Patent Application
20250091839
The invention concerns in general the technical field of people conveyor systems. More particularly, the invention concerns a management of maintenance operations.
Different kinds of people conveyor systems are high-tech products consisting of a plurality of sub-systems and devices. Since the people conveyor systems are developed to serve individuals in a safe manner, there is a need to keep the conveyor systems operative at a high level of service. This requires continuous maintenance of the people conveyor systems so as to keep them in condition over the life cycle of the system.
The maintenance of the people conveyor systems is usually arranged so that a technician enters the site of the conveyor system under a predefined maintenance schedule and performs necessary operations thereto. Additionally, the conveyor systems are equipped with internal monitoring mechanisms by means of which it is possible to monitor an operation of the respective conveyor system. The internal monitoring mechanism may e.g. comprise sensors and the like to generate data descriptive of the operation of the people conveyor system which data is analyzed and conclusions on the operation of the system may be derived. As a result of the monitoring it is possible to generate notifications indicative of the operation of the system, such as malfunctioning. Such notifications may cause a generation of service requests so that a technician may visit the site to perform necessary maintenance operations.
On the other hand, autonomously moving vehicles, i.e. robots, are gaining more and more technical capabilities so as to enable them to execute operations as a service, which, in turn, allows a utilization of the robots in various contexts.
As it is commonly known the maintenance operations vary a lot in nature and sending the technician at the site causes delay in the maintenance but also generates cost especially if the maintenance request is generated by mistake of the monitoring system, and/or the like. Hence, there is room for introducing novel approaches in the maintenance area so as to optimize an execution of the maintenance operation.
The following presents a simplified summary in order to provide basic understanding of some aspects of various invention embodiments. The summary is not an extensive overview of the invention. It is neither intended to identify key or critical elements of the invention nor to delineate the scope of the invention. The following summary merely presents some concepts of the invention in a simplified form as a prelude to a more detailed description of exemplifying embodiments of the invention.
An object of the invention is to present a method, a control system, and a computer program for managing a maintenance of a people conveyor system.
The objects of the invention are reached by a method, a control system, and a computer program as defined by the respective independent claims.
According to a first aspect, a method for managing a maintenance of a people conveyor system is provided, the method, performed by a control system, comprises:
For example, the data indicative of the state of the people conveyor system may be received from at least one of the following: a controller of the people conveyor system; at least one sensor arranged to measure at least one parameter descriptive of an operation of the people conveyor system; a safety circuit of the people conveyor system; a remote service centre of the people conveyor system.
The data received may comprise a fault code in the data descriptive of the state of the people conveyor system.
Moreover, the classifying may comprise a comparison of a number of parameters descriptive of the state of the people conveyor system to corresponding parameters associated to each maintenance operation among the plurality of the maintenance operations.
The method may further comprise, in response to setting the detection result to express that the mobile robot is required to perform the maintenance operation, steps of:
The selecting of the mobile robot may e.g. be performed on a basis of a capability of the mobile robot with respect to the maintenance operation. The capability of the mobile robot may be defined based on a technical capability of the mobile robot to perform the maintenance operation. The capability of the mobile robot may further be defined based on an availability of the mobile robot to perform the maintenance operation at a predefined instant of time.
Still further, the method may further comprise, in response to setting the detection result to express that the human operator is required to perform the maintenance operation, steps of:
The selecting of the human operator may be performed on a basis of a capability of the human operator with respect to the maintenance operation.
According to a second aspect, a control system for managing a maintenance of a people conveyor system is provided, the control system is configured to:
The control system may be configured to receive the data indicative of the state of the people conveyor system from at least one of the following: a controller of the people conveyor system; at least one sensor arranged to measure at least one parameter descriptive of an operation of the people conveyor system; a safety circuit of the people conveyor system; a remote service centre of the people conveyor system.
For example, the control system may be configured to detect that the data received comprises a fault code in the data descriptive of the state of the people conveyor system.
The control system may be configured to perform the classifying by comparing a number of parameters descriptive of the state of the people conveyor system to corresponding parameters associated to each maintenance operation among the plurality of the maintenance operations.
