the building. For example, the building map may comprise locations of elevators, stairs and safety passageways and the like. In some embodiments, locations of exits, the location of the terminal, the location at which the special situation occurs and the like may also be marked on the building map.

[0016] In some embodiments, the control system further marks information related to the people flow and elevator operation states on the pushed building map. For example, the people flow in different areas may be marked on the pushed building map in a remarkable manner such as by means of colors with different darkness. Users may use an exit with the low people flow. Besides, information such as floors at which elevators are located may also be marked on the pushed building map in a remarkable manner such as by means of numbers at elevators.

[0017] Any form may be adopted for the pushed building map, and preferably an intuitive, simple and easy-to-understand form is adopted. In some embodiments, the recommended route may be presented in the form of a simulated map, such as a three-dimensional simulated map, on which the recommended route is marked. This type of map is commonly seen in the field of navigation. Of course, the positioning system configured in the building can realize more accurate positioning than a common navigation system, and the provided recommended route is more accurate. The control system 11 may further push the recommended route to the terminal 20 in real time according to the field situation, and the recommended route is updated with the change of the field situation. For example, the recommended route is updated based on a movement of the location of the terminal 20. Under special situations such as fires, for example, the recommended route is updated in real time based on the fire spreading situation, the smoke concentration, the population density, the elevator state in the field and the like.

[0018] In some embodiments, the control system may also push a plurality of routes distributed from the location of the terminal to the exit to the terminal for selection by users. On this basis, the control system may also mark the shortest route, the recommended route and the like. The control system may be configured with a computer program such that an optimum route for each terminal can be reckoned based on the mastered situation and the location of the terminal. Since the control system 11 macroscopic ally masters various types of information in the building, including a population distribution, exit locations, the recommended routes and elevator operation situations and the like, it can overall plan and provide the recommended routes, such that the recommended routes and various tools such as elevators in the building can be more effectively and orderly utilized. The control system may also update the recommended routes according to the change of the field situation and push the same to each terminal.

[0019] Besides, in some embodiments, the guidance system for the building further comprises or is associated with other facilities. For example, the control system 11 of the guidance system may also be associated with an elevator system in the building. In some embodiments, the control system 11 may acquire operation state information of elevators through the control system 15 of the elevator 14, such as the floor at which the elevator 14 is located, the number of people carried by the elevator 14 (reckoned based on a load capacity, for example). In some embodiments, the control system 11 obtains the right to control the elevators when an occurrence of a special situation is known, and can overall dispatch the elevators in the elevator system. For example, the elevators may be preferentially dispatched to the floor at which the special situation occurs or floors above it. [0020] In some embodiments, the control system 11 of the guidance system is further associated with a building sign system 16. The control system 11 provides additional guidance through the building sign system 16 when an occurrence of a special situation is known. The building sign system 16 may comprise various striking signs or symbols distributed at locations on each floor of the building, such as arrow signs, exit signs and elevator signs. When a special situation occurs, the control system 11 controls the building sign system 16 to provide proper additional guidance to the people in the building.

[0021] In some embodiments, the control system 11 of the guidance system is further associated with an alarm system (not shown). The alarm system may comprise alarm rings and/or alarm lamps, etc. The control system 11 enables the alarm system to transmit an alarm when an occurrence of a special situation is known, so as to prompt the people in the building about the occurrence of the special situation. The alarm system may also be an application soft installed on the terminal, through which the control system 11 may enable the terminal 20 to make an alarm sound.

[0022] The control system 11 itself may comprise a control module; a monitoring module associated with the control module, the monitoring module receiving an occurrence of a special situation at each location in the building sent by a monitoring system of the building and notifying the control module; and a positioning module associated with the control module, the positioning module being capable of communicating with a terminal to acquire a location of the terminal and feeding back the location of the terminal to the control module, wherein, when the occurrence of the special situation is received, the control module generates a recommended route based on the location of the terminal and pushes the recommended route to the terminal through the positioning module.

