Status information communication device and remote monitoring system for elevators

Abstract

A status information communication device (1B) in an elevator (1A) that transmits status information regarding a status of the elevator (1A) to a monitoring center (4) to remotely monitor the elevator (1A) via a public network (5), comprising: a status information acquisition unit (11) that acquires status information from the elevator (1A); a status information transmitter unit (14) which transmits the status information of the elevator (1A) to a mobile communication terminal (6); a status information receiving unit (15) that receives status information of another elevator (1A) from the mobile communication terminal (6); a status information storage unit (13) that stores both the status information of the elevator (1A) and the status information of the other elevator (1A); and a monitoring communication unit (12) which communicates with the monitoring center (4) regarding the status information of the elevator (1A) and the status information of the other elevator (1A), the status information transmitter unit (14) transmits the status information of the elevator (1A) to the mobile communication terminal (6) arranged near the elevator (1A) when the monitoring communication unit (12) is unable to communicate with the monitoring center (4), and the status information receiving unit (15) receives the status information of the other elevator (1A) when the mobile communication terminal moves from a position near the other elevator (1A) to a position near the elevator (1A) under a condition that the monitoring communication unit (12) is able to communicate with the monitoring center (4).

Description

Technical area

[0001] The present invention relates to a status information communication device in an elevator and a remote monitoring system for elevators, and more particularly to a status information communication device and a remote monitoring system that transmits status information of elevators to a monitoring center using a mobile communication terminal. State of the art

[0002] A remote elevator monitoring system is a system that centrally monitors the operating conditions or failure states of each elevator via a public network, such as an analog telephone network and a mobile phone network, by connecting multiple elevators to a remote monitoring center via the public network. With such a remote monitoring system, when an abnormality or a trapped passenger accident occurs in an elevator, information about the abnormality is reported to the monitoring center via the public network, and the monitoring center instructs the dispatch of a maintenance team to the abnormal elevator.

[0003] However, when a major disaster occurs, such as an earthquake, communication may become difficult due to public network congestion, or the public network may become unavailable due to a malfunction of a public network base station or a power outage. In such a situation, in order to quickly restore the abnormal elevator, it is necessary to provide a method or configuration for obtaining information about the status of elevators even when communication with the monitoring center is impossible.

[0004] Patent Document 1 discloses a technique for communicating with the monitoring center by giving higher priority to notification of a major emergency such as a trapped occupant accident. Patent Document 2 discloses a technique for communicating elevator status information with the monitoring center via a mobile phone network for general users in the event of a major disaster. Patent Document 3 discusses a technique for displaying a trapped occupant situation using an external display device provided in the elevator. Patent Document 4 discusses a technique for performing ad hoc network communication between multiple elevators and transmitting information about an elevator abnormality or a trapped occupant accident when the public network is unavailable in the event of a major disaster.JP 2008-205 782 A describes a remote device monitoring network that ensures the safety of the devices in a building when an accident occurs.

[0005] KR 10 2013 0 009 308 A describes a remote control system for an elevator using a mobile phone, comprising a motherboard, a mobile phone, an application, a communication server of a remote control center, an operating program server, a fault diagnosis server, an elevator system server, and a material management server. Document DE 11 2016 002 159 B4 describes a recovery information recording device for elevators. Citation listPatent document Patent document 1: JP 2003- 73 050 A Patent document 2: JP 2008- 50 106 A Patent document 3: JP 2008- 56 398 A Patent document 4: JP 2008- 247 553 A Brief description of the inventionTechnical problem

[0006] In the techniques discussed in Patent Documents 1 and 2, using the public network is a prerequisite. Therefore, when communication is unavailable due to public network congestion or a public network failure, it is difficult to transmit the elevator status information to the monitoring center. Furthermore, in the technique of Patent Document 3, the elevator status information is only transmitted over a distance at which the external display device can be visually recognized, and it is difficult to transmit the elevator status information to the monitoring center. In the technique of Patent Document 4, the elevator abnormality information or the like can be transmitted to other elevators without using the public network.