Moreover, the control system may further be configured to, in response to setting the detection result to express that the mobile robot is required to perform the maintenance operation, to perform steps of:
The control system may be configured to perform the selecting of the mobile robot on a basis of a capability of the mobile robot with respect to the maintenance operation. The control system may e.g. be configured to define the capability of the mobile robot defined based on a technical capability of the mobile robot to perform the maintenance operation. The control system may further be configured to define the capability of the mobile robot based on an availability of the mobile robot to perform the maintenance operation at a predefined instant of time.
The control system may further be configured to, in response to setting the detection result to express that the human operator is required to perform the maintenance operation, to perform steps of:
The control system may also be configured to perform the selecting of the human operator on a basis of a capability of the human operator with respect to the maintenance operation.
According to a third aspect, a computer program comprising computer readable program code is provided, the computer program is configured to cause performing of the method according to the first aspect as defined above when the computer readable program code is run on one or more computing apparatuses.
The expression “a number of” refers herein to any positive integer starting from one, e.g. to one, two, or three.
The expression “a plurality of” refers herein to any positive integer starting from two, e.g. to two, three, or four.
Various exemplifying and non-limiting embodiments of the invention both as to constructions and to methods of operation, together with additional objects and advantages thereof, will be best understood from the following description of specific exemplifying and non-limiting embodiments when read in connection with the accompanying drawings.
The verbs “to comprise” and “to include” are used in this document as open limitations that neither exclude nor require the existence of unrecited features. The features recited in dependent claims are mutually freely combinable unless otherwise explicitly stated. Furthermore, it is to be understood that the use of “a” or “an”, i.e. a singular form, throughout this document does not exclude a plurality.
The embodiments of the invention are illustrated by way of example, and not by way of limitation, in the figures of the accompanying drawings.
The specific examples provided in the description given below should not be construed as limiting the scope and/or the applicability of the appended claims. Lists and groups of examples provided in the description given below are not exhaustive unless otherwise explicitly stated.
The control system 100 configured to perform the method in a manner as described in the forthcoming description may be a computing device configured to process data. In some example embodiments, the control system 100 may be implemented with a plurality of computing devices arranged to implement distributed computing. In accordance with the implementation of
As already mentioned, the site 130 may be served by at least one mobile robot 120. An example of the mobile robot 120 is schematically illustrated in
From an operational point of view the processing unit 210 may be configured to control the operation of the mobile robot 120 as well as a communication with external entities e.g. in a manner as described in the forthcoming description. The communication with the external entities, such as with the control system 100, may be performed e.g. in a wireless manner. The sensor unit 250 may comprise any sensors by means of which the mobile robot 120 may obtain information on an environment, wherein non-limiting examples of the sensor may be a camera, a radar, a lidar and so on. Moreover, the sensor unit 250 may comprise sensors enabling positioning and/or navigation within the location. This may refer to devices enabling a utilization of one or more indoor positioning systems, e.g. those implemented on the site 130, and/or devices enabling positioning in outdoors. For sake of completeness it is worthwhile to mention that the positioning may, in some implementations, be based on a communication implemented over the communication interface 230 of the mobile robot 120. The processing unit 210 may also be configured to generate control signals to the motor unit 260 in order to make the mobile robot 110 to move. Moreover, the mobile robot 120 may comprise means enabling the robot to be mobile, such as any applicable transport means like wheels with other required elements and devices. Still further, the mobile robot 120 may comprise one or more tools belonging to the tool unit 270 which enable the mobile robot 120 to perform operations for the purpose of the present invention. The tools may refer to entities which enable performing maintenance operations on the site 130 especially with respect to the people conveyor system 110. As some non-limiting examples of the tools implementable in the mobile robot 120 it may be mentioned robot arms allowing a physical interaction with at least some entities, such as with operate buttons. The robot arms may also be equipped with a variety of devices and tools, such as a gripping tool, an image capturing device, a cleaning tool (e.g. a brush), a screw-driver, a chisel, an electricity tester (voltage, current), pneumatic tools e.g. for outputting pressurized air, and so on.
The operation of the processing unit 210 may be achieved by executing portions of computer program code stored e.g. in the memory unit 220 for generating the control signals and, thus, causing the mobile robot 120 to operate in a desired manner. The memory unit 220 may also be used for storing obtained and received information together with any other data either permanently or temporarily. Still further, it is worthwhile to mention that the communication unit 230 may, as already mentioned, comprise a number of devices configured to implement selected communication technologies preferably in a wireless manner so as to make the mobile robot 120 capable of communicating with various parties.
