Elevator control system and elevator control method

Abstract

This invention discloses an elevator control system comprising: a storage unit for storing the relationship between influencing factors and desired temperature; an acquisition unit for acquiring the current value of the influencing factors; a receiving unit for receiving elevator call signals from waiting passengers and elevator operation information; a determination unit for determining the desired temperature of each waiting passenger based on the current value of the influencing factors and the relationship between the influencing factors and desired temperature; a grouping unit for dividing waiting passengers into several groups based on their desired temperatures; a dispatching unit for allocating responding elevators to the call signals; and a control unit for controlling the adjustment device inside the elevator car to ensure that the temperature inside the responding elevator car remains consistent with the passengers' desired temperature. This invention improves the passenger experience by appropriately allocating responding elevators to passengers with different desired temperature settings inside the elevator car, ensuring that the temperature inside the elevator car remains consistent with the passengers' desired temperature during the elevator ride.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] This invention relates to the field of elevator technology, and specifically to an elevator control system and method that maintains the temperature inside the elevator car at the same level as the desired temperature of waiting passengers. Background Technology

[0002] To provide elevator passengers with a comfortable riding environment and experience, existing technologies have offered various solutions. Reference 1 (CN200410099182.9) introduces weight and temperature detection signals to control the operation of the fan and cooling system in real time based on changes in the number of people and the thermal environment inside the elevator car, thus improving thermal comfort and air quality. Essentially, this solution improves the accuracy of the temperature detection value's tracking of the set value and reduces its fluctuation by introducing weight and temperature detection signals, but it does not address how to meet the personalized temperature needs of elevator passengers. Reference 2 (CN201710499804.4) proposes extracting keywords from received passenger commands and adjusting the set temperature of the air conditioning equipment accordingly. This solution provides passengers with a way to input commands for adjusting the set temperature of the air conditioning equipment, but it does not address the temperature setting issue for passengers with different temperature requirements during their elevator ride. Reference 3 (CN201811353490.8) proposes controlling the output of the elevator cooling and regulating equipment based on temperature prediction data from the selector data of the floor the elevator is about to stop at and the elevator status data, thereby achieving advance control of the elevator temperature and improving the comfort inside the elevator. This solves the problem that the passive control method of elevator air conditioning cannot meet the comfort needs of elevator passengers. This scheme improves the comfort inside the elevator by implementing advance control of the temperature inside the car, but it also does not address the issue of temperature setting during the elevator ride for passengers with different needs for the temperature inside the car.

[0003] Therefore, how to solve the temperature setting problem during the elevator ride for passengers with different requirements for the temperature inside the elevator car has become a technical problem that needs to be solved. Summary of the Invention

[0004] To address the aforementioned technical problems, this invention discloses an elevator control system, comprising:

[0005] Storage unit: used to store the relationship between influencing factors and desired temperature, which reflects the relationship between the influencing factors affecting the desired temperature of the elevator car when passengers ride the elevator and the desired temperature;

[0006] Acquisition unit: used to acquire the current value of the influencing factor;

[0007] Receiving unit: Used to receive elevator call signals from waiting passengers and elevator operation information;

[0008] Determining Unit: Determines the desired temperature for each waiting passenger based on the current value of the influencing factor and the relationship between the influencing factor and the desired temperature;

[0009] Grouping Unit: Based on the expected temperature of each waiting passenger, the waiting passengers are divided into several groups. Each group includes at least one waiting passenger. All waiting passengers in the same group have the same expected temperature, or the difference between the highest and lowest expected temperatures does not exceed the threshold.

[0010] Dispatch unit: used to allocate responding elevators to the call signal based on the elevator operation information and group division results;

[0011] Control unit: Used to control the air conditioning unit inside the elevator car to ensure that the temperature inside the responding elevator car is consistent with the desired temperature of the passengers in the group corresponding to that responding elevator.

[0012] Preferably, the storage unit first analyzes and determines the influencing factors that can affect the desired temperature of the elevator car for waiting passengers and can be acquired, then determines the possible values ​​of each influencing factor, then enumerates all combinations of the possible values ​​of each influencing factor, and finally determines the desired temperature corresponding to each combination, thereby obtaining the relationship between the influencing factor and the desired temperature.

[0013] Preferably, the acquisition unit further includes:

[0014] Determination module: used to determine the source of the influencing factors;

[0015] Determination module: used to determine whether there is a first influencing element whose current value cannot be obtained from the source of the influencing element;

[0016] Analysis module: When a first influencing factor exists, analyze the correlation between the first influencing factor and a second influencing factor whose current value can be obtained from the source of the influencing factor, and output an estimation method for estimating the current value of the first influencing factor using the second influencing factor based on the correlation.

[0017] Estimation module: Estimates and outputs the current value of the first influencing element based on the estimation method and the current value of the second influencing element that is related to the first influencing element;

[0018] Output module: When there is no first influencing factor, obtain and output the current value of the influencing factor according to the source of the influencing factor; when there is a first influencing factor, take the sum of the estimated value of the first influencing factor and the current value of the second influencing factor as the current value of the influencing factor and output it.

