Elevator – industrial lift truck – or stationary lift for vehicle – With call registration means – Shared by plural load supports
Reexamination Certificate
1999-05-24
2001-01-16
Salata, Jonathan (Department: 2837)
Elevator, industrial lift truck, or stationary lift for vehicle
With call registration means
Shared by plural load supports
C187S392000, C187S387000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06173816
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Technical Field of the Invention
The invention relates to elevator dispatching and, more particularly, to improvements in estimating remaining response time (RRT) to answer a hall call.
2. Discussion of Related Art
Remaining response time (RRT) is the amount of time that a given elevator will require to reach a given hall call floor. For example, a car in the down direction and parked at floor
9
might require 6.0 seconds to respond to a newly registered down hall call on floor
7
; in that case it is said that the RRT equals 6.0 seconds. The RRT for another car presently on floor
16
would be much longer. Another important illustration of RRT is the case where a car is in the process of responding to a hall call that has already been waiting for some time. Here, the RRT is the time from now until the car arrives at the hall call floor. The RRT is a key concept in dispatching decisions.
Co-owned U.S. patents pertaining to RRT include, among others, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,146,053; 5,388,668; 5,427,206; and 5,672,853. Clearly, accuracy of an estimation procedure for RRT is critical, especially as it is applied to dispatchers with ECA (Early Car Announcement: See U.S. Pat. No. 5,338,904). If the destination of each waiting passenger were known, a more accurate prediction of RRT would be possible.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
An object of the present invention is to provide a method and means for estimating RRT where the destination of waiting passengers is factored into the procedure.
According to a first aspect of the present invention, a method for estimating a remaining response time (RRT) for an elevator car from among a plurality of candidate cars to serve an unassigned hall call registered by an intending passenger, comprises the steps of:
obtaining state information for said car relating to location, motion and direction;
obtaining all registered car calls assigned to said car for serving already boarded passengers;
obtaining all registered hall calls already assigned to said car for serving preboarded passengers;
obtaining destination information of said preboarded passengers and of said intending passenger; and
computing said RRT based on said state information, said registered car calls, said registered hall calls, and said destination information.
According to a second aspect of the present invention, an apparatus for estimating a remaining response time (RRT) for an elevator car from among a plurality of candidate cars to serve an unassigned hall call registered by an intending passenger, comprises:
means for obtaining state information for said car relating to location, motion and direction;
means for obtaining all registered car calls assigned to said car for serving already boarded passengers;
means for obtaining all registered hall calls already assigned to said car for serving preboarded passengers;
means for obtaining destination information of said preboarded passengers and of said intending passenger; and
means for computing said RRT based on said state information, said registered car calls, said registered hall calls, and said destination information, wherein said RRT is computed in accordance with the following equation:
RRT=Nf*Tf+Ns*Ts+
(
Ns+
1)*
Td,
with
Nf being the number of floors between said car and the unassigned hall call;
Ns being the number of stops between said car and the unassigned hall call, a stop for each registered car call or each registered hall call;
Tf being the time for said car to pass each of said floors;
Ts being the time spent at each of said stops; and
Td being the delay time for starting car per stop.
In further accord with both aspects of the present invention, the destination information of said intending passenger includes a time lag corresponding to said intending passenger traversing a distance beginning at a time of registering said unassigned hall call to a time of meeting said elevator car.
These and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent in light of the following detailed description of a best mode embodiment thereof, as illustrated in the accompanying drawing.
REFERENCES:
patent: 4718520 (1988-01-01), Schroder
patent: 5092431 (1992-03-01), Schroder
patent: 5146053 (1992-09-01), Powell et al.
patent: 5239142 (1993-08-01), Ekholm et al.
patent: 5305198 (1994-04-01), Schroder et al.
patent: 5338904 (1994-08-01), Powell et al.
patent: 5388668 (1995-02-01), Powell et al.
patent: 5412163 (1995-05-01), Tsuji
patent: 5427206 (1995-06-01), Powell et al.
patent: 5511634 (1996-04-01), Bahjat et al.
patent: 5612519 (1997-03-01), Chenais
patent: 5616896 (1997-04-01), Kontturi et al.
patent: 5672853 (1997-09-01), Whitehall et al.
patent: 5936212 (1999-08-01), Whitchall et al.
patent: 5955708 (1999-09-01), Amano et al.
Barker Frederick H.
Powell Bruce A.
Simcik Paul A.
Otis Elevator Company
Salata Jonathan
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