In some example embodiments the mobile robot 120 may be communicatively connected to a robot controller (not shown in
In case the site 130 is served with a plurality of mobile robots 120 the mobile robots 120 may differ from each other in their capabilities. This may refer to that the mobile robots 120 are provided with different tools, for example. For the purpose of the present invention the control system 100 may be provided with an access to data storage arranged to store data defining the capabilities of the mobile robots 120. For example, the data may be stored in a database in which the mobile robots 120 are listed with their capabilities on a robot-by-robot basis.
Next further aspects of the present invention are described by referring to
First, the control system 100 receives 310 data indicative of a state of the people conveyor system 110. The data may refer to any data based on which it is possible to derive information on an operation of the people conveyor system 110. Especially the data may refer to data descriptive of malfunctioning of the people conveyor system 110, or an operation of the people conveyor system e.g. obtained through a testing process executable by the people conveyor system 110. In its simplest form it may comprise a fault code of an entity malfunctioning in the people conveyor system 110. Alternatively or in addition, it may be other data, such as measurement data obtained with a sensor, or similar e.g. through the above mentioned testing process, belonging to the people conveyor system 110, and the data is analyzed by the control system 100 in a predefined manner to determine a type of the state of the conveyor system 110, such as a type of malfunctioning of the people conveyor system 110. For sake of completeness it is worthwhile to mention that the data may be received by the control system 100 directly from the sensors or from a control unit configured to control an entity causing the malfunctioning. Alternatively or in addition, the data may be received from a safety circuit of the people conveyor system 110 if such safety circuit is present and arranged to generate data suitable for the purpose of the present invention, such as the fault codes as mentioned.
As non-limiting examples the data descriptive on the state of the people conveyor system 110 may comprise data received from various sources of the people conveyor system 110 in question. Depending on a type of the people conveyor system the data may be obtained, or received, from one or more following sources: limit switches, a drive (cf. frequency converter), in-car sensors (cf. camera, lidar, radar), light curtains arranged on a doorway, DOP/COP HMI devices, door actuator controller, accelerometer attached to an elevator car/an elevator door/conveyor mechanics, a comb plate. Moreover, such data may be obtained from a remote service centre system e.g. configured to schedule an operation of the people conveyor system, and so on.
In response to the receipt of data a classification 320 operation is performed. The classification 320 operation may be performed either based on the received data or data processed from the received data. In the classification 320 the state of the people conveyor system definable from the received data is classified 320 to correspond to a maintenance operation among a plurality of maintenance operations. In other words, the classification 320 may be understood as a process in which the state of the people conveyor system 110 is mapped with a maintenance operation related to the state of the people conveyor system 110 which allows to determine a party for taking measures with respect to the state of the people conveyor system 110.
In view of the foregoing description the classification 320 may be implemented so that the states of the people conveyor system 110 are linked to predefined maintenance operations. Such an approach, or data structure, is schematically illustrated in
The classification operation may be implemented by configuring the control system 100 to perform the comparison of the predefined parameters to reference data in accordance with predefined rules. Such an approach may be implemented with a programming the classification model as a static model for the task. In some other implementations, the classification operation may be established by training an application machine-learning model for the task. The training of the model may e.g. be performed automatically or semi-automatically. As a result of the training the machine-learning model is enabled to perform the classification and the operational data may be used for further training of the model.
In response to the classifying 320, or the determination as described, the control system 100 is configured to set 330, in accordance with a classification of the state of the people conveyor system in the described manner, a detection result to express one of the following: (i) a mobile robot is required to perform the maintenance operation, (ii) a human operator is required to perform the maintenance operation. The detection result may be expressed with an applicable indicator, such as generating a respective indicator and store that in a memory accessible by the control system 100. Alternatively or in addition, a signal may be generated into which signal data indicative of the detection result may be included. The signal may e.g. be a control signal and generated to the entity corresponding to the detection result, i.e. the mobile robot 120 or a terminal device 140 of the technician, wherein the detection result may cause, with any additional information included in the control signal, the respective party to take measures with respect to the state of the people conveyor system 110.
In embodiments in which there is arranged a plurality of mobile robots 120 to serve the site 130 the method in accordance with the present invention may be continued with further steps.