[0007] However, in the event of a major disaster, it is conceivable that many anomalies will occur in multiple elevators, and numerous items of elevator anomaly information will be generated between multiple elevators. Therefore, even if a maintenance team accesses anomaly information through an ad hoc network between multiple elevators, the anomaly information from the ad hoc network may also include anomaly information with a lower priority level, anomaly information for a remote location far from the maintenance team, and the like. Therefore, it is difficult to identify anomaly information with a higher priority or higher importance level from numerous items of anomaly information. This delays the response to an elevator anomaly.

[0008] In addition, if a communication device to the elevator monitoring center fails, or if the public grid is unavailable, it becomes impossible to transmit elevator status information to the monitoring center. This also delays the response to an elevator anomaly.

[0009] In view of the above problems, an object of the present invention is to efficiently transmit state information of an elevator requiring a recovery operation or the like to the monitoring center even when it is impossible to transmit the state information of the elevator to the monitoring center. Solution to the problem

[0010] According to one aspect of the invention, a status information communication device is provided in an elevator that transmits status information regarding a status of the elevator to a monitoring center for remotely monitoring the elevator via a public network, including: a status information acquisition unit that acquires status information from the elevator; a status information transmission unit that transmits the status information of the elevator to a mobile communication terminal; a status information reception unit that receives status information of another elevator from the mobile communication terminal; a status information storage unit that stores both the status information of the elevator and the status information of the other elevator;and a monitoring communication unit that communicates with the monitoring center regarding the status information of the elevator and the status information of the other elevator, wherein the status information transmitter unit transmits the status information of the elevator to the mobile communication terminal located near the elevator when the monitoring communication unit is unable to communicate with the monitoring center, and the status information receiver unit receives the status information of the other elevator when the mobile communication terminal moves from a position near the other elevator to a position near the elevator under a condition that the monitoring communication unit is able to communicate with the monitoring center.

[0011] In the status information communication device in an elevator according to one aspect of the invention, it may be further configured that the monitoring communication unit activates a transmission function of the status information transmitter unit when the public network is unavailable, while the monitoring communication unit deactivates the transmission function of the status information transmitter unit when the public network is available.

[0012] In the state information communication device in an elevator according to one aspect of the invention, it may be further configured that the state information of the elevator and the state information of the other elevator include at least elevator position information, and the state information storage unit stores the state information of the other elevator received from the mobile communication terminal through the state information receiving unit when the other elevator is placed within a predetermined distance from a position of the elevator.

[0013] In the state information communication device in an elevator according to one aspect of the invention, it may be further configured that the state information of the elevator and the state information of the other elevator include at least one group ID for determining an elevator group, and the predetermined condition is a condition that the group ID of the elevator is identical to the group ID of the other elevator.

[0014] In the state information communication device in an elevator according to one aspect of the invention, it may be further configured that the state information of the elevator and the state information of the other elevator include at least elevator information, passenger trapped accident information, and information about notification to the information center, and the state information transmitter unit transmits the state information of the elevator when the notification information is set to "not yet", the elevator information is set to "abnormal", or the passenger trapped accident information is set to "trapped".

[0015] A remote monitoring system for elevators according to one aspect of the invention includes: a monitoring center that remotely monitors a plurality of elevators; a status information communication device in an elevator that is provided for each of the plurality of elevators to transmit status information regarding a status of the elevator to the monitoring center via a public network; and a mobile communication terminal that transmits or receives the status information between a plurality of the status information communication devices, wherein the status information communication device includes a status information acquisition unit that acquires status information from the elevator, a status information transmitter unit that transmits the status information of the elevator to the mobile communication terminal, a status information receiver unit,which receives the status information of another elevator among the plurality of elevators from the mobile communication terminal, a status information storage unit that stores both the status information of the elevator and the status information of the other elevator, and a monitoring communication unit that communicates with the communication center regarding the status information of the elevator and the status information of the other elevator, wherein the status information transmitter unit transmits the status information of the elevator to the mobile communication terminal located near the elevator when the monitoring communication unit is unable to communicate with the monitoring center, and the status information receiver unit receives the status information of the other elevator from the mobile communication terminal,when the mobile communication terminal moves from a position near the other elevator to a position near the elevator under a condition that the monitoring communication unit is able to communicate with the monitoring center. Advantageous effects of the invention

