Patent Grant
10294075
The subject matter disclosed herein relates generally to the field of elevator systems, and specifically to a method and apparatus for operating an elevator system in an evacuation.
Commonly, during an evacuation procedure occupants of a building are instructed to take the stairs and avoid the elevator systems. An efficient method of incorporating the elevators into overall evacuation procedures is desired.
According to one embodiment, a method of operating an elevator system is provided. The method includes: receiving an evacuation call from a first evacuation floor; moving an elevator car to the first evacuation floor; opening doors of the elevator car when the elevator car arrives at the first evacuation floor; monitoring, using a sensor system, a remaining capacity of the elevator car; and closing the doors of the elevator car when at least one of a first selected period of time has passed and the remaining capacity is equal to a selected remaining capacity.
In addition to one or more of the features described above, or as an alternative, further embodiments of the method may include moving the elevator car to a discharge floor when the remaining capacity is equal to the selected remaining capacity, wherein the selected remaining capacity is equal to about zero.
In addition to one or more of the features described above, or as an alternative, further embodiments of the method may include: receiving an evacuation call from a second evacuation floor; and moving the elevator car to the second evacuation floor when the first selected period of time has passed and the remaining capacity is greater than zero.
In addition to one or more of the features described above, or as an alternative, further embodiments of the method may include: receiving an elevator call from padding floor; and moving the elevator car to a padding floor when the first selected period of time has passed, the remaining capacity is greater than zero, and there is not a second evacuation floor, or the first selected period of time has passed and the remaining capacity is greater than zero; wherein the padding floor is within a selected number of floors away from the first evacuation floor.
In addition to one or more of the features described above, or as an alternative, further embodiments of the method may include: opening doors of the elevator car when the elevator car arrives at the padding floor; monitoring, using a sensor system, the remaining capacity of the elevator car; closing the doors of the elevator car when at least one of a second selected period of time has passed and the remaining capacity is equal to the selected remaining capacity; receiving an evacuation call from a second evacuation floor after the elevator car arrives at the padding floor; and moving the elevator car to the second evacuation floor when the second selected period of time has passed and the remaining capacity is greater than zero.
In addition to one or more of the features described above, or as an alternative, further embodiments of the method may include: opening doors of the elevator car when the elevator car arrives at the second evacuation floor; monitoring, using a sensor system, the remaining capacity of the elevator car; closing the doors of the elevator car when at least one of a third selected period of time has passed and the remaining capacity is equal to the selected remaining capacity; receiving an elevator call from a padding floor; and moving the elevator car to a padding floor when the third selected period of time has passed and the remaining capacity is greater than zero.
In addition to one or more of the features described above, or as an alternative, further embodiments of the method may include: opening doors of the elevator car when the elevator car arrives at the padding floor; monitoring, using a sensor system, the remaining capacity of the elevator car; closing the doors of the elevator car when the remaining capacity is equal to the selected remaining capacity or about zero; and moving the elevator car to a discharge floor when the remaining capacity is equal to the selected remaining capacity or about zero.
In addition to one or more of the features described above, or as an alternative, further embodiments of the method may include: opening doors of the elevator car when the elevator car arrives at the second evacuation floor; monitoring, using a sensor system, the remaining capacity of the elevator car; closing the doors of the elevator car when the remaining capacity is equal to the selected remaining capacity or about zero; and moving the elevator car to a discharge floor when the remaining capacity is equal to the selected remaining capacity or about zero.
According to another embodiment, a controller of an elevator system is provided. The controller including: a processor; a memory including computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform operations. The operations include: receiving an evacuation call from a first evacuation floor; moving an elevator car to the first evacuation floor; opening doors of the elevator car when the elevator car arrives at the first evacuation floor; monitoring a remaining capacity of the elevator car; and closing the doors of the elevator car when at least one of a first selected period of time has passed and the remaining capacity is equal to a selected remaining capacity.
In addition to one or more of the features described above, or as an alternative, further embodiments of the controller may include that the operations further include: moving the elevator car to a discharge floor when the remaining capacity is equal to the selected remaining capacity, wherein the selected remaining capacity is equal to about zero.
In addition to one or more of the features described above, or as an alternative, further embodiments of the controller may include that the operations further include: receiving an evacuation call from a second evacuation floor; and moving the elevator car to the second evacuation floor when the first selected period of time has passed and the remaining capacity is greater than zero.
In addition to one or more of the features described above, or as an alternative, further embodiments of the controller may include that the operations further include: receiving an elevator call from padding floor; and moving the elevator car to a padding floor when the first selected period of time has passed, the remaining capacity is greater than zero, and there is not a second evacuation floor, or the first selected period of time has passed and the remaining capacity is greater than zero; wherein the padding floor is within a selected number of floors away from the first evacuation floor.
