Patent Application
20200239270
Elevator systems include elevator cars that move through a hoistway to carry passengers or cargo between different levels of a building. Elevator cars include doors that open and close when the car is parked at a landing to allow an individual to enter or exit the car. Elevator car doors are associated with a number of issues that occur and require maintenance or service personnel to visit the site of the elevator system. Remotely monitoring elevator door functionality facilitates directing appropriate personnel to any sites that require service.
There are known systems for remotely monitoring elevator system performance One drawback associated with some such systems is that they require some integration with the elevator control components. Another example drawback presented by some approaches is that the monitoring hardware can be difficult to install.
An illustrative example elevator sensor device includes at least one sensor supported on a door of an elevator car. The sensor provides an output including an indication of at least movement of the door along at least one axis and movement of the elevator car along at least one axis. A processor associated with the at least one sensor receives the output and determines at least one characteristic of the movement of the door based on the indication of the movement of the door. The processor also determines a location of the elevator car where the movement of the door occurs based on the indication of movement of the elevator car.
In an example embodiment having one or more features of the sensor device of the previous paragraph, the at least one sensor comprises an accelerometer that senses motion along three perpendicular axes.
In an example embodiment having one or more features of the sensor device of any of the previous paragraphs, the accelerometer is a MEMs accelerometer.
In an example embodiment having one or more features of the sensor device of any of the previous paragraphs, the processor is supported on the door.
In an example embodiment having one or more features of the sensor device of any of the previous paragraphs, the output includes an indication of movement of the door along at least two axes, the movement of the door includes intended movement along one of the two axes, the at least one characteristic includes an indication of any movement of the door along another of the two axes, and the two axes are transverse to each other.
In an example embodiment having one or more features of the sensor device of any of the previous paragraphs, the at least one characteristic includes any vibration of the door during the movement of the door.
In an example embodiment having one or more features of the sensor device of any of the previous paragraphs, the at least one characteristic corresponds to at least one of a smoothness and a consistency of the intended movement along the one of the two axes.
In an example embodiment having one or more features of the sensor device of any of the previous paragraphs, the processor determines the location of the elevator car based on identifying a plurality of landing locations where the elevator car stops after moving in a direction along the at least one axis and where the door moves along at least one of the at least two axes; and determining whether the location of the elevator car corresponds to one of the identified landing locations.
In an example embodiment having one or more features of the sensor device of any of the previous paragraphs, the processor provides an output reporting the location of the elevator car and the at least one characteristic of the movement of the door.
In an example embodiment having one or more features of the sensor device of any of the previous paragraphs, the at least one characteristic is a motion profile corresponding to the movement of the door between closed and open positions.
An illustrative example embodiment of a method includes sensing movement of a door of an elevator car along at least one axis by a sensor supported on the door; sensing movement of the elevator car along at least one axis by the sensor supported on the door; determining at least one characteristic of the movement of the door based on the sensed movement of the door; and determining a location of the elevator car where the movement of the door occurs based on the sensed movement of the elevator car.
In an example embodiment having one or more features of the method of the previous paragraph, the at least one sensor comprises an accelerometer that senses motion along three perpendicular axes.
In an example embodiment having one or more features of the method of any of the previous paragraphs, the accelerometer is a MEMs accelerometer.
In an example embodiment having one or more features of the method of any of the previous paragraphs, sensing the movement of the door includes sensing the movement along at least two axes, the movement of the door includes intended movement along one of the two axes, the at least one characteristic includes an indication of any movement of the door along another of the two axes, and the two axes are transverse to each other.
In an example embodiment having one or more features of the method of any of the previous paragraphs, the at least one characteristic includes any vibration of the door during the movement of the door.
In an example embodiment having one or more features of the method of any of the previous paragraphs, the at least one characteristic corresponds to at least one of a smoothness and a consistency of the intended movement along the one of the two axes.
In an example embodiment having one or more features of the method of any of the previous paragraphs, determining the location of the elevator car comprises identifying a plurality of landing locations where the elevator car stops after moving in a direction along the at least one axis and where the door moves along at least one of the at least two axes; and determining whether the location of the elevator car corresponds to one of the identified landing locations.
An example embodiment having one or more features of the method of any of the previous paragraphs includes reporting the location of the elevator car and the at least one characteristic of the movement of the door to a location remote from a site of the elevator car.
In an example embodiment having one or more features of the method of any of the previous paragraphs, the at least one characteristic is a motion profile corresponding to the movement of the door between closed and open positions.
The various features and advantages of an example embodiment will become apparent to those skilled in the art from the following detailed description. The drawings that accompany the detailed description can be briefly described as follows.
As shown in
The sensor device 30 includes a sensor 32 and a processor 34. The sensor device 30 wirelessly communicates information pertaining to movement of the doors 28 and the elevator car 22, which is provided to a remote monitoring center 40. Although not specifically illustrated, the sensor device 30 may wirelessly communicate with another communication device at the site of the elevator system 20 that is responsible for relaying the information from the sensor device 30 to the remote monitoring center 40 or may communicate directly to the remote monitoring center 40.