[0016] According to the invention, it is possible to efficiently transmit status information of an elevator requiring a recovery operation or the like to a monitoring center even when it is impossible to transmit the status information of the elevator to the monitoring center. Short description of the drawings Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating an overall configuration of a remote monitoring system for elevators according to a first embodiment. Fig. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a state information communication device in an elevator according to the first embodiment. Fig. 3 illustrates a state information record as an example of the elevator state information according to the first embodiment. Fig. 4 is a flowchart illustrating an information acquiring process of a state information acquiring unit according to the first embodiment. Fig. 5 is a flowchart illustrating an information transmission process of a monitoring communication unit according to the first embodiment. Fig. 6 is a flowchart illustrating an information transmission process of a state information transmitter unit according to the first embodiment. Fig. 7 is a flowchart illustrating an information receiving process of a state information receiving unit according to the first embodiment. Fig. 8 is a schematic diagram illustrating elevators for describing a state information storage restriction according to the first embodiment. Fig. 9 illustrates a state information record as an example of additionally storing the state information of the other elevator according to the first embodiment. Fig. 10 is a flowchart illustrating an information receiving process of a state information receiving unit according to a second embodiment. Fig. 11 is a schematic diagram illustrating elevators for describing a state information storage restriction according to the second embodiment. Fig. 12 illustrates a state information record as an example of the state information of the elevator according to the second embodiment. Fig. 13 illustrates a state information record as an example of additionally storing the state information of the other elevator according to the second embodiment. Implementation of the invention

[0017] Fig. 1 illustrates an overall configuration of a remote monitoring system 100 for elevators according to a first embodiment of the invention. As shown in Fig. 1, the remote monitoring system 100 includes elevators 1A, 2A, and 3A installed in each of a plurality of buildings 1, 2, and 3, a monitoring center 4 that centrally monitors operation states or failure states of the elevators 1A, 2A, and 3A, state information communication devices 1B, 2B, and 3B that acquire state information regarding an occurrence of an abnormality such as a failure of the elevators 1A, 2A, and 3A or an occupant-trapped accident and transmit the state information to the monitoring center 4, a public network 5 used for performing communication between the elevators 1A, 2A, and 3A and the monitoring center 4, and a mobile communication terminal 6 such as a smartphone or a personal computer for performing transmission or reception of the state information between the elevators 1A, 2A, and 3A.

[0018] In the remote monitoring system 100, the monitoring center 4 centrally monitors operating states or failure states of the elevators 1A, 2A, and 3A via the public network 5. For this reason, when, for example, an abnormality such as a failure or a trapped occupant accident occurs in the elevator 1A, the condition information regarding the abnormality or the trapped occupant accident is transmitted to the monitoring center 4 via the public network 5, and a maintenance team dispatch is requested from the monitoring center 4 from an elevator maintenance company.

[0019] When communication becomes difficult due to congestion of the public network 5 caused by a serious disaster such as an earthquake at a location where the elevator 1A is provided, or when the public network 5 becomes unavailable due to a malfunction of a base station of the public network 5 or a power failure, that is, when the elevator 1A is unable to communicate with the monitoring center 4, the status information of the elevator 1A is transmitted to the other elevator 2A using the mobile communication terminal 6.

[0020] When the mobile communication terminal 6 is placed near the elevator 1A, the mobile communication terminal 6 receives the status information of the elevator 1A from the elevator 1A. Then, when the mobile communication terminal 6 moves near the elevator 2A where the public network 5 is available, the status information of the elevator 1A is transmitted to the elevator 2A. The elevator 2A transmits the status information of the elevator 1A received by the mobile communication terminal 6 to the monitoring center 4 via the public network 5. Note that the transmission / reception control of the status information when the elevator 1A is unable to communicate with the monitoring center 4 will be described in more detail below.

[0021] Next, the state information communication devices 1B, 2B and 3B will be described with reference to Fig. 2. Elevators 1A, 2A, and 3A are equipped with status information communication devices 1B, 2B, and 3B, respectively, for transmitting status information regarding an abnormality or a passenger-trapped accident in elevators 1A, 2A, and 3A to the monitoring center 4. The status information communication devices 1B, 2B, and 3B have the same configuration and perform the same control. Therefore, the status information communication device 1B will be representatively described below.