[0023] In one embodiment of the practical application of the guide system for the building according to the present invention, when the monitoring system 13 monitors an occurrence of a special situation such as a fire, the control system 11 may enable the alarm system to transmit an alarm to the people in the entire building to notify them to evacuate; the control system 11 acquires locations of each terminal according to the positioning system and pushes different recommended routes, e.g., in the form of a simulated map, to the terminals at different locations through computation and simulation, wherein the recommended routes may depend on various factors such as a distribution of terminals in the building, a location at which the special situation occurs and locations of evacuation passageways; the control system may further provide more intuitive additional evacuation guidance to the people in the building through the sign system at each location in the building; the control system may further preferentially call elevators to the floor at which the special situation occurs or other floors where elevators are urgently needed; and besides, with the change of the location at which the special situation occurs, the control system pushes the field situation in the building to the terminals in real time, including but not limited to population densities, locations of elevators, the location at which the special situation such as a fire occurs and smoke situations, and can update the recommended routes according to the change of the field situation.

[0024] The guidance system for the building according to the present invention has the following advantages:

1) an optimum recommended route based on the location of the terminal is pushed to the terminal at first time by means of intuitive pushed information, and the recommended route is adjusted according to the change of the field situation simultaneously;

2) a plurality of systems including the monitoring devices, the positioning system, the sign system, the alarm system and the elevator system in the building are overall managed, so as to coordinate each of the systems to work to provide the most efficient guidance when a special situation occurs;

3) building owners can monitor states of a plurality of buildings at the same time by virtue of this system and remotely manage the plurality of buildings; and

4) this system can be seamlessly connected with other systems or products in the building, so as to provide more smarter services.

[0025] The specific embodiments described above are just used for more clearly describing the principle of the present invention, wherein all parts are clearly illustrated or described so that the principle of the present invention can be more easily understood. One skilled in the art could easily make various modifications or variations to the present invention without departing from the scope of the present invention. Therefore, it should be understood that these modifications or variations are all included in the patent protection scope of the present invention.

Claims

1. A control system for a building, comprising:

a control module;

wherein, when the occurrence of the special situation is received, the control module generates a recommended route based on the location of the terminal and pushes the recommended route to the terminal through the positioning module.

2. The control system according to claim 1, characterized in that the control module pushes the following information to the terminal through the positioning module: a building map; a location of the terminal in the building map; a location at which the special situation occurs; and people flow at each location in the map.

3. The control system according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the control module pushes the recommended route to the terminal in real time according to a field situation, and the recommended route is updated according to a change of the field situation.

4. The control system according to any one of claims 1-3, characterized in that the control module pushes the recommended route to the terminal in real time in the form of a map.

5. The control system according to any one of claims 1-4, characterized in that the control module further communicates with an elevator system to acquire a state of each elevator, and when the occurrence of the special situation is received, the control module is capable of controlling the elevator system and pushing the state of each elevator to the terminal.

6. The control system according to any one of claims 1-4, characterized in that the control module is further associated with a building sign system, and when the occurrence of the special situation is received, the control module points the recommended route through the building sign system.

7. The control system according to any one of claims 1-4, characterized in that the control module is further associated with an alarm system, and the control module enables the alarm system to transmit an alarm when the occurrence of the special situation is received.

8. A guidance system for a building, comprising:

a control system according to any one of claims 1-7; a monitoring system associated with the control system, the monitoring system monitoring an occurrence of a special situation at each location in the building and notifying the control system; and

9. The guidance system according to claim 8, characterized in that the control system pushes the following information to the terminal: a building map; a location of the terminal in the building map; a location at which the special situation occurs; and people flow at each location in the map.

10. The guidance system according to claim 8 or 9, characterized in that the control system pushes the recommended route in the form of a map to the terminal in real time according to a field situation, and the recommended route is updated according to a change of the field situation.

11. The guidance system according to any one of claims 8-10, characterized in that the control system further communicates with an elevator system to acquire a state of each elevator, and when the occurrence of the special situation is received, the control module is capable of controlling the elevator system and pushing the state of each elevator to the terminal.

12. The guidance system according to any one of claims 8-11, characterized in that the control system is further associated with a building sign system, and when the occurrence of the special situation is received, the control system points the recommended route through the building sign system.

13. The guidance system according to any one of claims 8-12, characterized in that the control system is further associated with an alarm system, and the control system enables the alarm system to transmit an alarm when the occurrence of the special situation is received.

14. The guidance system according to any one of claims 8-13, characterized in that the monitoring system comprises smoke detectors and/or image pickup devices.

15. The guidance system according to any one of claims 8-14, characterized in that the positioning system is a hybrid wireless network positioning system based on WIFI and bluetooth signals.