Otis Elevator Company

Rajesh Rajamani

Randall Keith Roberts

Timothy M Remmers

Roy Stephen Colby

In an elevator active guidance system, in order to avoid the action of one actuator (23) from interfering with the action of another, a controller (21) is provided that uses a force law based on a model of the elevator (40), and uses information from all of the sensors (22) in combination to determine, according to the force law, the force each actuator (23) should provide. The model of the elevator (40) is used to determine how the elevator (40) will respond to the forces exerted by the actuators (23). In the preferred embodiment, the elevator (40) is assumed to respond to the actuator forces as a rigid body. The full model is built up from this basic assumption, finally including all of the geometric and inertial attributes of the elevator necessary to describe its rigid body motion in response to forces from actuators (23).

Elevator active guidance system having a model-based multi-input

The invention provides an elevator system for controlling movement of an elevator car with respect to guide rails in an elevator hoistway, having a force-estimation or position-scheduled current command controller and a magnet driver circuit without the need for a flux sensor. The force-estimation or position-scheduled current command controller responds to a force command signal, and further responds to a sensed gap signal, for providing a force-estimation or position-scheduled current command controller signal as a current command to the magnet driver circuit. The magnet driver circuit responds to the force-estimation or position-scheduled current command controller signal, for providing a magnet driver circuit signal to control said horizontal movement of the elevator car with respect to the guide rail in the elevator hoistway, whereby the horizontal movement of the elevator car is controlled without sensing magnetic flux. Other applications include any system that uses an electromagnet to produce an attractive or repulsive force across a large air gap, such as magnetic levitation trains or shuttles, and magnetic bearings.

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East Hartford, CT, United States of America

Rajesh Rajamani