In addition to one or more of the features described above, or as an alternative, further embodiments of the controller may include that the operations further include: opening doors of the elevator car when the elevator car arrives at the padding floor; monitoring, using a sensor system, the remaining capacity of the elevator car; closing the doors of the elevator car when at least one of a second selected period of time has passed and the remaining capacity is equal to the selected remaining capacity; receiving an evacuation call from a second evacuation floor after the elevator car arrives at the padding floor; and moving the elevator car to the second evacuation floor when the second selected period of time has passed and the remaining capacity is greater than zero.
In addition to one or more of the features described above, or as an alternative, further embodiments of the controller may include that the operations further include: opening doors of the elevator car when the elevator car arrives at the second evacuation floor; monitoring, using a sensor system, the remaining capacity of the elevator car; closing the doors of the elevator car when at least one of a third selected period of time has passed and the remaining capacity is equal to the selected remaining capacity; receiving an elevator call from a padding floor; and moving the elevator car to a padding floor when the third selected period of time has passed and the remaining capacity is greater than zero.
In addition to one or more of the features described above, or as an alternative, further embodiments of the controller may include that the operations further include: opening doors of the elevator car when the elevator car arrives at the padding floor; monitoring, using a sensor system, the remaining capacity of the elevator car; closing the doors of the elevator car when the remaining capacity is equal to the selected remaining capacity or about zero; and moving the elevator car to a discharge floor when the remaining capacity is equal to the selected remaining capacity or about zero.
In addition to one or more of the features described above, or as an alternative, further embodiments of the controller may include that the operations further include: opening doors of the elevator car when the elevator car arrives at the second evacuation floor; monitoring, using a sensor system, the remaining capacity of the elevator car; closing the doors of the elevator car when the remaining capacity is equal to the selected remaining capacity or about zero; and moving the elevator car to a discharge floor when the remaining capacity is equal to the selected remaining capacity or about zero.
According to another embodiment, a computer program product tangibly embodied on a computer readable medium is provided. The computer program product including instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform operations. The operations include: receiving an evacuation call from a first evacuation floor; moving an elevator car to the first evacuation floor; opening doors of the elevator car when the elevator car arrives at the first evacuation floor; monitoring, using a sensor system, a remaining capacity of the elevator car; and closing the doors of the elevator car when at least one of a first selected period of time has passed and the remaining capacity is equal to a selected remaining capacity.
In addition to one or more of the features described above, or as an alternative, further embodiments of the computer program may include that the operations further include: moving the elevator car to a discharge floor when the remaining capacity is equal to the selected remaining capacity, wherein the selected remaining capacity is equal to about zero.
In addition to one or more of the features described above, or as an alternative, further embodiments of the computer program may include that the operations further include: receiving an evacuation call from a second evacuation floor; and moving the elevator car to the second evacuation floor when the first selected period of time has passed and the remaining capacity is greater than zero.
In addition to one or more of the features described above, or as an alternative, further embodiments of the computer program may include that the operations further include: receiving an elevator call from padding floor; and moving the elevator car to a padding floor when the first selected period of time has passed, the remaining capacity is greater than zero, and there is not a second evacuation floor, or the first selected period of time has passed and the remaining capacity is greater than zero; wherein the padding floor is within a selected number of floors away from the first evacuation floor.
Technical effects of embodiments of the present disclosure include a control system to control the operation of an elevator by sending the elevator to a first evacuation floor when an evacuation procedure is initiated and reallocating the elevator car to a second evacuation floor or a padding floor if the elevator has remaining capacity.
The foregoing features and elements may be combined in various combinations without exclusivity, unless expressly indicated otherwise. These features and elements as well as the operation thereof will become more apparent in light of the following description and the accompanying drawings. It should be understood, however, that the following description and drawings are intended to be illustrative and explanatory in nature and non-limiting.
