Elevator control system

Abstract

The present invention discloses an elevator control system. The elevator is equipped with an energy storage device that stores regenerative energy generated by the elevator drive motor in a regenerative state and provides it to the elevator drive motor in an electric state. The elevator control system includes: a prediction module for predicting the passenger flow pattern of the elevator; an acquisition module for acquiring movable body information, the movable body information including at least the floor location and mass of the movable body, the movable body being a device that can accept control instructions from the elevator control system to enter or leave the elevator car; a judgment module for determining whether the passenger flow pattern will cause the elevator drive motor to be in a regenerative state; and a control module for generating a first control instruction when the judgment module determines that the control module determines that the control module is in a regenerative state. The elevator control system of the present invention can minimize the cost and size of the storage device while minimizing the elevator's power consumption.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present invention relates to the technical field of elevator control, and in particular to an elevator control system capable of reducing the capacity requirement of an elevator for an energy storage device by controlling a movable body to take the elevator. Background Art

[0002] For traction elevators, their drive motors are in a regenerative state when traveling upward with a light load or downward with a heavy load, thereby generating regenerative energy. Currently, there are three main ways to process this energy: 1) using an energy-consuming resistor installed on the DC bus to convert it into heat energy for consumption, which has the disadvantage of wasting energy; 2) inverting the regenerative energy into AC power and feeding it back to the grid, but this processing method is subject to certain limitations due to concerns about the quality of the fed-back power; 3) providing an energy storage device to store the regenerative energy generated by the drive motor in the regenerative state, and providing the stored regenerative energy to the drive motor when the drive motor is in the electric state. This method overcomes the disadvantage of method 2) that the fed-back power may "pollute" the grid due to the poor quality of the fed-back power, and also reduces the elevator's power consumption by achieving the reuse of regenerative energy.

[0003] Existing technologies mostly focus on controlling the DC-DC converter located between the DC bus and the energy storage device, such as CN201110288745.9 and CN201010270130.9. In the solution using method 3) to process regenerative energy, the capacity of the energy storage device plays a decisive role in the utilization rate of regenerative energy. Generally speaking, the larger the capacity of the energy storage device, the more regenerative energy it can store. This is very beneficial for handling the afternoon rush hour in office buildings, because during this period, elevators are in a continuous cycle of descending with heavy loads and ascending without loads, thus remaining in a regenerative state for a long time, and the drive motor continuously generates regenerative energy. In such scenarios, on the one hand, to fully utilize the regenerative energy and reduce the elevator's energy consumption, the storage capacity of the energy storage device needs to be maximized. On the other hand, to reduce the cost and size of the storage device, the storage capacity of the energy storage device needs to be minimized.

[0004] Therefore, how to reduce the cost and volume of the storage device as much as possible while reducing the power consumption of the elevator has become a technical problem to be solved. Summary of the Invention

[0005] The technical problem to be solved by the present invention is how to reduce the cost and volume of the storage device as much as possible while reducing the power consumption of the elevator as much as possible.

[0006] In order to solve the above technical problems, the present invention discloses an elevator control system, wherein the elevator is equipped with an energy storage device, wherein the energy storage device stores regenerative energy generated by the elevator drive motor in a regenerative state and supplies the energy to the elevator drive motor in a motoring state, and the elevator control system comprises:

[0007] Prediction module, used to predict elevator passenger flow patterns;

[0008] an acquisition module, configured to acquire movable body information, the movable body information including at least the floor on which the movable body is located and its mass, the movable body being a device that can receive control instructions from the elevator control system to enter or leave the elevator car;

[0009] a judgment module, configured to judge whether the passenger flow pattern causes the elevator drive motor to be in a regenerative state;

[0010] The control module generates a first control instruction when the judgment result of the judgment module is yes; the first control instruction means that the elevator drive motor changes from the regenerative power in the second state to the electric power in the first state, or the regenerative power of the elevator drive motor in the first state is less than the regenerative power of the elevator drive motor in the second state; the first state refers to the state of the elevator drive motor after the movable body enters or leaves the elevator car under the control of the first control instruction, and the second state refers to the state of the elevator drive motor when the movable body does not enter or leave the elevator car under the control of the first control instruction.