The continuation of the method as shown in
Next an example is described in which the method according to the foregoing description is applied. The field of application in the example may be elevator doors which comprise a plurality of units enabling a motion of the doors. Thus, the control system 100 according to the present invention may receive 310 data indicative of the state of the elevator doors as the data descriptive of the state of the conveyor system 110. The data may e.g. comprise data representing a position of the door as well as a fault code wherein the fault code is descriptive on that the elevator door cannot be closed and the position data of the door describes the position when the closing is prevented. For the purpose of the description it may be assumed that in a first example, the position of the door is the same as the starting position when the doors are fully open, i.e. the closing of the doors does not occur at all. In a second example, the position of the door may be near the full closing, but the door remains open few centimeters. In response to the receipt 310 of data descriptive of the first example, i.e. the fault code representing the fault in the elevator doors and the position indicates that the closing does not start at all, the control system 100 may detect, based on a comparison to data indicating different malfunctioning situations, that the door motor generating a force for the operation of the elevator door has got broken which prevents closing of the door. Such a fault situation is linked to a maintenance operation defining a requirement to repair the motor, which typically corresponds to a replacement of the door motor. The maintenance operation in question is classified to be manageable by the human operator and such a detection result may be set 330. As a further step as shown in
As already mentioned, the aspects of the present invention described herein are mainly done by referring to an implementation in which the controlling entity is a dedicated control system 100 as shown in
The apparatus of
The memory 720 and at least a portion of the computer program code 725 stored therein may further be arranged, with the processor 710, to cause the apparatus to perform at least a portion of a method as is described herein. The processor 710 may be configured to read from and write to the memory 720. Although the processor 710 is depicted as a respective single component, it may be implemented as respective one or more separate processing components. Similarly, although the memory 720 is depicted as a respective single component, it may be implemented as respective one or more separate components, some, or all of which may be integrated/removable and/or may provide permanent/semi-permanent/dynamic/cached storage.
The computer program code 725 may comprise computer-executable instructions that implement functions that correspond to steps implemented in the method when loaded into the processor 710 of the respective control system 100. As an example, the computer program code 725 may include a computer program consisting of one or more sequences of one or more instructions. The processor 710 is able to load and execute the computer program by reading the one or more sequences of one or more instructions included therein from the memory 720. The one or more sequences of one or more instructions may be configured to, when executed by the processor 710, cause the apparatus to perform a method as described. Hence, the apparatus may comprise at least one processor 710 and at least one memory 720 including the computer program code 725 for one or more programs, the at least one memory 720 and the computer program code 725 configured to, with the at least one processor 710, cause the apparatus implementing the control system 100 to perform the method.
The computer program code 725 may be provided e.g. a computer program product comprising at least one computer-readable non-transitory medium having the computer program code 725 stored thereon, which computer program code 725, when executed by the processor 710, causes the apparatus to perform the method. The computer-readable non-transitory medium may comprise a memory device or a record medium, such as a CD-ROM, a DVD, a Blu-ray disc, or another article of manufacture that tangibly embodies the computer program. As another example, the computer program may be provided as a signal configured to reliably transfer the computer program.
Still further, the computer program code 725 may comprise a proprietary application, such as computer program code for causing an execution of the method in the manner as described in the description herein.
Any of the programmed functions mentioned may also be performed in firmware or hardware adapted to or programmed to perform the necessary tasks.
For sake of completeness it is worthwhile to mention that the entity performing the method in the role of the control system 100 may also be implemented with a plurality of apparatuses, such as the one schematically illustrated in
The solution in accordance with the present invention allows managing maintenance operations to people conveyor systems in a manner increasing efficiency and resulting cost-savings. The term ‘maintenance operation’ shall be understood in a broad manner in the context of the present invention and to cover both any such operations in which the maintenance operation solves a malfunction but also to cover any operations in which the state of the people conveyor system requires a generation of additional data, such as by performing a testing operation or any similar.
The specific examples provided in the description given above should not be construed as limiting the applicability and/or the interpretation of the appended claims. Lists and groups of examples provided in the description given above are not exhaustive unless otherwise explicitly stated.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Parent | PCT/FI2022/050396 | Jun 2022 | WO |
| Child | 18969048 | US |