The foregoing and other features, and advantages of the disclosure are apparent from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which like elements are numbered alike in the several FIGURES:
The elevator system 10 also includes a power source 12. The power is provided from the power source 12 to a switch panel 14, which may include circuit breakers, meters, etc. From the switch panel 14, the power may be provided directly to the drive unit 20 through the controller 30 or to an internal power source charger 16, which converts AC power to direct current (DC) power to charge an internal power source 18 that requires charging. For instance, an internal power source 18 that requires charging may be a battery, capacitor, or any other type of power storage device known to one of ordinary skill in the art. Alternatively, the internal power source 18 may not require charging from the external power source 12 and may be a device such as, for example a gas powered generator, solar cells, hydroelectric generator, wind turbine generator or similar power generation device. The internal power source 18 may power various components of the elevator system 10 when an external power source is unavailable. The drive unit 20 drives a machine 22 to impart motion to the elevator car 23 via a traction sheave of the machine 22. The machine 22 also includes a brake 24 that can be activated to stop the machine 22 and elevator car 23. As will be appreciated by those of skill in the art,
The controller 30 is responsible for controlling the operation of the elevator system 10. The controller 30 may also determine a mode (motoring, regenerative, near balance) of the elevator car 23. The controller 30 may use the car direction and the weight distribution between the elevator car 23 and the counterweight 28 to determine the mode of the elevator car 23. The controller 30 may adjust the velocity of the elevator car 23 to reach a target floor. The controller 30 may include a processor and an associated memory. The processor may be, but is not limited to, a single-processor or multi-processor system of any of a wide array of possible architectures, including field programmable gate array (FPGA), central processing unit (CPU), application specific integrated circuits (ASIC), digital signal processor (DSP) or graphics processing unit (GPU) hardware arranged homogenously or heterogeneously. The memory may be but is not limited to a random access memory (RAM), read only memory (ROM), or other electronic, optical, magnetic or any other computer readable medium.
The elevator system 10 may also include a sensor system 141 configured to detect a remaining capacity in a particular elevator car 23. The remaining capacity allows the controller 30 to determine how much space is left in the elevator car 23. For instance, if the remaining capacity is equal to about zero there is no space left in the elevator car 23 to accept more passengers, whereas if the remaining capacity is greater than zero there may be space to accept more passengers in the elevator car 23. The sensor system 141 is in operative communication with the controller 30. The sensor system 141 may use a variety of sensing mechanisms such as, for example, a visual detection device, a weight detection device, a laser detection device, a door reversal monitoring device, a thermal image detection device, and a depth detection device. The visual detection device may be a camera that utilizes visual recognition to identify individual passengers and objects in the elevator car 23 and then determine remaining capacity. The weight detection device may be a scale to sense the amount of weight in an elevator car 23 and then determine the remaining capacity from the weight sensed. The laser detection device may detect how many passengers walk through a laser beam to determine the remaining capacity in the elevator car 23. Similarly, a door reversal monitoring device also detects passengers entering the car so as not to close the elevator door on a passenger and thus may be used to determine the remaining capacity. The thermal detection device may be an infrared or other heat sensing camera that utilizes detected temperature to identify individual passengers and objects in the elevator car 23 and then determine remaining capacity. The depth detection device may be a 2-D, 3-D or other depth/distance detecting camera that utilizes detected distance to an object and/or passenger to determine remaining capacity. As may be appreciated by one of skill in the art, in addition to the stated methods, additional methods may exist to sense remaining capacity and one or any combination of these methods may be used to determine remaining capacity in the elevator car 23.
Advantageously, determining the remaining capacity of the elevator car 23 may determine whether to send the elevator car 23 to another floor 80a-80f or the discharge floor(
The first evacuation floor may be surrounded by padding floors, which are floors that are considered at increased risk due to their proximity to the evacuation floor and thus should also be evacuated. In the example of
In one embodiment, there may be more than one evacuation floor. For example, after the first evacuation floor activates an evacuation alarm, a second evacuation floor may also activate an evacuation alarm. In the example of
Referring now to
At block 314, if the selected period of time has passed or the remaining capacity of the elevator car 23 equals a selected remaining capacity then the method 300 will move to block 318 to check whether the remaining capacity is equal to about zero. For example, if the remaining capacity equals about zero then there is no room for any more passengers. At block 318, if the remaining capacity is greater than zero then the controller 30 will check if there are any padding floors at block 324. A padding floor exists if an elevator call has been received from the padding floor indicating that there are still passengers left on the padding floor. At block 318, if the remaining capacity is equal to about zero then the controller 30 moves the elevator car 23 to the discharge floor at block 322.
