Patent Application
20230004910
The invention concerns in general the technical field of installation operations. Especially the invention concerns installation operations of people conveyor systems or access control systems.
Typically, during and/or after an installation of a people conveyor system, such as an elevator system or an escalator system, or an access control system, such as an automatic door system or a gate system, one or more issues, which may require one or more installation operations to be performed, may be detected. The detected issues may be minor issues, which do not prevent the use of the system, but the issues may also be major issues preventing the use of the system. Typically, during the first year after the installation of the system substantially great amount of issues are detected increasing first year call out rates.
Thus, there is need to develop further solutions in order to prevent and identify possible issues appearing during an installation process of a people conveyor system or an access control system.
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 objective of the invention is to present a method, a computing unit, an installation support system, and a computer program for generating at least one installation operation for at least one ongoing installation process at an installation site. Another objective of the invention is that the method, the computing unit, the installation support system, and the computer program for generating at least one installation operation for at least one ongoing installation process at an installation site improves identifying possible issues appearing during an installation process of a people conveyor system or an access control system.
The objectives of the invention are reached by a method, a computing unit, an installation support system, and a computer program as defined by the respective independent claims.
According to a first aspect, a method for generating at least one installation operation for at least one ongoing installation process of at an installation site is provided, wherein the method comprises: obtaining site information of the at least one ongoing installation process at the installation site from a site control unit arranged at the installation site, obtaining site information gathered from one or more previous installation processes at one or more other installation sites from one or more external databases, defining at least one installation operation for the at least one ongoing installation process based on the site information of the at least one ongoing installation process and the site information gathered from the one or more previous installation processes, and generating at least one signal comprising an instruction to perform the at least one installation operation for the at least one ongoing installation process to the site control unit.
The installation site may be located in a people conveyor system or in an access control system.
The defining step may comprise: detecting at least one issue in the site information of the at least one ongoing installation process, and defining the at least one installation operation by applying a machine learning module, wherein the machine learning module may receive the detected at least one issue in the site information of the at least one ongoing installation process as its input data and generate the at least one installation operation as the output data of the machine learning module by applying one or more machine learning techniques, and wherein the site information gathered from one or more previous installation processes at one or more other installation sites may be used as a training data to train the machine learning module.
Alternatively, the defining step may comprise: detecting at least one issue in the site information of the at least one ongoing installation process, detecting a corresponding at least one issue in the site information gathered from one or more corresponding previous installation processes, detecting at least one installation operation performed in the one or more corresponding previous installation processes in response to the detected at least one issue in the site information gathered from one or more corresponding previous installation processes, and using the detected at least one installation operation performed in the one or more corresponding previous installation processes as the defined at least one installation operation for the at least one ongoing installation process.
The at least one installation operation may comprise: updating site configuration, updating one or more software versions, updating one or more operation parameters, activation of one or more features, and/or performing troubleshooting.
The method may further comprise generating a remote support request to a remote monitoring center based on the obtained site information of the at least one ongoing installation process and/or the defined at least one installation operation.
Alternatively or in addition, the method may further comprise providing the site information of the at least one ongoing installation process and/or the defined at least one installation operation to the one or more databases for one or more coming installation processes at one or more other installation sites.
The site information of the at least one ongoing installation process may be obtained, by the site control unit, from one or more installed site devices, one or more not yet installed site devices, one or more external devices or systems, and/or back reporting of one or more tools.
The site information may comprise configuration information, software information, installation status information, statistical information, installation personnel information, and/or material flow information, of the respective installation process.
The site information gathered from the one or more previous installation processes may further comprise: identified issues information, corrective installation operations, and/or preventive installation operations.
According to a second aspect, a computing unit for generating at least one installation operation for at least one ongoing installation process at an installation site is provided, wherein the computing unit comprises a processing unit being configured to cause the computing unit at least to perform: obtain site information of the at least one ongoing installation process at the installation site from a site control unit arranged at the installation site, obtain site information gathered from one or more previous installation processes at one or more other installation sites from one or more external databases, define at least one installation operation for the at least one ongoing installation process based on the site information of the ongoing installation process and the site information gathered from the one or more previous installation processes, and generate at least one signal comprising an instruction to perform the at least one installation operation for the at least one ongoing installation process to the site control unit.