[0022] Fig. 2 illustrates an overall configuration of the state information communication device 1B. As shown in Fig. 2, the state information communication device 1B includes a state information acquisition unit 11 that acquires state information of the elevator 1A from the control unit 1a of the elevator 1A, a monitoring communication unit 12 that transmits the state information of the elevator 1A to the monitoring center 4, a state information storage unit 13 that stores the state information of the elevator 1A, a state information transmission unit 14 that transmits the state information of the elevator 1A to the mobile communication terminal 6, and a state information reception unit 15 that receives the state information of the other elevators 2A and 3A from the mobile communication terminal 6.

[0023] The status information acquisition unit 11 is connected to the control unit 1a of the elevator 1A via a signal line to acquire status information regarding an abnormality, such as a failure or a passenger-trapped accident, occurring in the elevator 1A from the control unit 1a of the elevator 1A. An example of the status information is shown in Fig. 3. As in Fig. 3, the status information of the elevator 1A is organized as a status information record D1, including an elevator ID for identifying the elevator 1A, information about a position where the elevator 1A is located, a status of the elevator representing whether or not the elevator 1A is normal or abnormal, information about whether or not an occupant is present in a car when the information is acquired, flag information representing whether or not the status information is reported to the monitoring center 4, and the like. In addition, information other than the aforementioned information may also be included.

[0024] For information communication between the elevator 1A and the state information acquisition unit 11, near-field radio communication such as wireless LAN and Bluetooth (registered trademark) or communication cables defined in the communication standard such as Ethernet (registered trademark), RS-232 C, RS-422, RS-485 and USB can be used.

[0025] The monitoring communication unit 12 is connected to the status information acquisition unit 11 to transmit the status information acquired by the status information acquisition unit 11 to the monitoring center 4 via the public network 5. In addition, the monitoring communication unit 12 transmits the status information to the monitoring center 4 via the public network 5, as described above, when the public network 5 is available. However, when the public network 5 is unavailable, the monitoring communication unit 12 issues an instruction to activate the transmission function to the status information transmitter unit 14.

[0026] The state information acquisition unit 11, the state information transmitter unit 14, and the state information receiver unit 15 are connected to the state information storage unit 13. The state information storage unit 13 has a state information record section D as a storage area for storing the state information record D1. The state information storage unit 13 stores the state information of the elevator 1A required by the state information acquisition unit 11 in the state information record section D.In addition, when the state information receiving unit 15 receives the state information of the other elevators 2A and 3A and a relationship between the elevator 1A and the other elevators 2A and 3A satisfies a predetermined condition, the state information storing unit 13 also stores the state information of the other elevators 2A and 3A in the state information record section D.

[0027] The status information transmitter unit 14 has a function of transmitting the status information stored in the status information storage unit 13 to the mobile communication terminal 6. The status information transmitter unit 14 deactivates its transmission function when the public network 5 is available. When the public network 5 is unavailable, the status information transmitter unit 14 activates its transmission function in response to an instruction from the monitoring communication unit 12.

[0028] The status information receiving unit 15 receives the status information of the other elevators 2A and 3A from the mobile communication terminal 6. Near-field radio communication, such as wireless LAN and Bluetooth (registered trademark), is used for communication between the status information transmitting unit 14 and the status information receiving unit 15 and the mobile communication terminal 6. Note that the control operations for the monitoring communication unit 12, the status information transmitting unit 14, and the status information receiving unit 15 will be described in more detail below.

[0029] The mobile communication terminal 6 has a near-field radio communication function and is pre-installed with a communication application for communicating with the status information transmitter unit 14 and the status information receiver unit 15. This communication application performs communication control for the status information transmitter unit 14 and the status information receiver unit 15 and storage control for temporarily storing the status information obtained from communication with the status information transmitter unit 14 and the status information receiver unit 15 in the mobile communication terminal 6.It is preferable that the communication application is installed in other applications that can be used in the event of a serious disaster such as an earthquake, and is downloaded in advance to the mobile communication terminal 6 used by a general user.

[0030] Next, a collection of the status information of the elevators 1A, 2A and 3A and a transmission of the status information to the monitoring center 4 will be described. First, Fig. 4 a flowchart of the acquisition control for the status information of the elevator 1A.

