Westinghouse Electric Corporation

Inventio Ag

Elsa Abrego

Robert C MacDonald

Marjorie J Polis

Matthew Martin

Jeffrey W Blain

Jon Howard

Gerald M Rees

A method of assigning hall calls to a plurality of elevator cars (0, 1, N) which biases the assignment process to balance the number of cars serving up and down service directions. Prior to each call assignment update the method determines the number of cars serving each service direction (78, 80, 82). A predetermined relationship (88) between there two numbers is used to determine if up hall calls should be assigned first, or down hall calls (90, 92, 94, 96). The balancing of cars serving the two service directions lowers the average waiting time, and it results in dispersing the cars throughout a building when service subsides, to enable prompt service for newly entered calls without the necessity of moving the cars during periods of low service to be in position for new calls.

Dynamic selection of elevator call assignment scan direction

A method for assigning hall calls to a plurality of elevator cars on the basis of the estimating the time of arrival (ETA) of each elevator car at the floor of the hall call to be assigned. A new hall call is assigned to the car having the lowest ETA. A previously assigned hall call is reassigned to a car having a lower ETA than the car presently assigned to serve the call when the lower ETA is lower by a value T. The average call waiting time (AWT) is calculated using a selected period of time to tabulate the number of calls and cumulative call waiting time, and this calculated value is compared with the desired AWT for the elevator system. The value of T is changed when the calculated and desired values of ETA have a predetermined relationship.

Dynamic assignment switching in the dispatching of elevator cars

A method of assigning hall calls to a plurality of elevator cars in an ETA strategy in which up hall calls are scanned upwardly and down calls downwardly. A hall call floor at which the scan has stopped for the purpose of assigning or reassigning a hall call at the floor is called a 'scan floor'. The floor of the advanced position of the car being considered for assignment is called the 'AVP floor'. In order to favor the clustering of closely adjacent stops in a given car, and thus minimize car bunching, when a car has an intervening stop between the AVP floor and the scan floor, either the travel distance between the AVP floor and the scan floor, or the travel distance from an intervening stop to the scan floor, is used to develop a dynamic bias for the ETA of the associated car. The dynamic or variable bias is inversely proportional to the travel distance, i.e., the number of floors, between the relevant floors.

Anti-bunching method for dispatching elevator cars

An elevator dispatching method which estimates the time of arrival (ETA) of each car at the floor of a hall call to be assigned. A building profile of average door cycle times per floor, over predetermined periods of the day, is tabulated and used in the ETA calculations, to provide more accurate ETA values and thus a lower average call waiting time.

Method for using door cycle time in dispatching elevator cars

A method of optimizing the handling of coincident calls in an elevator system which employs ETA strategy in assigning hall calls to a plurality of elevator cars. The method dynamically biases the ETA value of a car having a car call for the floor of the hall call being assigned, with the bias being applied to favor assignment of the hall call to the car having the coincident car call. The amount of the bias is inversely proportional to the car travel distance between the advanced position (AVP floor) of the elevator car and the floor associated with the hall call (scan floor). The relative effect of the bias is predetermined for each floor by preselection of a constant K used in the bias calculation.

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Nutley, NJ, United States of America

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