The installation site may be located in a people conveyor system or in an access control system.
The definition of the at least one installation operation for the at least one on-going installation process may comprise: detect at least one issue in the site information of the at least one ongoing installation process, and define the at least one installation operation by applying a machine learning module, wherein the machine learning module may be configured to receive the detected at least one issue in the site information of the at least one ongoing installation process as its input data and to generate the at least one installation operation as the output data of the machine learning module by applying one or more machine learning techniques, and wherein the site information gathered from one or more previous installation processes at one or more other installation sites may be used as a training data to train the machine learning module.
Alternatively, the definition of the at least one installation operation for the at least one ongoing installation process may comprise: detect at least one issue in the site information of the at least one ongoing installation process, detect a corresponding at least one issue in the site information gathered from one or more corresponding previous installation processes, detect at least one installation operation performed in the one or more corresponding previous installation processes in response to the detected at least one issue in the site information gathered from one or more corresponding previous installation processes, and use the detected at least one installation operation performed in the one or more corresponding previous installation processes as the defined at least one installation operation for the at least one ongoing installation process.
The at least one installation operation may comprise: updating site configuration, updating one or more software versions, updating one or more operation parameters, activation of one or more features, and/or performing troubleshooting.
The computing unit may further be configured to generate a remote support request to a remote monitoring center based on the obtained site information of the at least one ongoing installation process and/or the defined at least one installation operation.
Alternatively or in addition the computing unit may further be configured to provide the site information of the at least one ongoing installation process and/or the defined at least one installation operation to the one or more databases for one or more coming installation processes at one or more other installation sites.
The site information may comprise configuration information, software information, installation status information, statistical information, installation personnel information, and/or material flow information, of the respective installation process.
The site information gathered from the one or more previous installation processes may further comprise: identified issues information, corrective installation operations, and/or preventive installation operations.
According to a third aspect, an installation support system for generating at least one installation operation for at least one ongoing installation process of at an installation site is provided, wherein the installation support system comprises: a site control unit arranged at the installation site, one or more external databases storing at least site information gathered from one or more previous installation processes at one or more other installation sites, and the computing unit as described above.
According to a fourth aspect, a computer program is provided, wherein the computer program comprises instructions which, when executed by a processing unit of a computing unit, cause the computing unit as described above to perform the method as described above.
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 computing unit 108 is communicatively coupled to the site control unit 102, the one or more external databases 106a-106n, and any other entities of the installation support system 100. The communication between the computing unit 108 and the other entities of the installation support system 100 may be based on one or more known communication technologies, either wired or wireless. The implementation of the computing unit 108 may be done as a stand-alone computing entity or as a distributed computing environment between a plurality of stand-alone computing entities, such as a plurality of servers providing distributed computing resource.