The sensor 32 is capable of detecting movement along three axes 42, 44 and 46. The sensor 32 provides an output including an indication of movement of the doors 28 along at least two axes. In the example of
The sensor 32 also provides an indication of movement of the elevator car 22 along at least one of the axes. The axis 44 corresponds to vertical movement of the elevator car 22 within the hoistway 24 in the illustrated example. The illustrated example sensor 32 is capable of providing information regarding movement of the elevator car 22 along any of the three axes 42, 44 and 46.
The processor 34 receives the output from the sensor 32 and determines at least one characteristic of the movement of the doors 28. For example, the processor determines whether there was any vibration of the doors 28 during the movement of the doors.
The car doors 28 include a known coupler (not illustrated) so that when the elevator car 22 is situated at one of the landings, the landing doors 26 move with the car doors 28. The output regarding movement of the doors 28 provided by the sensor 32 provides information regarding the corresponding movement of the landing doors 26. Often, if there is a problem with one of the doors of the elevator system 20, it will be associated with one of the landing doors 26, rather than the elevator car doors 28. Of course, there are situations in which one or both of the elevator car doors 28 are not moving smoothly or consistently in a desired manner and the output from the sensor 32 provides an indication of such movement.
The characteristic of door movement in the output provided by the processor 34 in some embodiments corresponds to at least one of the smoothness and consistency of the intended movement of the doors 28 along the axis 42. In some embodiments the characteristic of door movement corresponds to a motion profile describing the movement of the doors 28 between closed and open positions. Such a motion profile may include an indication of acceleration, constant velocity motion, deceleration, vibration, and any other type of motion as the doors 28 travel from a fully closed position to a fully open position and then back again to the fully closed position.
In an example embodiment the sensor 32 is an accelerometer. Some embodiments include a microelectromechanical (MEMs) accelerometer. The processor 34 associated with the sensor 32 is supported on the same elevator car door as the sensor 32. With such a sensor and processor, it is a relatively straightforward or simple task to install the sensor device 30 without requiring any complicated wiring or connections with other portions of the elevator system 20. The sensor device 30 may operate in a transmit-only mode and rely purely upon battery power because it does not require any receiving capability to receive information from other parts of the elevator system 20. This approach provides a low-cost solution to remotely monitor any issues associated with movement of the elevator car 22 and the doors 28 and 26. In embodiments where two-way communication is desired, the sensor device 30 has the capability of receiving information or signals from other devices. Some embodiments include line-based connections to provide power to the sensor device 30 or to facilitate communications between the sensor device 30 and another device.
Another feature of the output from the processor 34 is that it provides an indication of a location of the elevator car 22 where the sensed movement of the car doors 28 occurs. The processor 34 uses information from the sensor 32 regarding movement of the elevator car 22 to determine its position within the hoistway 24. Having information regarding the location of the elevator car 22 allows for identifying a specific landing where a door-related problem occurs so that maintenance personnel dispatched to the site of the elevator system 20 can more efficiently and economically address the issue.
The example embodiment includes accommodations for slight variations in the parked or stopped position of the elevator car 22 at a landing. For example, the car may not be exactly leveled during one stop when the location of the elevator car 22 is determined and during another stop it may be exactly level. The processor 34 is configured or suitably programmed to allow for differences in stop positions within predetermined ranges to be considered as the same landing or parking position.
During some stops, the elevator car doors 28 will open. In
One aspect of the illustrated example sensor device 30 is that it does not require external information for purposes of being capable of determining the elevator car position.
Any further stops of the elevator car 22 at any of the landings represented in
This approach to identifying landings along the hoistway 24 may be completed by the processor 34 supported on the elevator car door 28 without requiring any external input to the sensor device 30. Instead, the motion information from the sensor 32 allows the processor 34 to make determinations regarding the location of the elevator car 22 relative to any previously identified locations.
Another feature of the illustrated example embodiment is that when the elevator car 22 or the elevator car doors 28 are in a known condition, the processor 34 may observe the output from the sensor 32 and remove any bias or offset along an appropriate one of the axes 42, 44 or 46. For example, when the elevator car is parked at a landing and remains stationary, any offset in the vertical direction may be removed. Appropriate conditions for removing any offset in the directions corresponding to the other axes 42 and 46 are useful for eliminating any offset or drift in those directions.
One feature of the illustrated example arrangement is that it allows for remotely monitoring an elevator system including identifying specific elevator door movement characteristics at specific locations along the hoistway 24. A single sensor device 30 supported on an elevator car door provides information regarding elevator car door movement and elevator car movement. The wireless communication and battery powered features make the example approach economical and efficient.
The preceding description is exemplary rather than limiting in nature. Variations and modifications to the disclosed examples may become apparent to those skilled in the art that do not necessarily depart from the essence of this invention. The scope of legal protection given to this invention can only be determined by studying the following claims.