[0019] Preferably, the dispatching unit determines the response level of each group based on the elevator call signal, determines the first elevator to arrive at the departure floor of the waiting passengers based on the elevator operation information, and assigns the call signal of the group with the highest response level to the first elevator to arrive.

[0020] Preferably, the response level of a group is in any of the following forms: Form 1, the waiting time of the group, and the longer the waiting time of the group, the higher the response level; Form 2, the highest priority of the waiting passengers in the group, and the higher the priority of the waiting passengers in the group, the higher the response level; Form 3, the number of waiting passengers in the group, and the more waiting passengers in the group, the higher the response level of the group.

[0021] Preferably, the waiting time of a group refers to the average waiting time of passengers in the group, the sum of their waiting times, the median waiting time, or the longest waiting time.

[0022] Preferably, when the number of passengers waiting in the elevator within the group exceeds a threshold, the group is split according to the principle of grouping passengers whose impact on the response level of the group is similar into the same group.

[0023] Preferably, when the number of passengers in a group is less than a threshold, if the difference between the response level of the group and the response level of the other group is less than the threshold and the number of waiting passengers in the two groups does not exceed the number of passengers that the elevator can carry, the two groups are combined into one group for processing.

[0024] The present invention also provides an elevator control method, comprising the following steps:

[0025] Step S1: Monitor newly added passengers waiting for elevators in the elevator lobby;

[0026] Step S2: Obtain the current values ​​of the factors affecting the desired temperature of the elevator car for the newly added waiting passengers;

[0027] Step S3: Determine the expected temperature for newly added waiting passengers based on the current values ​​of the influencing factors and the pre-established relationship between the influencing factors and the expected temperature.

[0028] Step S4: Obtain the operating information of each elevator and the set temperature of the air conditioning unit in each elevator car.

[0029] Step S5: Determine the candidate elevators for the newly added waiting passengers based on their desired temperature and the set temperature of the air conditioning unit;

[0030] Step S6: Select one of the candidate elevators as the responding elevator for newly added waiting passengers based on the operation information of the candidate elevators;

[0031] Step S7: Set the set temperature of the air conditioning unit of the responding elevator to the desired temperature of the newly added waiting passengers.

[0032] Preferably, in step S5, the method for determining the candidate elevators for newly added waiting passengers is as follows:

[0033] Step S51: The elevators whose set temperature is the same as the expected temperature of the newly added waiting passengers, or whose difference between the set temperature and the expected temperature does not exceed the threshold, are divided into the first elevator group and given the first priority; the elevators are those whose running direction is the same as the expected travel direction of the newly added waiting passengers, and whose elevator cars have not yet passed the departure floor of the newly added waiting passengers.

[0034] Step S52: Divide each available elevator into a second elevator group and assign it a second priority;

[0035] Step S53: The elevators that meet the preset conditions and whose set temperature is different from the expected temperature of the newly added waiting passengers, or whose difference between the set temperature and the expected temperature exceeds the threshold, are classified into the third elevator group and given the third priority; the preset condition is: the farthest destination floor of the current elevator is located between the departure floor of the newly added waiting passengers and the current position of the elevator.

[0036] Step S54: Elevators that do not meet the preset conditions described in step S53, but meet the conditions that the set temperature is different from the expected temperature of newly added waiting passengers, or the difference between the set temperature and the expected temperature exceeds the threshold, are classified into the fourth elevator group and given the fourth priority.

[0037] Step S55: Select all elevators in the group with at least one elevator and the highest priority as candidate elevators, excluding the fourth elevator group.

[0038] Preferably, when there are multiple elevators to be selected, the method for selecting one of the elevators as the responding elevator for the newly added waiting passenger in step S6 is as follows: if the elevator to be selected comes from the first elevator group or the second elevator group, the call signal corresponding to the newly added waiting passenger is taken as the new call signal and the elevators to be selected are taken as the selection range, and the group management algorithm is used for selection; if the elevator to be selected comes from the third elevator group, the elevator with the smallest difference between the current temperature of the elevator car and the expected temperature of the newly added waiting passenger is taken as the responding elevator.

[0039] Preferably, when the current temperature inside the elevator car differs from the desired temperature of newly added waiting passengers, step S7 determines the start time for implementing temperature adjustment based on the difference between the current temperature and the desired temperature, as well as the temperature adjustment speed of the air conditioning unit.

[0040] Preferably, when the responding elevator comes from the third elevator group, if the time it takes for the responding elevator to move to the departure floor of the newly added waiting passengers is less than the time required for the air conditioning unit of the responding elevator to adjust the current temperature to the desired temperature of the newly added waiting passengers, the start time of temperature adjustment is determined based on the number of existing passengers and newly added waiting passengers in the responding elevator car.

[0041] Preferably, the elevator control method includes: step S8, informing the responding elevator of the allocation result; when the call signal of a newly added waiting passenger includes the destination floor, the method of informing the passenger of the destination floor and the elevator ID is adopted; otherwise, the method of informing the passenger of the destination floor and the elevator ID is adopted.

[0042] Preferably, when step S5 fails to select a candidate elevator, the process returns to step S1 after monitoring changes in elevator operation information.