Next an example of the method according to the invention is described by referring to
At a step 202, the computing unit 108 obtains site information of at least one ongoing installation process at the installation site 104 from the site control unit 102. The site control unit 102 may obtain the site information of the at least one ongoing installation process from one or more installed site devices 302a-302c, one or more not yet installed site devices 304, one or more external devices or system 306a, 306b, and/or back reporting of one or more tools 308. The site control unit 102 provides the obtained site information to the computing unit 108. The site devices 302-302a, 304 may comprise any devices directly connectable to the people conveyor system or to the access control system. For example, the site devices 302a-302a, 304 may comprise, but are not limited to, a destination operation panel (DOP), a destination guide (DG), an elevator guide (EG), an access control system card reader unit, media screen solution display unit, indoor positioning system and/or any other devices installed or to be installed to the installation site 104. Each of site device 302a-302a may need to be installed, i.e. at least somehow commissioned to belong as a part of site solution. This means that a technician may enter some site-specific information to the site device 302a-302a, e.g. manually through the device user interface (UI), showing configuration QR code to a camera unit of the site device 302a-302a, via an external memory device, e.g. SD card or similar, and/or via a wireless technology like NFC. The site control unit 102 may obtain site information from the one or more installed site devices 302a-302c as described above. Alternatively or in addition, the site control unit 102 may also perform a site inventory to obtain the site information from the site devices 302 which have not yet been commissioned. The site control unit 102 may be aware that there may be a plurality of site devices 302-302a, 304, but a location or even role of each connected site device 302-302a, 304 may not be currently fully known. The external devices or systems, e.g. external sensor devices, 306a, 306b, may comprise third-party devices or systems on the installation site 104 connected using e.g. an application programming interface (API) integration interface or some other integration interface, to the system, i.e. the people conveyor system or an access control system. For example, the installation site 104 may comprise one or more external devices or systems 306a, 306b, such as a video surveillance system and/or Building Management System (BMS), which may provide site information to the site control unit 102 via the integration interfaces. The one or more tools 308 may comprise e.g. one or more installation tools 308 used in the at least one ongoing installation process at the installation site 104.
At a step 204, the computing unit 108 obtains site information gathered from one or more previous installation processes at one or more other installation sites from the one or more external databases 106a-106n. The site information gathered from the one or more previous installation processes at one or more other installation sites may be stored to the one or more external databases 106a-106n.
The obtained site information of the at least one ongoing installation process at the installation site 104 and/or the site information gathered from one or more previous installation processes at one or more other installation sites may comprise configuration information, software information, installation status information, statistical information, installation personnel information, and/or material flow information, of the respective installation process. The site information gathered from the one or more previous installation processes may further comprise: identified issues information, corrective installation operations, and/or preventive installation operations, of the respective installation process.
At a step 206, the computing unit 108 defines at least one installation operation for the at least one ongoing installation process at the installation site 104 based on the site information of the at least one ongoing installation process at the installation site 104 and the site information gathered from the one or more previous installation processes. The use of information already available from the one or more previous installation processes enables a prevention and/or an identification of issues appearing during the installation process at the installation site 104. Moreover, it eases and/or expedites a definition of the at least one installation operation suitable for the at least one ongoing installation process at the installation site 104. The at least one installation operation may be a preventive installation operation or a corrective installation operation. Alternatively or in addition, the identification of the issues appearing during the installation process at the installation site 104 may be improved and expedited. The one or more issues may be minor issues, which do not prevent the use of the system, but the one or more issues may also be major issues preventing the use of the system. The one or more issues may comprise for example, but is not limited to, faults, defects, deficiencies, outdated software versions, and/or outdated operation parameters. Moreover, the handover quality may be improved and the first year call out rates may be reduced, which in turn help maintaining installation schedule, quality and cost targets.
The defining of the at least one installation operation at the step 206 may comprise detecting at least one issue in the site information of the at least one ongoing installation process and defining the at least one installation operation by applying a machine learning module 450, i.e. a machine learning model. The machine learning module 450 may receive the detected at least one issue in the site information of the at least one ongoing installation process at the installation site 104 as its input data and generate the at least one installation operation as the output data of the machine learning module 450 by applying one or more machine learning techniques. For example, the following known one or more machine learning techniques may be applied: decision trees, support vector machines, neural networks, or any suitable data-driven method. The computing unit 108 is able to infer by using the machine learning module 450 from the input data, i.e. the detected at least one issue in the site information of the at least one ongoing installation process, the typical output data of the machine learning model, i.e. what is the assumed at least one installation operation. In other words, the machine learning module 450 processes the input data, i.e. the detected at least one issue in the site information of the at least one ongoing installation process, and provides the output data, i.e. the at least one installation operation. The site information gathered from one or more previous installation processes at one or more other installation sites may be used as a training data to train the machine learning module 450. When the machine learning module 450 is trained properly, the accuracy of the generated at least one installation operation may be increased. In order to improve the training of the machine learning module 450, versatile training data may preferably be used. The accuracy of the generated at least one installation operation may also depend on the initial training data used for training of the machine learning module 450. This enables providing a continuously learning method for generating the at least one installation operation for the at least one ongoing installation process of at the installation site 104.
