Otis Elevator Company

Claudia M Schmidt-Milkau

Axel Steffen Gerwing

Rolf E Hanitsch

Lutz Vietze

Klaus Disterer

A microphone 13 is provided upon the ceiling 4 of an elevator hoistway 3 and a loudspeaker 8 upon the top of an elevator car 1. A 9-16 kHz up-sweep is provided to the loudspeaker 8 and a sound signal is transmitted from the loudspeaker 8 to the microphone 13. The travel time of the sound signal is obtained by cross-correlating 53 the sound signal received by the microphone 13 with a reference signal. The reference signal is a received signal in a relatively noiseless environment. By multiplying the travel time of the signal by its velocity, the distance between microphone and loudspeaker is calculated 59. The hoistway temperature is measured 26 and used 57 in the absolute position calculation 59.

Measuring elevator hoistway position using audible signals

Two ultrasonic transducers are provided, one upon the ceiling of an elevator hoistway and the other one the top of an elevator car for measuring the time for an ultrasonic signal to travel from one transducer to another and return for treasuring elevator position.

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Berlin, Germany

Claudia M Schmidt-Milkau