[0043] Preferably, the following step is further included between step S1 and step S2:

[0044] Step A1: Determine whether multiple new passengers waiting for the elevator are detected and whether the maximum distance between the new passengers exceeds the threshold. If so, proceed to the next step; otherwise, proceed to step S2.

[0045] Step A2: Based on the location information or distance information between newly added waiting passengers, use clustering to group the newly added waiting passengers;

[0046] Step A3: Select one of the unselected groups as the selected group, and add new passengers waiting for the elevator in the selected group as new passengers waiting for the elevator.

[0047] Furthermore, following step S7, the following steps are also included:

[0048] Step B1: Determine if there are still unselected groups. If so, update the elevator operation information and return to step A3; otherwise, end the process.

[0049] Preferably, step A3 selects the chosen group according to an optimal principle, wherein the optimal principle is:

[0050] First, according to the pre-established evaluation indicators and methods, for each possible selection order formed by different arrangements of each group, the control performance of the response elevator of each selected group is evaluated using the evaluation indicators and methods corresponding to each possible selection order, and the evaluation results of a single group are obtained. Then, the overall evaluation results of all selected groups are obtained, and the overall evaluation results corresponding to each selection order are obtained. Finally, the selection order corresponding to the optimal overall evaluation result is selected as the final selection order.

[0051] Preferably, step S6 aims to fully utilize the resources currently available in the elevator car for transporting passengers, or aims to select a responding elevator for newly added waiting passengers at most so that the destination floors of passengers currently in the elevator car are the same as the destination floors of waiting passengers in the selected group.

[0052] Preferably, step S6 achieves the objective of making full use of the resources currently available in the elevator car for transporting passengers by selecting an elevator from the candidate elevators that can provide resources close to, but not less than, the resources required by the waiting passengers in the selected group as the responding elevator.

[0053] Beneficial technical effects

[0054] This invention improves the passenger experience by appropriately assigning response elevators to passengers with different desired temperature settings inside the elevator car, ensuring that the temperature inside the elevator car remains stable and consistent with the passengers' expectations during the ride. Attached Figure Description

[0055] Figure 1 This is a schematic diagram of the elevator control system structure in Example 1. Detailed Implementation

[0056] The present invention will now be described in further detail with reference to the accompanying drawings and specific embodiments.

[0057] Example 1: This example is for passengers waiting at the main elevator station. In this case, the main elevator station is the 1st floor and the basement is not considered. That is, after all passengers leave the car when the elevator descends from the upper floors to the main station, the elevator can only go up at the main station. Therefore, it is only necessary to consider the temperature requirements of passengers waiting at the station during the elevator ride.

[0058] The working process of the elevator control system in this embodiment is described below:

[0059] Application Scenario: Assume a building has 4 elevators, with the main station on the 1st floor being the terminal floor. During the morning rush hour, there are 30 passengers waiting for elevators in the lobby on the 1st floor. It is necessary to assign a response elevator to each of these 30 passengers and simultaneously control the set temperature of the air conditioning unit in the response elevator to match the desired temperature of the passengers assigned to that elevator.

[0060] For this application scenario, such as Figure 1 As shown, the elevator control system in this embodiment includes:

[0061] Storage unit: used to store the relationship between influencing factors and desired temperature, which reflects the relationship between the influencing factors affecting the desired temperature of the elevator car when passengers ride the elevator and the desired temperature;

[0062] Acquisition unit: used to acquire the current value of the influencing factor;

[0063] Receiving unit: Used to receive elevator call signals from waiting passengers and elevator operation information;

[0064] Determining Unit: Determines the desired temperature for each waiting passenger based on the current value of the influencing factor and the relationship between the influencing factor and the desired temperature;

[0065] Grouping Unit: Based on the expected temperature of each waiting passenger, the waiting passengers are divided into several groups. Each group includes at least one waiting passenger. All waiting passengers in the same group have the same expected temperature, or the difference between the highest and lowest expected temperatures does not exceed the threshold.

[0066] Dispatch unit: used to allocate responding elevators to the call signal based on the elevator operation information and group division results;

[0067] Control unit: Used to control the air conditioning unit inside the elevator car to ensure that the temperature inside the responding elevator car is consistent with the desired temperature of the passengers in the group corresponding to that responding elevator.

[0068] Before applying the elevator control system of this embodiment to the above application scenario, the storage unit needs to first establish the relationship between influencing factors and desired temperature. The storage unit first analyzes and determines the influencing factors that can affect the desired temperature of the elevator car for waiting passengers and can be obtained. Then, it determines the possible values ​​of each influencing factor, enumerates all combinations of the possible values ​​of each influencing factor, and finally determines the desired temperature corresponding to each combination, thereby obtaining the relationship between influencing factors and desired temperature.

[0069] The specific steps are shown below:

[0070] Step 1: Analyze and identify the influencing factors that can affect passengers' desired temperature in the elevator car and that can be obtained. These influencing factors include one or more of the following: passenger's age, gender, clothing, current weather or temperature, season, etc. Here, only age and clothing are considered.

[0071] Step 2: Determine the possible values ​​for each influencing factor; age can be simply set to four possible values: child, youth, middle-aged, and elderly; clothing can be simply set to light clothing, spring and autumn clothing, heavy and warm clothing, etc.