[0011] Preferably, the judgment module judges whether the elevator drive motor is in the regeneration state according to the relationship between the load in the elevator car and the elevator balanced load in the passenger flow mode and the moving direction of the elevator car.

[0012] Preferably, the judgment module is further based on whether the elevator car has resources to carry a movable body under the passenger flow mode.

[0013] Preferably, when the passenger flow pattern is a downward peak relative to the public floor, the judgment result is yes.

[0014] Preferably, when the judgment result is yes, the control module generates a first control instruction so that the movable body located on the public floor or on the floor between the public floor and the descending passengers takes the elevator to the upper floor when the elevator goes up.

[0015] Preferably, the upper floor is the departure floor for descending passengers.

[0016] Preferably, when the passenger flow pattern is an upward peak relative to the public floor, the control module generates a second control instruction, which enables the movable body located above the public floor to take the descending elevator to the public floor.

[0017] Preferably, the second control instruction preferentially controls the movable body whose floor is the destination floor of the last descending passenger among the ascending passengers to take the descending elevator to the public floor.

[0018] Preferably, the elevator control system further includes: a determination module for determining the remaining storage capacity of the energy storage device; an estimation module for estimating the regenerative energy generated by the elevator drive motor under the passenger flow pattern according to the passenger flow pattern; and the judgment module will determine whether the passenger flow pattern causes the elevator drive motor to be in a regenerative state only when the regenerative energy estimated by the estimation module is greater than the remaining storage capacity.

[0019] Preferably, the minimum range of the prediction module for implementing the prediction is: when there is no movable body on board, the prediction starting point is the current moment, and the prediction end point is the moment when the regenerative energy accumulated by the elevator drive motor from the current moment first reaches the rated storage capacity of the energy storage device.

[0020] Beneficial technical effects:

[0021] The elevator control system of the present invention can reduce the power consumption of the elevator as much as possible while reducing the cost and volume of the storage device as much as possible. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0022] Figure 1 This is a structural diagram of the elevator control system of Example 1. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0023] The present invention will be further described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings and specific embodiments.

[0024] Example 1

[0025] In this embodiment, the elevator is equipped with an energy storage device, which stores the regenerative energy generated by the elevator drive motor in the regenerative state and provides it to the elevator drive motor in the electric state. The elevator control system includes:

[0026] Prediction module, used to predict elevator passenger flow patterns;

[0027] an acquisition module, configured to acquire movable body information, the movable body information including at least the floor on which the movable body is located and its mass, the movable body being a device that can receive control instructions from the elevator control system to enter or leave the elevator car;

[0028] a judgment module, configured to judge whether the passenger flow pattern causes the elevator drive motor to be in a regenerative state;

[0029] The control module generates a first control instruction when the judgment result of the judgment module is yes; the first control instruction means that the elevator drive motor changes from the regenerative power in the second state to the electric power in the first state, or the regenerative power of the elevator drive motor in the first state is less than the regenerative power of the elevator drive motor in the second state; the first state refers to the state of the elevator drive motor after the movable body enters or leaves the elevator car under the control of the first control instruction, and the second state refers to the state of the elevator drive motor when the movable body does not enter or leave the elevator car under the control of the first control instruction.

[0030] This application essentially uses the mass of the movable body itself to adjust the load in the elevator car, thereby reducing the regenerative power of the elevator drive motor in the regenerative state, and even changing the elevator drive motor from the regenerative state to the electric state, that is, converting the regenerative energy into the potential energy of the movable body.

[0031] The movable body here is any device with a certain mass that can enter or leave the elevator car under the control of the control system, such as a robot.

[0032] Example 2

[0033] This embodiment provides further details based on the embodiment 1.

[0034] The judgment module judges whether the elevator drive motor is in a regeneration state according to the size relationship between the load in the elevator car and the elevator balanced load under the passenger flow mode and the moving direction of the elevator car.

[0035] To subsequently adjust the elevator car's load by controlling the entry of a movable object into the car, the car must also have capacity to accommodate the movable object (e.g., a car floor available for the movable object). Therefore, the judgment module further determines whether the elevator car has capacity to accommodate the movable object under the passenger flow pattern. The judgment module outputs a "yes" result only when the elevator drive motor is in regenerative mode and the elevator car has capacity to accommodate the movable object.