[0031] In step S101 of the flowchart of Fig. 4, the state information acquisition unit 11 acquires a time elapsed after acquiring the state information from the elevator 1A and compares this elapsed time with a predetermined time to determine whether or not the elapsed time exceeds the predetermined time. If the elapsed time exceeds the predetermined time (Yes), the state information acquisition unit 11 proceeds to step S102. Otherwise, if the elapsed time does not exceed the predetermined time (No), the state information acquisition unit 11 counts the elapsed time and returns to the initial state.

[0032] In step S102, the state information acquiring unit 11 acquires updated state information, that is, state information regarding whether or not an abnormality or a passenger trapped accident has occurred in the elevator 1A, from the control unit 1a of the elevator 1A, and the process proceeds to step S103.

[0033] In step S103, the state information acquisition unit 11 stores the acquired updated state information in the state information storage unit 13. That is, the state information stored in the state information storage unit 13 is updated with the most recent state information. For this reason, the state information stored in the state information storage unit 13 is maintained as updated state information at all times. As shown in Fig. As illustrated in Figure 3, in the status information record D1, information of each item, such as elevator status, passenger presence, and flag information, is updated. Here, the elevator status is set to "abnormal," the passenger presence is set to "present," and notification to the monitoring center 4 is set to "not yet."

[0034] Next, the communication control of the status information of the elevator 1A to the monitoring center 4 is performed with reference to Fig. 5. In step S201 of the flowchart of Fig. 5, the state information communication device 1B checks the state information record section D of the state information storage unit 13 at a predetermined cycle, and the process proceeds to step S202.

[0035] In step S202, the state information communication device 1B checks the state information record section D to determine whether or not there is state information in which the notification (flag information) to the monitoring center 4 is set to "not yet" and the elevator state is set to "abnormal" or the occupant presence is set to "present." Here, similar to the state information record D1 of Fig. 3, the elevator status is set to "abnormal," the passenger presence is set to "present," and the notification to the monitoring center 4 is set to "not yet" (Yes). Therefore, the status information communication device 1B proceeds to step S203. Otherwise, if there is no such status information (No), the status information communication device 1B returns to the initial state.

[0036] In step S203, the monitoring communication unit 12 transmits the corresponding status information to the monitoring center 4 via the public network 5, and the process proceeds to step S204. In step S204, it is checked whether the transmission to the monitoring center 4 was successful or not.

[0037] When the status information is transmitted from the monitoring communication unit 12 to the monitoring center 4, the monitoring center 4 responds with a signal to the monitoring communication unit 12 indicating that the transmission was successful. If there is no response, the transmission from the monitoring communication unit 12 to the monitoring center 4 is retried a predetermined number of times. If there is still no response from the monitoring center 4, it is determined that the transmission from the monitoring communication unit 12 to the monitoring center 4 failed. One example of a transmission failure could be a major disaster, such as an earthquake.Communication may become difficult due to congestion of the public network 5 caused by the occurrence of a major disaster, or the public network 5 may become unavailable due to a malfunction of the base station of the public network 5 or a power outage. Transmission to the monitoring center 4 may also become unavailable due to a failure of the communication equipment of the monitoring communication unit 12 in addition to the major disaster.

[0038] If the transmission from the monitoring communication unit 12 to the monitoring center 4 is successful (Yes), the monitoring communication unit 12 proceeds to step S205 and updates the notification (flag information) of the status information to the monitoring center 4 to "executed." Then, the monitoring communication unit 12 proceeds to step S206.

[0039] In step S206, the monitoring communication unit 12 deactivates the transmission function of the status information transmitter unit 14 and returns to the initial state. That is, since the monitoring communication unit 12 of the elevator 1A is capable of normally transmitting the status information to the monitoring center 4, the status information communication device 1B is not required to transmit the status information to the mobile communication terminal 6. Meanwhile, if the transmission from the monitoring communication unit 12 to the monitoring center 4 failed (No), the monitoring communication unit 12 proceeds to step S207 and activates the transmission function of the status information transmitter unit 14. Then, the monitoring communication unit 12 returns to the initial state.

[0040] Next, the transmission control of the state information transmitter unit 14 will be explained with reference to the flowchart of Fig. 6. If the transmission function of the status information transmitter unit 14 is performed by the monitoring communication unit 12 in step S207 of Fig. 5 is activated, the state information transmitter unit 14 starts in step S301 of the flowchart of Fig. 6 to search for a mobile communication terminal 6 in which the communication application is installed near the elevator 1A, and the process proceeds to step S302. That is, among the mobile communication terminals 6 owned by people passing near the elevator 1A, a mobile communication terminal 6 in which the communication application is installed is searched for.