[0072] Step 3: Enumerate all possible combinations of values ​​for each influencing factor; for example: combination 1: {youth, cool clothing}, combination 2: {elderly, spring and autumn clothing}, combination 3: {middle-aged, spring and autumn clothing}, etc.

[0073] Step 4: Determine the expected temperature for each combination. For example, the expected temperature for combination 1 is 21℃, the expected temperature for combination 2 is 23℃, and the expected temperature for combination 3 is 22℃.

[0074] This yields the relationship between influencing factors and desired temperature. Based on this, the elevator control system of this embodiment can be used to control the above scenario.

[0075] The acquisition unit further includes:

[0076] Determination module: used to determine the source of the influencing factors;

[0077] Determination module: used to determine whether there is a first influencing element whose current value cannot be obtained from the source of the influencing element;

[0078] Analysis module: When a first influencing factor exists, analyze the correlation between the first influencing factor and a second influencing factor whose current value can be obtained from the source of the influencing factor, and output an estimation method for estimating the current value of the first influencing factor using the second influencing factor based on the correlation.

[0079] Estimation module: Estimates and outputs the current value of the first influencing element based on the estimation method and the current value of the second influencing element that is related to the first influencing element;

[0080] Output module: When there is no first influencing factor, obtain and output the current value of the influencing factor according to the source of the influencing factor; when there is a first influencing factor, take the sum of the estimated value of the first influencing factor and the current value of the second influencing factor as the current value of the influencing factor and output it.

[0081] In this application example, since the influencing factors are only age and clothing, the determining module can determine that their sources are all image processing devices used to perform image recognition on images of waiting passengers captured by the floor station cameras; the judging module determines that the current values ​​of all influencing factors can be obtained by the image processing device, and therefore are all second influencing factors; the output module outputs the image recognition results from the image processing device as the current values ​​of the influencing factors. In this embodiment, the ages of the waiting passengers in the first-floor lobby obtained by the acquisition unit are young, middle-aged, and elderly, and their clothing is light clothing and spring / autumn clothing, respectively, and all fall into the aforementioned combination 3. Among them, 15 passengers meet combination 1, 6 passengers meet combination 2, and the remaining 9 passengers meet combination 3; the specific implementation form of the acquisition unit for obtaining these influencing factors is not limited. It can be to obtain the current values ​​of the influencing factors by detecting the passengers' identity information and then obtaining them based on pre-registered information, or it can be to obtain the current values ​​of the influencing factors using camera-image processing. In some applications, influencing factors may also include season and current temperature. Season can be obtained from the elevator system's date and time, but due to network anomalies, the current temperature may be temporarily unavailable from the original network access method. In such cases, the judgment module determines that the current temperature is the primary influencing factor. The analysis module, after analysis, finds that the current temperature can be roughly estimated using the elevator system's date and time information, or by further combining it with the clothing of waiting passengers. At this point, the output module takes the actual values ​​of age, clothing, and season, along with the estimated current temperature, as the sum of all influencing factors and outputs it. By adopting this processing method, the phenomenon that the control system of this embodiment cannot be used when the current value of individual operating factors cannot be directly obtained can be avoided. This is because in the relationship between influencing factors and desired temperature, the corresponding desired temperature can only be output when the current values ​​of all operating factors are obtained.

[0082] The receiving unit mainly receives elevator call signals (such as upward signals) from passengers waiting on the first floor and elevator operation information (such as elevator car position information and running direction information).

[0083] The determining unit determines the expected temperature of each waiting passenger based on the current value of the influencing factors and the relationship between the influencing factors and the expected temperature. Here, after obtaining that the passengers' ages are young, middle-aged and elderly, and their clothing is light clothing and spring / autumn clothing, respectively, since they all fall into the above three combinations, the determining unit determines that these 30 waiting passengers have three different expected temperatures of 21℃, 22℃ and 23℃ based on the pre-established relationship between the influencing factors and the expected temperature (i.e., the combination and its corresponding expected temperature). At the same time, the determining unit also determines the passengers corresponding to each expected temperature.

[0084] Grouping Unit: Based on the desired temperature of each waiting passenger, the waiting passengers are divided into several groups. Each group includes at least one waiting passenger. All waiting passengers in the same group have the same desired temperature, or the difference between the highest and lowest desired temperatures does not exceed a threshold. Considering that there are only 3 different desired temperatures in this application scenario, the waiting passengers are directly divided into three groups, A, B, and C, corresponding to the 3 desired temperatures of 21℃, 22℃, and 23℃, respectively.

[0085] The dispatching unit allocates responsive elevators to each group based on elevator operation information and group division results, thereby providing transportation services for passengers waiting in the group. It is strongly required that the elevator dispatching here allocates responsive elevators to groups rather than allocating elevators to respond to each call signal in the traditional way. In the scenario of the main floor station, the upward call signal on the 1st floor usually corresponds to multiple groups, so a responsive elevator needs to be allocated to each group. In the traditional elevator dispatching, only one elevator needs to be allocated to respond to the call signal (of course, when the upward peak period is identified, some group management systems may add additional elevators, but this is obviously different from the solution of allocating responsive elevators to each group in this embodiment).