Alternatively, the defining of the at least one installation operation at the step 206 may comprise detecting at least one issue in the site information of the at least one ongoing installation process at the installation site 104, detecting a corresponding at least one issue in the site information gathered from one or more corresponding previous installation processes, detecting at least one installation operation performed in the one or more corresponding previous installation processes in response to the detected at least one issue in the site information gathered from one or more corresponding previous installation processes, and using the detected at least one installation operation performed in the one or more corresponding previous installation processes as the defined at least one installation operation for the at least one ongoing installation process at the installation site 104. This enables providing a straight-forward and simple method for generating the at least one installation operation for the at least one ongoing installation process of at the installation site 104.
At a step 208, the computing unit 108 generates at least one signal comprising an instruction to perform the at least one installation operation for the at least one ongoing installation process to the site control unit 104 in response to defining the at least one installation operation. This enables easy and fast correction of the detected issues appeared during the installation process at the installation site 104 with the at least one installation operation. The at least one installation operation may comprise updating site configuration, updating one or more software versions of the one or more installed site devices 302a-302c, updating one or more operation parameters, activation of one or more features, and/or performing troubleshooting. The at least one installation operation may be a preventive installation operation or a corrective installation operation. The one or more features may be customized for the installation site 104 or according to customer specific need. According to a non-limiting example the one or more features may comprise a fire, an invasion or an evacuation mode where the people conveyor system or an access control system can be used for specific situations. In this kind of mode, the people conveyor system or an access control system may be behaving a different way than in the normal operation mode. According to another non-limiting example the one or more features may comprise a cleaning mode. According to yet another non-limiting example the one or more features may comprise e.g. a VIP operation mode.
The method may further comprise generating by the computing unit 108 a remote support request to a centralized remote monitoring center 310 based on the obtained site information of the at least one ongoing installation process at the installation site 104 and/or the defined at least one installation operation for the at least one ongoing installation process at the installation site 104. This enables a possibility to utilize the centralized remote monitoring center 310 to perform the defined at least one installation operation and/or at least one further installation operation in order to correct the detected issues appeared during the installation process at the installation site 104. In response to receiving the remote support request, the centralized remote monitoring center 310 may perform remotely the defined at least one installation operation and/or at least one further installation and/or support operation. Alternatively or in addition, in response to receiving the remote support request, the centralized remote monitoring center 310 may provide guidance and/or instructions for site personnel, e.g. a site engineer, at the installation site 104. Alternatively or in addition, the centralized remote monitoring center 310 may request some more details from the installation site 104 automatically or manually and/or search for similar issues from the one or more corresponding previous installation processes at the one or more other installation sites from the one or more external databases 106a-106n.
Alternatively or in addition, the method may further comprise providing by the computing unit 108 the obtained site information of the at least one ongoing installation process at the installation site 104 and/or the defined at least one installation operation for the at least one ongoing installation process at the installation site 104 to the one or more databases 106a-106n for one or more coming installation processes at one or more other installation sites. This enables that the site information gathered from the at least one ongoing installation process at the installation site 104 and/or the at least one installation operation defined for the at least one ongoing installation process at the installation site 104 may be utilized in one or more coming installation processes at one or more other installation sites.
Alternatively or in addition, the method may further comprise obtaining by the computing unit 108 process information of the at least one ongoing installation process at the installation site 104 and/or process information gathered from the one or more corresponding previous installation processes from one or more external databases 106a-106n and using by the computing unit 108 the obtained process information in the definition of the at least one installation operation for the at least one ongoing installation process at the step 206. The process information may comprise for example, but is not limited to, Building Information Mode (BIM) information; Bill of Material (BOM) information, i.e. information about what kind of material is delivered to the site; drawings; photos; testing reports; and/or manuals. This may improve further the prevention and/or identification of the issues appearing during the installation process at the installation site 104. Alternatively or in addition, this may improve further the definition of the at least one installation operation suitable for the at least one ongoing installation process at the installation site 104.