[0041] In step S302, if a mobile communication terminal 6 capable of communication is found based on the search result for the mobile communication terminals 6 (Yes), the status information transmission unit 14 proceeds to step S303 and transmits the status information to the mobile communication terminal 6. In this case, if multiple mobile communication terminals 6 are found, the status information is transmitted to all the found mobile communication terminals 6. When the mobile communication terminal 6 receives the status information from the status information transmission unit 14, the mobile communication terminal 6 stores the status information. In addition, if no mobile communication terminal 6 capable of communication is found (No), the status information transmission unit 14 returns to the initial state.

[0042] A passenger who has this mobile communication terminal 6 moves from the failed elevator 1A to a normally operating elevator 2A, as shown by the dashed line in Fig. 1. That is, when a passenger located in a disaster area escapes from the disaster area to a normal area, the mobile communication terminal 6 moves from the failed elevator 1A to the normally operating elevator 2A.

[0043] It should be noted that in this case, if the number of mobile communication terminals 6 storing the state information of the elevator 1A is small, a probability that the mobile communication terminal 6 will move from the elevator 1A to the elevator 2A is low. However, it is possible to improve a probability that the mobile communication terminal 6 will move from the elevator 1A to the elevator 2A by increasing the number of mobile communication terminals 6 storing the state information of the elevator 1A, that is, by transmitting the state information of the elevator 1A to many mobile communication terminals 6.

[0044] Next, the control of the state information receiving unit 15 of the elevator 2A will be explained with reference to the flowchart of Fig. 7 and the schematic diagram of Fig. 8 described. Fig. Figure 8 illustrates a situation where elevators 1A and 3A are unable to use public network 5, and elevator 2A receives the status information from elevators 1A and 3A.

[0045] In step S401 of Fig. 7, the status information receiving unit 15 of the elevator 2A detects whether or not there is communication from the mobile communication terminal 6 located near the elevator 2A, that is, within a near-field radio communication range of the status information receiving unit 15. Then, the process proceeds to step S402.

[0046] In step S402, the state information receiving unit 15 checks whether the detected mobile communication terminal 6 stores state information of the other elevators 1A and 3A or not. If the detected mobile communication terminal 6 stores the state information of the other elevators, the state information receiving unit 15 receives this state information and then proceeds to step S403.

[0047] In step S403, the state information receiving unit 15 reads position information of the elevators 1A and 3A from the position information of the state information records D1 and D3 of the elevators 1A and 3A, and compares the read position information of the elevators 1A and 3A with the position information of the elevator 2A.

[0048] As in Fig. 8 illustrates that if the position of the elevator 1A is placed within a circular area with a radius R (for example, with a radius of 5 km) as a predetermined distance with respect to the position of the elevator 2A (Yes), based on the position information of the elevators 1A, 2A, and 3A, the state information receiving unit 15 proceeds to step S404, and stores the state information of the elevator 1A in the state information storage unit 13 of the elevator 2A to update the information of the state information record section D of the state information storage unit 13. Fig. 9 illustrates the information of the state information record section D that is updated in the state information storage unit 13 of the elevator 2A. As in Fig. 9, the state information storage unit 13 of the elevator 2A stores the state information record D1 of the elevator 1A in addition to the state information record D2 of the elevator 2A.

[0049] Meanwhile, if the position of the elevator 3A is placed outside the circular area with respect to the position of the elevator 2A (No), the state information receiving unit 15 returns to the initial state without storing the state information of the elevator 3A in the state information storage unit 13 of the elevator 2A. That is, when the elevators 1A and 3A are placed within the predetermined distance from the elevator 2A, the state information of the elevators 1A and 3A is stored in the state information storage unit 13 of the elevator 2A.

[0050] Then, since the public network 5 is available in the area of ​​the elevator 2A, the control for steps S201 to S206 of the flowchart of Fig. 5. As a result, the status information of the elevator 1A is transmitted to the monitoring center 4 via the monitoring communication unit 12 of the elevator 2A. The monitoring center 4 determines, based on the status information of the elevator 1A, that dispatching a maintenance team to the elevator 1A is necessary and requests that an elevator maintenance company dispatch a maintenance team.

