Claims
- 1. A method of dispatching a plurality of elevator cars operating as a group in a building, including assigning hall calls to said cars for service, comprising:
- providing, for each hall call which is already assigned to be serviced by a car, a first predicted waiting time signal indicative of the predicted time before said already-assigned call will be serviced by the assigned car if no other hall calls are assigned to such car;
- for each unassigned hall call that is to be assigned, providing for each one of said cars which is available to service said unassigned hall call, a remaining response time signal indicative of the estimated time it will take for said one car to reach said call, and a plurality of second predicted waiting time signals, one for each of said already assigned hall calls, each indicative of the predicted time that it will take for the corresponding hall call to be serviced by said one car if said unassigned hall call is assigned to said one car;
- identifying as an affected elderly call signal, each of said second predicted waiting time signals that indicates a waiting time which is both greater than the waiting time indicated by the corresponding one of said first predicted waiting time signals for the same already-assigned hall call and greater than a predetermined first threshold amount of time;
- determining if any of said available cars have no affected elderly call signal corresponding thereto and if so, assigning said hall call to one of said available cars for which there is no corresponding affected elderly call signal; and
- dispatching said available cars to respond to hall calls.
- 2. A method according to claim 1 wherein said step of determining and assigning includes:
- if all of said available cars have an affected elderly call signal corresponding thereto, determining for each of said available cars, the maximum waiting time indicated by any of its second predicted waiting time signals corresponding to an affected elderly call signal, and assigning said hall call to the one of said cars for which its maximum waiting time is less than the maximum waiting time determined for any other ones of said available cars.
- 3. A method according to claim 1 wherein said step of determining and assigning includes:
- assigning said hall call to one of said available cars for which there is no corresponding affected elderly call signal and which also has a car call coincident with said hall call and the predicted waiting time for said one car to respond to said hall call is below a second predetermined threshold amount of time, if any.
- 4. A method according to claim 3 wherein said step of determining and assigning includes:
- if there is no car with a coincident car call and predicted waiting time below said second predetermined threshold of time, determining if there is more than one of said available cars which has a remaining response time predicted for said hall call less than a third predetermined threshold amount of time, and if not, assigning said hall call to the one of said available cars having the minimum response time predicted for said hall call.
- 5. A method according to claim 3 wherein said step of determining and assigning includes:
- if there is no car with a coincident car call and predicted waiting time below said second predetermined threshold of time, determining if there is more than one of said available cars which has a remaining response time predicted for said hall call less than a third predetermined threshold amount of time, and if so, assigning said hall call to the one of said cars for which assignment to respond to said hall call results in the minimum number of its assigned calls having a remaining response time in excess of a fourth predetermined threshold amount of time, if any.
- 6. A method according to claim 5 wherein said step of determining and assigning includes:
- if there is more than one car having the same minimum number of calls for which assignment of said hall call to the car results in remaining response times in excess of said fourth predetermined threshold amount of time, assigning said hall call to the one of said available cars having the minimum response time predicted for said hall call.
- 7. A method according to claim 1 wherein said step of determining and assigning includes:
- determining the relative system response with respect to said hall call, of each of said available cars for which there is no corresponding affected elderly call signal and assigning said hall call to the one of said cars having the lowest relative system response.
- 8. A method according to claim 1 wherein said step of determining and assigning includes:
- if the current time of day is within normal business hours, assigning said hall call to one of said available cars for which there is no corresponding affected elderly call signal and which also has a car call coincident with said hall call and the predicted waiting time for said one car to respond to said hall call is below a second predetermined threshold amount of time, if any;
- but if the current time of day is outside normal business hours, determining the relative system response with respect to said hall call, of each of said available cars for which there is no corresponding affected elderly call signal and assigning said hall call to the one of said cars having the lowest relative system response.
DESCRIPTION
This is a continuation of application Ser. No. 07/812,189, filed on Dec. 10, 1991, now abandoned.
US Referenced Citations (7)
Continuations (1)
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Number |
Date |
Country |
Parent |
812189 |
Dec 1991 |
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