Above the invention is defined referring to the method according to the invention. Next the invention will be described referring to operations of the entities of the installation support system 100 according to the invention.
The computing unit 108 is configured to obtain site information of at least one ongoing installation process at the installation site 104 from the site control unit 102. The site control unit 102 may obtain the site information of the at least one ongoing installation process from one or more installed site devices 302a-302c, one or more not yet installed site devices 304, one or more external devices or systems 306a, 306b, and/or back reporting of one or more tools 308. The site control unit 102 is configured to provide the obtained site information to the computing unit 108. The site control unit 102 may be communicatively coupled to the one or more installed site devices 302a-302c, the one or more not yet installed site devices 304, the one or more external devices or systems 306a, 306b, the one or more tools 308, and any other entities at the installation site 104. The communication between the site control unit 102 and the other entities at the installation site 104 may be based on one or more known communication technologies, either wired or wireless.
The computing unit 108 is further configured to obtain site information gathered from one or more previous installation processes at one or more other installation sites from the one or more external databases 106a-106n. The site information gathered from the one or more previous installation processes at one or more other installation sites may be stored to the one or more external databases 106a-106n.
The obtained site information of the at least one ongoing installation process at the installation site 104 and/or the site information gathered from one or more previous installation processes at one or more other installation sites may comprise configuration information, software information, installation status information, statistical information, installation personnel information, and/or material flow information, of the respective installation process. The site information gathered from the one or more previous installation processes may further comprise: identified issues information, corrective installation operations, and/or preventive installation operations, of the respective installation process.
The computing unit 108 is further configured to define at least one installation operation for the at least one ongoing installation process at the installation site 104 based on the site information of the at least one ongoing installation process at the installation site 104 and the site information gathered from the one or more previous installation processes. The use of information already available from the one or more previous installation processes enables a prevention and/or an identification of issues appearing during the installation process at the installation site 104. Moreover, it eases and/or expedites a definition of the at least one installation operation suitable for the at least one ongoing installation process at the installation site 104. The at least one installation operation may be a preventive installation operation or a corrective installation operation. Alternatively or in addition, the identification of the issues appearing during the installation process at the installation site 104 may be improved and expedited. The one or more issues may be minor issues, which do not prevent the use of the system, but the one or more issues may also be major issues preventing the use of the system. The one or more issues may comprise for example, but is not limited to, faults, defects, deficiencies, outdated software versions, and/or outdated operation parameters. Moreover, the handover quality may be improved and the first year call out rates may be reduced, which in turn help maintaining installation schedule, quality and cost targets.
The definition of the at least one installation operation may comprise detecting by the computing unit 108 at least one issue in the site information of the at least one ongoing installation process and defining by the computing unit 108 the at least one installation operation by applying a machine learning module 450, i.e. a machine learning model. The machine learning module 450 may be configured to receive the detected at least one issue in the site information of the at least one ongoing installation process at the installation site 104 as its input data and to generate the at least one installation operation as the output data of the machine learning module 450 by applying one or more machine learning techniques. For example, the following known one or more machine learning techniques may be applied: decision trees, support vector machines, neural networks, or any suitable data-driven method. The computing unit 108 is able to infer by using the machine learning module 450 from the input data, i.e. the detected at least one issue in the site information of the at least one ongoing installation process, the typical output data of the machine learning model, i.e. what is the assumed at least one installation operation. In other words, the machine learning module 450 is configured to process the input data, i.e. the detected at least one issue in the site information of the at least one ongoing installation process, and to provide the output data, i.e. the at least one installation operation. The site information gathered from one or more previous installation processes at one or more other installation sites may be used as a training data to train the machine learning module 450. When the machine learning module 450 is trained properly, the accuracy of the generated at least one installation operation may be increased. In order to improve the training of the machine learning module 450, versatile training data may preferably be used. The accuracy of the generated at least one installation operation may also depend on the initial training data used for training of the machine learning module 450. This enables providing a continuously learning method for generating the at least one installation operation for the at least one ongoing installation process of at the installation site 104.