[0086] When the dispatching unit allocates response elevators to each group, it can adopt various dispatching methods. In this embodiment, the dispatching elevators are allocated to each group according to the response level of each group and the order in which each elevator arrives. Specifically, the response level of each group is first determined according to the elevator call signal. Then, the first elevator to arrive at the departure floor of the waiting passengers is determined according to the elevator operation information. Finally, the call signal of the group with the highest response level is allocated to the first elevator to arrive.

[0087] The response elevators are assigned to each group in this manner. The output of the dispatching unit includes not only the group and its corresponding elevator, but also the set temperature of the control and adjustment device inside the car of the response elevator (i.e., the desired temperature corresponding to the group).

[0088] The group's response level can be any of the following forms:

[0089] Form 1: Group waiting time, and the longer the group waiting time, the higher the response level;

[0090] Form 2: The highest priority for passengers waiting in the elevator within the group, and the higher the priority of passengers waiting in the elevator within the group, the higher the response level;

[0091] Form 3: The number of passengers waiting for the elevator within the group, and the more passengers waiting for the elevator within the group, the higher the response level of the group.

[0092] The waiting time for a group refers to the average waiting time of passengers in the group, the sum of their waiting times, the median waiting time, or the longest waiting time.

[0093] After assigning response elevators to each group, the dispatching unit also needs to inform the waiting passengers of the dispatching results in an appropriate manner so that they can take the response elevator of their group, such as: the first elevator to arrive, #A, has a set temperature of 21°C, etc.

[0094] The control unit controls the air conditioning unit inside the elevator car to ensure that the temperature inside the responding elevator car is consistent with the desired temperature of the passengers in the group corresponding to that responding elevator.

[0095] In the above description, each group is assigned one responding elevator. In reality, when the number of waiting passengers in the same group is too large (such as exceeding the maximum passenger capacity of an elevator), it is necessary to split a large group into two groups. That is, when the number of waiting passengers in the group exceeds the threshold, the group is split according to the principle of grouping passengers in the same group whose factors affect the response level of the group are similar.

[0096] Preferably, when splitting, the factors that affect the response level of passengers in the group (such as waiting time, priority, or when the call signal contains destination floor information, grouping can be used to make the destination floors in the group as few as possible or more concentrated - which is beneficial to improving the passenger transport efficiency of the elevator) should be grouped into the same group as closely as possible.

[0097] When the number of passengers in a group is too small (e.g., far less than the maximum passenger capacity of an elevator), that is, when the number of passengers in a group is less than the threshold, if the difference between the response level of the group and the response level of the other group is less than the threshold and the number of waiting passengers in the two groups does not exceed the number of passengers that the elevator can carry, the two groups will be merged into one group for processing.

[0098] Example 2: This example addresses passengers waiting on an elevator at an intermediate floor. When the elevator restarts at this intermediate floor, it may move either upwards or downwards. Since waiting passengers may also be going either way, the elevator's direction of travel and the passengers' travel direction must be considered when assigning a response elevator to them. For ease of explanation, it is assumed that the candidate elevators for responding to waiting passengers will run in the same direction as the passengers' travel direction when they restart after arriving at the passenger's floor. Therefore, the direction will not be emphasized in subsequent descriptions. The biggest difference between the intermediate floor and the terminal floor in Example 1 is that when the elevator car arrives at the waiting passenger's departure floor, there may be existing passengers in the elevator car who are not alighting at that departure floor. Therefore, when assigning a response elevator to these passengers, it is necessary to consider the handling of situations where the existing passengers' desired temperature differs from the waiting passengers' desired temperature.

[0099] In addition, it is assumed here that all passengers waiting on intermediate floors have the same desired temperature. If the desired temperature of passengers waiting on intermediate floors is different, it is only necessary to select the passenger corresponding to a certain desired temperature each time and use the elevator control method that will be introduced below, and then repeat the process.

[0100] The elevator control method provided in this embodiment includes the following steps:

[0101] Step S1: Monitor newly added passengers waiting for elevators in the elevator lobby;

[0102] Step S2: Obtain the current values ​​of the factors affecting the desired temperature of the elevator car for the newly added waiting passengers;

[0103] Step S3: Determine the expected temperature for newly added waiting passengers based on the current values ​​of the influencing factors and the pre-established relationship between the influencing factors and the expected temperature.

[0104] Step S4: Obtain the operating information of each elevator and the set temperature of the air conditioning unit in each elevator car.

[0105] Step S5: Determine the candidate elevators for the newly added waiting passengers based on their desired temperature and the set temperature of the air conditioning unit;

[0106] Step S6: Select one of the candidate elevators as the responding elevator for newly added waiting passengers based on the operation information of the candidate elevators;

[0107] Step S7: Set the set temperature of the air conditioning unit of the responding elevator to the desired temperature of the newly added waiting passengers.

[0108] In step S1 above, it is assumed that the desired temperature of each newly added waiting passenger is the same. If the desired temperature of the waiting passengers is different, it is only necessary to select the waiting passenger corresponding to a certain desired temperature each time and use the elevator control method that will be introduced below, and then repeat the process.