At block 324, if there are padding floors, then the controller 30 moves the elevator car 23 to a padding floor at block 325, opens the doors 23a allowing passengers to enter at block 326 and then closes the doors 23a after a second selected period of time or the remaining capacity equals a selected remaining capacity at block 327. Then the controller checks whether the remaining capacity is equal to about zero at block 329. At block 329, if the remaining capacity equals about zero then the controller 30 moves the elevator car to the discharge floor at block 322 to allow the passengers to evacuate the building 102. At block 329, if there is remaining capacity in the elevator car 23 then the method returns to block 324 to check for more padding floors. At block 324, if there are no padding floors, then the controller 30 checks whether an evacuation call has been received from a second evacuation floor at block 330. At block 330, if an evacuation call has been received from a second evacuation floor then the controller 30 moves the elevator car 23 to the second evacuation floor at block 332, opens the doors 23a allowing passengers to enter at block 334, closes the doors 23a after a third selected period of time or the remaining capacity equals a selected remaining capacity at block 336, and moves the elevator car 23 to the discharge floor at block 332. At block 330, if an evacuation call has not been received from a second evacuation floor then the controller 30 moves the elevator car 23 to the discharge floor at block 322. Once the controller 30 has moved the elevator car 23 to the discharge floor at block 322 and passengers have exited the elevator car 23 at the discharge floor, the controller 30 will check to see whether the evacuation is still active on the first evacuation floor at block 340. At block 340, if the evacuation is not still active on the first evacuation floor then the method will return to block 304. At block 340, if the evacuation is still active on the first evacuation floor then the method will return to block 308.
While the above description has described the flow process of
Referring now to
At block 414, if the selected period of time has passed or the remaining capacity of the elevator car 23 equals a selected remaining capacity then the method 400 will move to block 418 to check whether the remaining capacity is equal to about zero. For example, if the remaining capacity equals about zero then there is no room for any more passengers. At block 418, if the remaining capacity is greater than zero then the controller 30 will check if there is a second evacuation floor at block 430. At block 418, if the remaining capacity is equal to about zero then the controller 30 moves the elevator car 23 to the discharge floor at block 422.
At block 430, if an evacuation call has been received from a second evacuation floor then the controller 30 moves the elevator car 23 to the second evacuation floor at block 432, opens the doors 23a allowing passengers to enter at block 434, closes the doors 23a after a second selected period of time or the remaining capacity equals a selected remaining capacity at block 436, and then checks if the remaining capacity is equal to about zero at block 429. At block 429, if remaining capacity does equals zero then the controller 30 moves the elevator car to the discharge floor at block 422. At block 429, if remaining capacity does equals zero then the controller 30 checks if there are any padding floors at block 424. A padding floor exists if an elevator call has been received from the padding floor indicating that there are still passengers left on the padding floor.
At block 424, if there are padding floors, then the controller 30 moves the elevator car 23 to a padding floor at block 425, opens the doors 23a allowing passengers to enter at block 426 and then closes the doors 23a after a second selected period of time or the remaining capacity equals a selected remaining capacity at block 427. Then the controller checks whether the remaining capacity is equal to about zero at block 429. At block 429, if the remaining capacity equals about zero then the controller 30 moves the elevator car to the discharge floor at block 422 to allow the passengers to evacuate the building 102. At block 429, if there is remaining capacity in the elevator car 23 then the method returns to block 424 to check for more padding floors. At block 424, if there are no padding floors, then the controller 30 moves the elevator car 23 to the discharge floor at block 422. Once the controller 30 has moved the elevator car 23 to the discharge floor at block 422 and passengers have exited the elevator car 23 at the discharge floor, the controller 30 will check to see whether the evacuation is still active on the first evacuation floor at block 448. At block 440, if the evacuation is not still active on the first evacuation floor then the method will return to block 404. At block 440, if the evacuation is still active on the first evacuation floor then the method will return to block 408.
While the above description has described the flow process of
As described above, embodiments can be in the form of processor-implemented processes and devices for practicing those processes, such as processor. Embodiments can also be in the form of computer program code containing instructions embodied in tangible media, such as network cloud storage, SD cards, flash drives, floppy diskettes, CD ROMs, hard drives, or any other computer-readable storage medium, wherein, when the computer program code is loaded into and executed by a computer, the computer becomes a device for practicing the embodiments. Embodiments can also be in the form of computer program code, for example, whether stored in a storage medium, loaded into and/or executed by a computer, or transmitted over some transmission medium, loaded into and/or executed by a computer, or transmitted over some transmission medium, such as over electrical wiring or cabling, through fiber optics, or via electromagnetic radiation, wherein, when the computer program code is loaded into an executed by a computer, the computer becomes an device for practicing the embodiments. When implemented on a general-purpose microprocessor, the computer program code segments configure the microprocessor to create specific logic circuits.
The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting. While the description has been presented for purposes of illustration and description, it is not intended to be exhaustive or limited to embodiments in the form disclosed. Many modifications, variations, alterations, substitutions or equivalent arrangement not hereto described will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art without departing from the scope of the disclosure. Additionally, while the various embodiments have been described, it is to be understood that aspects may include only some of the described embodiments. Accordingly, the disclosure is not to be seen as limited by the foregoing description, but is only limited by the scope of the appended claims.
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