Alternatively, the definition of the at least one installation operation may comprise the following operations by the computing unit 108. The computing unit 108 may be configured to detect at least one issue in the site information of the at least one ongoing installation process at the installation site 104. The computing unit 108 may further be configured to detect a corresponding at least one issue in the site information gathered from one or more corresponding previous installation processes and to detect at least one installation operation performed in the one or more corresponding previous installation processes in response to the detected at least one issue in the site information gathered from one or more corresponding previous installation processes. The computing unit 108 may further be configured to use the detected at least one installation operation performed in the one or more corresponding previous installation processes as the defined at least one installation operation for the at least one ongoing installation process at the installation site 104. This enables providing a straightforward and simple method for generating the at least one installation operation for the at least one ongoing installation process of at the installation site 104.
The computing unit 108 is configured to generate at least one signal comprising an instruction to perform the at least one installation operation for the at least one ongoing installation process to the site control unit 104 in response to defining the at least one installation operation. This enables easy and fast correction of the detected issues appeared during the installation process at the installation site 104 with the at least one installation operation. The at least one installation operation may comprise updating site configuration, updating one or more software versions of the one or more installed site devices 302a-302c, updating one or more operation parameters, activation of one or more features, and/or performing troubleshooting. The at least one installation operation may be a preventive installation operation or a corrective installation operation. The one or more features may be customized for the installation site 104 or according to customer specific need.
The computing unit 108 may further be configured to generate a remote support request to a centralized remote monitoring center 310 based on the obtained site information of the at least one ongoing installation process at the installation site 104 and/or the defined at least one installation operation for the at least one ongoing installation process at the installation site 104. This enables a possibility to utilize the centralized remote monitoring center to perform the defined at least one installation operation and/or at least one further installation operation in order to correct the detected issues appeared during the installation process at the installation site 104. The remote monitoring center 310 is illustrated as an optional entity of the installation support system 100 according to the invention in the example of
Alternatively or in addition, the computing unit 108 may further be configured to provide the obtained site information of the at least one ongoing installation process at the installation site 104 and/or the defined at least one installation operation for the at least one ongoing installation process at the installation site 104 to the one or more databases 106a-106n for one or more coming installation processes at one or more other installation sites. This enables that the site information gathered from the at least one ongoing installation process at the installation site 104 and/or the at least one installation operation defined for the at least one ongoing installation process at the installation site 104 may be utilized in one or more coming installation processes at one or more other installation sites.
Alternatively or in addition, the computing unit 108 may further be configured to obtain process information of the at least one ongoing installation process at the installation site 104 and/or process information gathered from the one or more corresponding previous installation processes from one or more external databases 106a-106n and to use the obtained process information in the definition of the at least one installation operation for the at least one ongoing installation process at the installation site 104. The process information may comprise for example, but is not limited to, Building Information Mode (BIM) information; Bill of Material (BOM) information, i.e. information about what kind of material is delivered to the site; drawings; photos; testing reports; and/or manuals. This may improve further the prevention and/or identification of the issues appearing during the installation process at the installation site 104. Alternatively or in addition, this may improve further the definition of the at least one installation operation suitable for the at least one ongoing installation process at the installation site 104.
As discussed above the one or more external databases 106a-106n may be configured to store information. The information stored by the one or more external databases 106a-106n may comprise for example, but is not limited to, site information gathered from one or more previous installation processes at one or more other installation sites than the installation site 104 where the installation process is going on, the obtained site information of the at least one ongoing installation process at the installation site 104, the defined at least one installation operation for the at least one ongoing installation process at the installation site 104, process information of the at least one ongoing installation process at the installation site 104, process information gathered from the one or more corresponding previous installation processes at one or more other installation sites than the installation site 104 where the installation process is going on, and/or any other information. The external entity herein means an entity that locates separate from the installation site 104 and the computing unit 108. In the examples of
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/FI2020/050283 | Apr 2020 | US |
| Child | 17941722 | US |