[0109] The steps S2 and S3 are the same as in Example 1, including how to analyze the factors affecting passengers' expected temperature in the elevator car, how to establish the relationship between the factors and expected temperature in advance, how to obtain the current value of the factors, and how to determine the expected temperature of newly added waiting passengers based on the current value of the factors and the relationship between the factors and expected temperature. They will not be repeated here.

[0110] In step S5, the method for determining the candidate elevators for newly added waiting passengers is as follows:

[0111] Step S51: The elevators whose set temperature is the same as the expected temperature of the newly added waiting passengers, or whose difference between the set temperature and the expected temperature does not exceed the threshold, are divided into the first elevator group and given the first priority; the elevators are those whose running direction is the same as the expected travel direction of the newly added waiting passengers, and whose elevator cars have not yet passed the departure floor of the newly added waiting passengers.

[0112] Step S52: Divide each available elevator into a second elevator group and assign it a second priority;

[0113] Step S53: The elevators that meet the preset conditions and whose set temperature is different from the expected temperature of the newly added waiting passengers, or whose difference between the set temperature and the expected temperature exceeds the threshold, are classified into the third elevator group and given the third priority; the preset condition is: the farthest destination floor of the current elevator is located between the departure floor of the newly added waiting passengers and the current position of the elevator.

[0114] Step S54: Elevators that do not meet the preset conditions described in step S53, but meet the conditions that the set temperature is different from the expected temperature of newly added waiting passengers, or the difference between the set temperature and the expected temperature exceeds the threshold, are classified into the fourth elevator group and given the fourth priority.

[0115] Step S55: Select all elevators in the group with at least one elevator and the highest priority as candidate elevators, excluding the fourth elevator group.

[0116] When there is only one elevator to choose from, step S6 uses that single elevator as the responding elevator for newly added waiting passengers; when there are multiple elevators to choose from, step S6 selects one of them as the responding elevator for newly added waiting passengers based on the elevator's operating information as follows:

[0117] If the candidate elevator comes from the first elevator group or the second elevator group, the elevator call signal corresponding to the newly added waiting passenger will be used as the new elevator call signal, and the candidate elevator will be used as the selection range. The group management algorithm will be used for selection.

[0118] If the candidate elevator comes from the third elevator group, the elevator with the smallest difference between the current temperature of the elevator car and the expected temperature of the newly added waiting passengers will be selected as the responding elevator.

[0119] After selecting the previously idle elevator in the second group as the responding elevator for newly added waiting passengers, the set temperature of the elevator needs to be updated to the expected stability of the newly added waiting passengers. Then, the elevator will be updated to an operating elevator after the newly added waiting passengers arrive.

[0120] When the current temperature inside the elevator car differs from the desired temperature of a newly arriving passenger, step S7 determines the start time for implementing temperature adjustment based on the difference between the current temperature and the desired temperature, as well as the temperature adjustment speed of the air conditioning unit.

[0121] When the responding elevator comes from the third elevator group, if the travel time of the responding elevator to the departure floor of the newly added waiting passengers is less than the time required for the responding elevator's air conditioning unit to adjust the current temperature to the desired temperature of the newly added waiting passengers, it is necessary to consider both the existing passengers in the elevator car and the newly added waiting passengers. For example, the temperature adjustment start time should be determined based on the number of existing passengers and the number of newly added waiting passengers in the responding elevator car. If the former is greater than the latter, the adjustment should begin after the existing passengers disembark; otherwise, the temperature adjustment start time should be no later than the time when the elevator car arrives at the departure floor.

[0122] Preferably, the elevator control method further includes: step S8, informing the responding elevator of the allocation result;

[0123] When a newly added passenger's call signal includes the destination floor, the system will use the correspondence between the destination floor and the elevator ID to inform the passenger; otherwise, the system will use the correspondence between the set temperature and the elevator ID to inform the passenger.

[0124] If no candidate elevator can be selected in step S5, return to step S1 after monitoring changes in elevator operation information.

[0125] Example 3: Based on Example 2, this example adds the following steps between steps S1 and S2:

[0126] Step A1: Determine whether multiple new passengers waiting for the elevator are detected and whether the maximum distance between the new passengers exceeds the threshold. If so, proceed to the next step; otherwise, proceed to step S2.

[0127] Step A2: Based on the location information or distance information between newly added waiting passengers, use clustering to group the newly added waiting passengers;

[0128] Step A3: Select one of the unselected groups as the selected group, and add new passengers waiting for the elevator in the selected group as new passengers waiting for the elevator.

[0129] Furthermore, following step S7, the following steps are also included:

[0130] Step B1: Determine if there are still unselected groups. If so, update the elevator operation information and return to step A3; otherwise, end the process.

[0131] Step A3 selects the chosen group according to the optimal principle, which is:

[0132] First, according to the pre-established evaluation indicators and methods, for each possible selection order formed by different arrangements of each group, the control performance (such as elevator energy consumption, passenger waiting time, etc.) of the response elevator of each selected group is evaluated using the evaluation indicators and methods corresponding to each possible selection order, so as to obtain the evaluation result of a single group, and then the overall evaluation result of all selected groups is obtained. Thus, the overall evaluation result corresponding to each selection order is obtained, and finally the selection order corresponding to the optimal overall evaluation result is selected as the final selection order.