[0051] In this way, if the status information of elevator 1A, which is unable to use the public network 5, is transmitted to the monitoring center 4 via elevator 2A, which is able to use the public network 5, only the status information of elevator 1A located near elevator 2A is transmitted to the monitoring center 4. Therefore, the monitoring center 4 can collectively determine the status information of the elevators located within a predetermined distance. Therefore, it is possible to efficiently dispatch a maintenance team to elevator 1A where an abnormality or a trapped occupant accident has occurred. That is, when elevator 2A receives the status information from the other elevators 1A and 3A, the storage of the status information of elevator 3A, which is located far from elevator 2A, is limited.Therefore, it is possible to efficiently collect the status information of the monitoring center 4.

[0052] Even if the mobile communication terminal 6 moves near a plurality of elevators 1A, 2A, and 3A, the storage of the status information of the elevators 1A, 2A, and 3A located outside the predetermined distance is restricted. Therefore, it is possible to suppress dispersion of the status information of the elevators 1A, 2A, and 3A. As a result, it is possible to dispatch a maintenance team depending on the specified distance and quickly respond to an elevator abnormality. Furthermore, even if transmission to the monitoring center 4 is unavailable due to a failure of the communication device of the monitoring communication unit 12 or the like, it is possible to transmit the status information to the monitoring center 4.

[0053] Next, a second embodiment will be described with reference to the Fig. 10 to 13. In the first embodiment, the storage of the status information is limited based on the position information of the elevators 1A, 2A, and 3A. In comparison, in the second embodiment, the storage of the status information is limited based on the group IDs of the elevators 1A, 2A, and 3A.

[0054] The remote monitoring system 100 according to the second embodiment has the same configuration as the remote monitoring system 100 of the first embodiment, while some control steps in the second embodiment differ from those in the first embodiment. Therefore, such different control steps will be described.

[0055] As in Fig. Figure 13 illustrates that, according to the second embodiment, the status information record D2 has a "Group ID" element. The Group ID is an ID for classifying elevators 1A, 2A, and 3A into predetermined groups. For example, a group ID of the elevators for which maintenance team A is responsible is designated as "AAAA," and a group ID of the elevators for which maintenance team B is responsible is designated as "BBBB." Fig. 13, elevator 2A is classified as a group ID “AAAA”.

[0056] In the flowchart of Fig. 10, steps S501, S502 and S504 are similar to steps S401, S402 and S404 of Fig. 7. In addition, the state information receiving unit 15 reads the group IDs of the elevators 1A and 3A in step S503 of Fig. 10 and compares it with the group ID of elevator 2A.

[0057] As in Fig. 11 illustrates that if the elevator 2A has the same group ID “AAAA” as that of the elevator 1A (Yes), based on the group IDs of the elevators 1A, 2A, and 3A, the state information receiving unit 15 proceeds to step S504 and stores the state information of the elevator 1A in the state information storage unit 13 of the elevator 2A to thereby update the information of the state information record section D in the state information storage unit 13. Fig. 13 illustrates the updated information of the state information record section D in the state information storage unit 13 of the elevator 2A. As in Fig. 13, the state information record D1 of the elevator 1A is added to the state information storage unit 13 of the elevator 2A, in addition to the state information record D2 of the elevator 2A.

[0058] Meanwhile, if the elevator 3A has a group ID “BBBB” different from the group ID “AAAA” of the elevator 2A (No), the state information receiving unit 15 does not store the state information of the elevator 3A in the state information storing unit 13 of the elevator 2A.

[0059] According to the second embodiment, by assigning the group ID to each of the elevators 1A, 2A, and 3A, it is possible to individually select the elevators 1A, 2A, and 3A that are allowed to store the status information of the elevators 1A, 2A, and 3A. Therefore, it is possible to efficiently collect the status information of the elevators 1A, 2A, and 3A for which the maintenance teams are responsible. In addition, by classifying the group ID depending on the type of elevator, it is possible to collect the status information of specific elevators 1A, 2A, and 3A. List of reference symbols 1, 2, 3 buildings 1A, 2A, 3A elevator 1B, 2B, 3B Status information communication device 4 Monitoring Center 5 Public network 6 Mobile communication device 11 Status information acquisition unit 12 Monitoring communication unit 13 Status information storage unit 14 Status information transmitter unit 15 Status information receiver unit 100 remote monitoring system D Status information record

