Otis Elevator Company

Hideyuki Honma

Jannah A Stanley

Daniel S Williams

Toshimitsu Mori

Theresa M Christy

Paul A Simcik

Kazuhiro Hattori

Mark Ross

Thomas W Saxe

Arthur Hsu

Harold Terry

Bruce A Powell

John M Milton-Benoit

Zuhair S Bahjat

Hansoo Shim

Cheong SikShin

Masanori Sahara

A method of dispatching an elevator car to a destination requested by a passenger before the passenger enters the car includes determining which trip of the elevator car begins at a time having a desired relationship to an expected arrival time when a passenger is expected to arrive near the elevator car. An actual arrival time of the passenger near the elevator car is determined. The elevator car is dispatched to the requested destination during a trip that begins at a time that corresponds to or is after the actual arrival time.

Method of dispatching an elevator car including an expected arrival time of a passenger near an elevator car

Destination calls entered by means of buttons (-) are each given a designation unique to the car and pick-up floor for that call and other calls to be serviced therewith, such as a letter (A-E), which is different from any other outstanding calls. Calls can be reassigned among elevators (UL, LL, UR, LR) whether they are in the same or different hoistways (LF, RT). Signs (--) adjacent each hoistway are illuminated to display the designation of any call which is being answered by an elevator car approaching the floor. Thus, passengers are informed when their call is being answered by the signs identifying the call, rather than identifying any particular car. Another embodiment identifies () the hoistway landing doorway () as well as a letter to allow passengers to wait adjacent to the hoistway landing doorway of the car which will serve them.

Call indicator provided near elevator car currently assigned to the call

An elevator traffic control technique includes destination grouping that is selectively implemented during selected traffic condition. One example includes determining when up peak traffic conditions exist. If so, the passenger-to-car assignments are grouped based upon the passengers' desired destinations, which are determined before the passengers enter elevator cars, Arranging sectors responsive to current traffic conditions in one example is based upon elevator passenger traffic patterns over the most recent five minutes.

Elevator traffic control including destination grouping

An elevator system () includes a plurality of cars () and destination entry devices () located some distance from the elevator cars (). A controller () dispatches an elevator car to a requested destination entered by a passenger before the passenger enters an elevator car. In one example, the controller () uses an expected arrival time corresponding to the time it is expected to take for a passenger to travel from the location where the destination request is entered to the location of the elevator car to decide how to dispatch a car to service that request. In one example, the controller dispatches an elevator car to the requested destination on a next trip of that car if the expected arrival time of the passenger near that car occurs at or before the departure time for that next trip. Otherwise, the controller () dispatches the car to the requested destination on a subsequent trip after the next trip.

Method of dispatching an elevator car

An elevator system includes a controller that uses one of a plurality of fuzzy logic algorithms for assigning an elevator car to service a passenger request. One example uses a passenger's desired destination as indicated by the passenger service request prior to the passenger entering an elevator car. One example includes multiple fuzzy logic algorithms, each corresponding to a particular relationship between an elevator car's current assignments, a passenger's desired destination, a source landing of the passenger's request, or a combination of them.

Elevator car dispatching including passenger destination information and a fuzzy logic algorithm

The present invention improves the performance of the group control of elevators by shortening the waiting time for connections to the top floor in a system composed of a plurality double deck elevators having upper decks (1 )&tilde;(1 ) and lower decks (1 )&tilde;(1 ), respectively.

Device and method for control of double deck elevator system

A control device for a double-deck elevator system having an upper deck and a lower deck, includes a group control device for assigning the upper and lower decks to respond to car calls from the upper and lower decks and boarding hall calls from a plurality of floors. The control device further includes an assignment control device for determining whether a plurality of the car calls and boarding hall calls can be responded to simultaneously and for directing said group control device to reassign the upper and lower decks to respond to the plurality of car calls and boarding hall calls simultaneously.

Control system and control method for reassigning the cars of a double-deck elevator

An elevator door system having variable opening/closing width includes a button (1) located in the hall in the loading area for calling the elevator car to that hall, multiple destination floor buttons (2) in the elevator car which indicate the destination floor of the elevator car when pressed, a load sensor (3) which measures the load applied to the elevator car, a door operator (4) which opens the door completely or less than the completely opened width, and a controller (5) which inputs the signals from said hall button (1), destination floor buttons (2), and load sensor (3) and outputs a drive signal to said door operator (4). In the controller, the number of passengers in the elevator car is computed from the load measured by said load sensor (3), and when the result obtained by dividing the number of passengers by the number of destination floor buttons (2) pressed is one or less and a hall call is not generated at the destination floor, a signal which opens the door less than the completely opened width is output from the door operator (4).

Elevator door system having variable opening/closing width

An elevator car call is reassigned if a different car fortuitously shows up first, or if the assigned car leaves the group. The call is reassigned, one time only, if the assigned car is delayed by more than a threshold, or under certain circumstances, if the car is fully loaded without an intervening car call or the call has been waiting for more than a threshold time. The circumstances are that the weighted summation of membership values in fuzzy sets, indicating the degree to which the predicted waiting time for the currently assigned call is deemed long, the response time for a new call assignment is deemed small, and the improvement from switching the hall call assignment is deemed great, exceeds a threshold and each of the membership values exceeds its own corresponding threshold.

Growing community of inventors

Chiba-ken, Japan

Hideyuki Honma