[0036] Considering that the load in the elevator car is subsequently adjusted by controlling the movable body to enter the elevator car, the elevator operating state that is suitable for this adjustment and will put the drive motor in a regenerative state should be light load upward movement, while heavy load downward movement is not applicable.

[0037] Therefore, when the passenger flow pattern obtained by the prediction module is a downward peak relative to the public floor (i.e., when lightly loaded and going up), the judgment result of the judgment module is yes, and the control module will generate a first control instruction, so that the movable body located on the public floor or on the floor between the public floor and the descending passengers takes the elevator to the upper floor when the elevator goes up. Preferably, the upper floor is the departure floor of the descending passengers.

[0038] When the passenger flow pattern is an upward peak relative to the public floor, the control module generates a second control instruction, which enables the movable body located above the public floor to take the downward elevator to the public floor; preferably, the second control instruction gives priority to controlling the movable body whose floor is the destination floor of the last passenger getting off the elevator among the ascending passengers to take the downward elevator to the public floor.

[0039] The elevator control system of this embodiment is described below using an office building as an example.

[0040] During rush hour, office buildings typically experience a large downward flow of passengers. This means passengers descend from higher floors of the building and exit the building. Starting from higher floors, the elevator car is often heavily loaded, exceeding the load balance. The elevator then descends heavily loaded, entering a regenerative state. Upon reaching the public first floor, the departing passengers leave the car. In response to the downward call from the departing passengers on higher floors, the elevator ascends empty to the departure floor. With no passengers in the car during the ascent (because there are no ascending passengers during rush hour), the elevator remains in a regenerative state during the ascent. This cycle repeats until the rush hour ends. It's easy to see that throughout the rush hour, whether descending heavily loaded or ascending empty, the elevator is in a regenerative state, generating regenerative energy. This means the elevator continuously generates regenerative energy throughout the entire rush hour. If all of this regenerative energy is to be stored, the storage capacity of the energy storage device that needs to be configured will be very large, which will result in a very high cost expenditure on the energy storage device. For this reason, the technical solution of this embodiment is applied: after predicting the arrival of the rush hour, after the elevator transports the passengers on the upper floors to the first floor and the passengers leave, the movable body on the first floor is controlled to enter the elevator car, and then go up and stop at the departure floor of the down call signal (or the down call signal assigned by the group management system) farthest from the first floor. Obviously, when the movable body enters the elevator car on the first floor, due to the deadweight of the movable body, the regeneration function of the elevator when it goes up will be reduced (the deadweight of the movable body is less than the balanced load) or the elevator will be changed from the original regenerative state to the electric state (the deadweight of the movable body exceeds the balanced load). Therefore, the movable body enters the elevator car on the first floor, reducing the regenerative energy accumulated during the round trip (the first leg of the elevator's trip from a higher floor to the first floor) and the second leg of the elevator's trip from the first floor to the departure floor where the elevator call signal is to be responded to. This also reduces the total regenerative energy accumulated during the entire rush hour, thereby reducing the storage capacity required for the energy storage device without wasting regenerative energy. From the perspective of energy conversion, part of the regenerative energy is converted into the potential energy of the movable body (the movable body is lifted from the first floor to a higher floor) and stored.

[0041] Preferably, in order to achieve better technical effects, the following controls may also be performed:

[0042] During the next morning's peak upward travel time, the elevator will remain in a prolonged electric state consisting of heavily loaded upward travel and unloaded downward travel. During this process, the movable body can be controlled to enter the elevator car and exit the elevator car on the first floor. In this way, the movable body's own weight can reduce the electric power consumption during the elevator's descent (the movable body's own weight is less than the counterbalanced load), or even cause the elevator to enter a regenerative state during descent (the movable body's own weight exceeds the counterbalanced load). This control strategy can, on the one hand, reduce the amount of electricity consumed by the elevator from the grid during the entire rush hour, and on the other hand, transport the movable body from higher floors to the first floor, thus preparing the movable body on the first floor for the continuous regenerative state required during the upcoming rush hour. The aforementioned control of the movable body during the rush hour essentially converts the potential energy of the movable body into electrical energy and provides it to the drive motor or energy storage device.