Claims

[1] A status information communication device (1B) in an elevator (1A) that transmits status information regarding a status of the elevator (1A) to a monitoring center (4) to remotely monitor the elevator (1A) via a public network (5), comprising: a status information acquisition unit (11) that acquires status information from the elevator (1A); a status information transmitter unit (14) which transmits the status information of the elevator (1A) to a mobile communication terminal (6); a status information receiving unit (15) that receives status information of another elevator (1A) from the mobile communication terminal (6); a status information storage unit (13) that stores both the status information of the elevator (1A) and the status information of the other elevator (1A); and a monitoring communication unit (12) which communicates with the monitoring center (4) regarding the status information of the elevator (1A) and the status information of the other elevator (1A), the status information transmitter unit (14) transmits the status information of the elevator (1A) to the mobile communication terminal (6) arranged near the elevator (1A) when the monitoring communication unit (12) is unable to communicate with the monitoring center (4), and the status information receiving unit (15) receives the status information of the other elevator (1A) when the mobile communication terminal moves from a position near the other elevator (1A) to a position near the elevator (1A) under a condition that the monitoring communication unit (12) is able to communicate with the monitoring center (4). [2] The status information communication device (1B) in an elevator (1A) according to claim 1, wherein the monitoring communication unit (12) activates a transmission function of the status information transmitter unit (14) when the public network is unavailable, and the monitoring communication unit (12) deactivates the transmission function of the status information transmitter unit (14) when the public network is available. [3] The state information communication device (1B) in an elevator (1A) according to claim 1, wherein the state information of the elevator (1A) and the state information of the other elevator (1A) include at least elevator position information, and the state information storage unit (13) is caused to store the state information of the other elevator (1A) received at the state information receiving unit (15) from the mobile communication terminal (6) when the other elevator (1A) is placed within a predetermined distance from a position of the elevator (1A). [4] The status information communication device (1B) in an elevator (1A) according to claim 1, wherein the status information of the elevator (1A) and the status information of the other elevator (1A) include at least one group ID for designating an elevator group, and the status information storage unit (13) is caused to store the status information of the other elevator (1A) received at the status information receiving unit from the mobile communication terminal (6) when the group ID of the elevator is identical to the group ID of the other elevator (1A). [5] The state information communication device (1B) in an elevator (1A) according to claim 3 or 4, wherein the state information of the elevator (1A) and the state information of the other elevator (1A) include at least elevator information, passenger trapped accident information, and notification information to the monitoring center (4), and the state information transmitter unit (14) transmits the state information of the elevator (1A) when the notification information is set to "not yet", the elevator information is set to "abnormal", or the passenger trapped accident information is set to "trapped". [6] Remote monitoring system (100) for elevators (1A), comprising: a monitoring center (4) that remotely monitors several elevators (1A); a status information communication device in an elevator (1A) provided for each of the plurality of elevators (1A) for transmitting status information regarding a status of the elevator (1A) to the monitoring center (4) via a public network (5); and a mobile communication terminal (6) which transmits or receives the status information between a plurality of the status information communication devices, wherein the status information communication device comprises: a status information acquisition unit (11) that acquires status information from the elevator (1A), a status information transmitter unit (14) which transmits the status information of the elevator (1A) to the mobile communication terminal (6), a status information receiving unit (15) which receives status information of another elevator (1A) from the plurality of elevators (1A) from the mobile communication terminal (6), a status information storage unit (13) which stores both the status information of the elevator (1A) and the status information of the other elevator (1A), and a monitoring communication unit (12) which communicates with the monitoring center (4) regarding the status information of the elevator (1A) and the status information of the other elevator (1A), wherein the status information transmitter unit (14) transmits the status information of the elevator (1A) to the mobile communication terminal (6) arranged near the elevator (1A) when the monitoring communication unit (12) is unable to communicate with the monitoring center (4), and the status information receiving unit (15) receives the status information of the other elevator (1A) from the mobile communication terminal (6) when the mobile communication terminal moves from a position near the other elevator (1A) to a position near the elevator (1A) under a condition that the monitoring communication unit (12) is able to communicate with the monitoring center (4).

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