[0133] Step S6 aims to select a responding elevator for newly added waiting passengers, with the goal of fully utilizing the resources currently available in the elevator car for transporting passengers, or with the goal of matching the destination floors of passengers currently in the elevator car with the destination floors of waiting passengers in the selected group at most. Resources for transporting passengers include, for example, car crowding levels, car floor space, and remaining load capacity—the difference between the rated load capacity and the current weighing result of the weighing device.

[0134] Step S6 achieves the goal of making full use of the resources currently available in the elevator car for transporting passengers by selecting an elevator from the candidate elevators that can provide resources close to, but not less than, the resources required by the waiting passengers in the selected group as the responding elevator.

[0135] Of course, when the destination floor information of the waiting passengers in each group can be determined (such as the call signal registered by a mobile terminal or destination floor registration device), the elevator with the most passengers in the current elevator car whose destination floor is the same as the destination floor of the waiting passengers in the selected group can be selected as the responding elevator.

[0136] The present invention has been described in detail above through specific embodiments and examples, but these are not intended to limit the invention. Many modifications and improvements can be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the principles of the invention, and these should also be considered within the scope of protection of the present invention.

Claims

1. An elevator control system, characterized by The application comprises: a storage unit for storing an influencing factor-desired temperature relationship reflecting the relationship between influencing factors and desired temperatures affecting the desired temperature of the elevator car when passengers are riding the elevator; an acquisition unit for acquiring the current values of the influencing factors; a receiving unit for receiving the elevator call signals of the waiting passengers and the elevator operation information; a determination unit for determining the desired temperatures of the waiting passengers according to the current values of the influencing factors and the influencing factor-desired temperature relationship; a grouping unit for dividing the waiting passengers into groups according to the desired temperatures of the waiting passengers, each group comprising at least one waiting passenger, the desired temperatures of all the waiting passengers in the same group being the same or the difference between the highest desired temperature and the lowest desired temperature being no more than a threshold value; an allocation unit for allocating the elevator call signals to the responding elevators according to the elevator operation information and the grouping results; a control unit for controlling the air conditioning device in the responding elevator car so that the temperature in the responding elevator car is consistent with the desired temperature of the passengers in the group corresponding to the responding elevator.

2. The elevator control system of claim 1, wherein, The storage unit first analyzes and determines the influencing factors that can affect the desired temperature of the waiting passengers and can be acquired, then determines the possible values of each influencing factor, then enumerates all combinations of the possible values of each influencing factor, and finally determines the desired temperature corresponding to each combination, thereby obtaining the influencing factor-desired temperature relationship.

3. The elevator control system of claim 1, wherein, The acquisition unit further comprises: a determination module for determining the sources of the influencing factors; a judgment module for judging whether there is a first influencing factor whose current value cannot be acquired from the sources of the influencing factors; an analysis module for analyzing the correlation between the first influencing factor and a second influencing factor whose current value can be acquired from the sources of the influencing factors when the first influencing factor exists, and outputting an estimation method for estimating the current value of the first influencing factor using the second influencing factor according to the correlation; an estimation module for estimating and outputting the current value of the first influencing factor according to the estimation method and the current value of the second influencing factor that is correlated with the first influencing factor; an output module for acquiring and outputting the current value of the influencing factor from the sources of the influencing factors when the first influencing factor does not exist, and outputting the combination of the estimated value of the first influencing factor and the current value of the second influencing factor as the current value of the influencing factor when the first influencing factor exists.

4. The elevator control system of claim 1, wherein, The allocation unit determines the response levels of the groups according to the elevator call signals, determines the first-arrival elevator that first arrives at the departure floor of the waiting passengers according to the elevator operation information, and allocates the elevator call signal in the group with the highest response level to the first-arrival elevator.

5. The elevator control system of claim 4, wherein, The response level of a group is in any of the following forms: Form 1, the waiting time of the group, and the longer the waiting time of the group, the higher the response level; Form 2, the highest priority of the waiting passengers in the group, and the higher the priority of the waiting passengers in the group, the higher the response level; Form 3, the number of the waiting passengers in the group, and the more the number of the waiting passengers in the group, the higher the response level.

6. The elevator control system of claim 5, wherein, The waiting time of a group refers to the average waiting time, the total waiting time, the median waiting time or the longest waiting time of the passengers in the group.

7. The elevator control system of claim 6, wherein, When the number of passengers in the group exceeds a threshold, the passengers are split into different groups according to the principle that the passengers in the same group have similar influence factors on the response level of the group.

8. The elevator control system of claim 4, wherein, When the number of passengers in a group is less than a threshold, if the difference between the response level of the group and the response level of another group is less than a threshold and the number of passengers in the two groups does not exceed the number of passengers that can be carried by the elevator, the two groups are combined into one group for processing.

9. An elevator control method, characterized by, The method comprises the following steps: Step S1, monitoring the newly added passengers in the waiting hall; Step S2, obtaining the current value of the influence factor that influences the expected temperature of the newly added passenger; Step S3, determining the expected temperature of the newly added passenger according to the current value of the influence factor and the pre-established influence factor-expected temperature relationship; Step S4, obtaining the running information of each elevator and the set temperature of the air conditioning device in the elevator car; Step S5, determining the selected elevator of the newly added passenger according to the expected temperature of the newly added passenger and the set temperature of the air conditioning device; Step S6, selecting one of the selected elevators as the response elevator of the newly added passenger according to the running information of the selected elevators; Step S7, setting the set temperature of the air conditioning device of the response elevator to the expected temperature of the newly added passenger.