[0043] Example 3

[0044] In this embodiment, the elevator control system includes the following modules in addition to those in Embodiment 1:

[0045] a determination module, configured to determine the remaining storage capacity of the energy storage device;

[0046] An estimation module, configured to estimate, based on a passenger flow pattern, the regenerative energy generated by the elevator drive motor under the passenger flow pattern;

[0047] The judging module determines whether the passenger flow pattern causes the elevator drive motor to be in a regenerative state only when the regenerative energy estimated by the estimating module is greater than the remaining storage capacity.

[0048] Example 4

[0049] This embodiment further explains the prediction module based on the above embodiments.

[0050] The minimum range for the prediction module to implement prediction is: when there is no movable body on board, the prediction starting point is the current moment, and the prediction end point is the moment when the regenerative energy accumulated by the elevator drive motor from the current moment reaches the rated storage capacity of the energy storage device for the first time.

[0051] The essence of the minimum range is that the regenerative energy accumulated within the range will exceed the rated storage capacity of the energy storage device, so it is necessary to subsequently reduce the regenerative energy generated by the drive motor within the predicted range by controlling the movable body.

[0052] The present invention has been described in detail above by way of specific embodiments and examples, but these do not constitute limitations of the present invention. Without departing from the principles of the present invention, those skilled in the art may make many variations and improvements, which should also be considered within the scope of protection of the present invention.

Claims

1. An elevator control system, wherein the elevator is equipped with an energy storage device, wherein the energy storage device stores regenerative energy generated by the elevator drive motor in a regenerative state and supplies the energy to the elevator drive motor in a motoring state ... The elevator control system comprises: Prediction module, used to predict elevator passenger flow patterns; an acquisition module, configured to acquire movable body information, the movable body information including at least the floor on which the movable body is located and its mass, the movable body being a device that can receive control instructions from the elevator control system to enter or leave the elevator car; a judgment module, configured to judge whether the passenger flow pattern causes the elevator drive motor to be in a regenerative state; The control module generates a first control instruction when the judgment result of the judgment module is yes; the first control instruction means that the elevator drive motor changes from the regenerative power in the second state to the electric power in the first state, or the regenerative power of the elevator drive motor in the first state is less than the regenerative power of the elevator drive motor in the second state; the first state refers to the state of the elevator drive motor after the movable body enters or leaves the elevator car under the control of the first control instruction, and the second state refers to the state of the elevator drive motor when the movable body does not enter or leave the elevator car under the control of the first control instruction.

2. The elevator control system according to claim 1, characterized in that: The judgment module judges whether the elevator drive motor is in a regeneration state according to the size relationship between the load in the elevator car and the elevator balanced load and the moving direction of the elevator car under the passenger flow mode.

3. The elevator control system according to claim 2, characterized in that: The judgment module is further based on whether the elevator car has resources to carry movable objects under the passenger flow mode.

4. The elevator control system according to claim 2, characterized in that: When the passenger flow pattern is a downward peak relative to the public floor, the judgment result is yes.

5. The elevator control system according to claim 4, characterized in that: When the judgment result is yes, the control module generates a first control instruction so that the movable body located on the public floor or on the floor between the public floor and the descending passengers takes the elevator to the upper floor when the elevator goes up.

6. The elevator control system according to claim 5, characterized in that: The upper floor is the departure floor for descending passengers.

7. The elevator control system according to claim 2, characterized in that: When the passenger flow pattern is an upward peak relative to the public floor, the control module generates a second control instruction, which enables the movable body located above the public floor to take the descending elevator to the public floor.

8. The elevator control system according to claim 7, characterized in that: The second control instruction preferentially controls the movable body whose floor is the destination floor of the last descending passenger among the ascending passengers to take the descending elevator to the public floor.

9. The elevator control system according to claim 1, characterized in that: The elevator control system further includes: a determination module, configured to determine the remaining storage capacity of the energy storage device; An estimation module, configured to estimate, based on a passenger flow pattern, the regenerative energy generated by the elevator drive motor under the passenger flow pattern; The judging module determines whether the passenger flow pattern causes the elevator drive motor to be in a regenerative state only when the regenerative energy estimated by the estimating module is greater than the remaining storage capacity.

10. The elevator control system according to claim 1, characterized in that: The minimum range for the prediction module to implement prediction is: when there is no movable body on board, the prediction starting point is the current moment, and the prediction end point is the moment when the regenerative energy accumulated by the elevator drive motor from the current moment first reaches the rated storage capacity of the energy storage device.

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