10. The elevator control method according to claim 9, characterized by In step S5, the method for determining the selected elevator of the newly added passenger is as follows: Step S51, dividing the running elevators whose set temperature is the same as the expected temperature of the newly added passenger or whose difference between the set temperature and the expected temperature does not exceed a threshold into a first elevator group and assigning the first priority to the first elevator group; the running elevators are the elevators whose running direction is the same as the expected travel direction of the newly added passenger and whose elevator car has not passed the departure floor of the newly added passenger; Step S52, dividing all the idle elevators into a second elevator group and assigning the second priority to the second elevator group; Step S53, dividing the running elevators that meet a preset condition and whose set temperature is not the same as the expected temperature of the newly added passenger or whose difference between the set temperature and the expected temperature exceeds a threshold into a third elevator group and assigning the third priority to the third elevator group; the preset condition is that the farthest destination floor of the running elevator is located between the departure floor of the newly added passenger and the current position of the elevator; Step S54, dividing the running elevators that do not meet the preset condition in step S53 but whose set temperature is not the same as the expected temperature of the newly added passenger or whose difference between the set temperature and the expected temperature exceeds a threshold into a fourth elevator group and assigning the fourth priority to the fourth elevator group; Step S55, taking all the elevators in the group that contains at least one elevator and has the highest priority as the selected elevators, excluding the fourth elevator group.

11. The elevator control method according to claim 10, characterized by When there are multiple selected elevators, in step S6, the method for selecting one of the selected elevators as the response elevator of the newly added passenger according to the running information of the selected elevators is as follows: If the candidate elevator is from the first or second elevator group, the call signal corresponding to the new waiting passenger is taken as a new call signal and the candidate elevator is taken as a selection range, and a group management algorithm is used for selection; If the candidate elevator is from the third elevator group, the elevator with the smallest difference between the current temperature of the elevator car and the expected temperature of the new waiting passenger is taken as the response elevator.

12. The elevator control method according to claim 9, characterized by When the current temperature in the response elevator car and the expected temperature of the new waiting passenger are different, the step S7 determines the starting time of temperature adjustment according to the difference between the current temperature and the expected temperature and the temperature adjustment speed of the air conditioning device.

13. The elevator control method according to claim 10, characterized by, When the response elevator is from the third elevator group, if the moving time of the response elevator moving to the departure floor of the new waiting passenger is less than the time required for the air conditioning device of the response elevator to adjust the current temperature to the expected temperature of the new waiting passenger, the starting time of temperature adjustment is determined according to the number of passengers already in the response elevator car and the new waiting passenger.

14. The elevator control method according to claim 9, characterized by, The elevator control method comprises the following steps: When the call signal of the new waiting passenger includes a destination floor, the corresponding relationship between the destination floor and the elevator ID is used for notification, otherwise the corresponding relationship between the set temperature and the elevator ID is used for notification.

15. The elevator control method according to claim 9, characterized by, When the step S5 cannot select the candidate elevator, the step S1 is returned after waiting for the elevator operation information to change.

16. The elevator control method according to claim 9, characterized by, Between the steps S1 and S2, the following steps are further included: Step A1, it is judged whether multiple new waiting passengers are monitored and the maximum distance between the new waiting passengers exceeds a threshold, if yes, the next step is entered, otherwise, the step S2 is entered; Step A2, the new waiting passengers are grouped by using a clustering method based on the position information or the distance information between the new waiting passengers; Step A3, one of all groups that have not been selected is selected as a selected group, and the new waiting passengers in the selected group are taken as new waiting passengers; And, after the step S7, the following steps are further included: Step B1, it is judged whether there is still a group that has not been selected, if yes, the elevator operation information is updated and the step A3 is returned, otherwise, the process is ended.

17. The elevator control method according to claim 16, characterized by The step A3 selects the selected group according to an optimal principle, and the optimal principle is: First, according to the evaluation index and the evaluation method established in advance, the control performance of the response elevator of each selected group is evaluated for each possible selection order formed by different permutation orders of each group, the evaluation result of a single group is obtained, and then the total evaluation result of all selected groups is obtained, thereby obtaining the total evaluation result corresponding to each selection order, and finally the selection order corresponding to the optimal total evaluation result is selected as the final selection order.

18. The elevator control method according to claim 16, characterized by, The step S6 selects the response elevator for the new waiting passenger with the goal of fully utilizing the current resources of the elevator car for transporting passengers or with the goal of making the destination floors of the passengers in the current elevator car and the destination floors of the waiting passengers in the selected group the same at most.

19. The elevator control method according to claim 18, characterized by The step S6 is implemented by selecting as the response elevator an elevator among the candidate elevators that can provide resources close to but not less than the resources required by the waiting passengers in the selected group, in order to achieve the goal of fully utilizing the resources currently available in the elevator car for transporting passengers.

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