Control device for elevator system

Abstract

To provide a control device for an elevator system capable of controlling operation in consideration of feelings of elevator users.SOLUTION: A control device for an elevator system includes a first analysis part, a second analysis part, a movement table creation part, a priority determination part, and an operation control part. The first analysis part analyzes information related to users of the elevator to determine a user having at least an emotion of anger among the users of the elevator. The second analysis part analyzes the information related to the user of the elevator, and determines a departure floor where the user gets on the car and a target floor where the user gets off the car. The movement table creation unit creates a movement table for each time zone in which the number of users having at least an emotion of anger for each correspondence between a departure floor and a destination floor is tallied. The priority determination part determines the priority of the car for each time zone based on the movement table of each time zone. The operation control part group-management-controls the operation of the cars based on the priority.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

Description

[Technical Field]

[0001] FIELD OF THE INVENTION An embodiment of the present invention relates to a controller for an elevator system. [Background technology]

[0002] Improvements to elevator operation have been proposed from various perspectives, such as technology that identifies elevator demand based on the flow of elevator users and controls elevator operation according to this demand. [Prior art documents] [Patent documents]

[0003] [Patent Document 1] Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2020-193072 [Patent Document 2] Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2012-086922 Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0004] There is room for further study on controlling elevator operation while taking into account the emotions of elevator users.

[0005] An embodiment provides a control device for an elevator system that can control operation while taking into consideration the feelings of elevator users. [Means for solving the problem]

[0006] An elevator system control device according to one embodiment includes a first analysis unit, a second analysis unit, a movement table creation unit, a priority determination unit, and an operation control unit. The first analysis unit analyzes information related to elevator users and determines which of the elevator users are at least feeling angry. The second analysis unit analyzes the information related to the elevator users and determines the departure floor from which the user boarded the elevator car and the destination floor from which the user disembarked. The movement table creation unit creates a movement table for each time period that tallies the number of users who are at least feeling angry for each combination of departure floor and destination floor. The priority determination unit determines the priority of the car for each time period based on the movement table for each time period. The operation control unit performs group management control of the car operation based on the priority. [Brief explanation of the drawings]

[0007] [Figure 1] FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating an example of the configuration of an elevator system according to an embodiment. [Figure 2] FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of the configuration of an elevator hall as an elevator landing. [Figure 3] FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of an image analysis result by the image analysis unit. [Figure 4] FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of a movement table. [Figure 5] FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the migration table creation operation of the user information management device. [Figure 6] FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing the priority determination operation of the user information management device. [Figure 7] FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating an example of a method for determining allocation priority. [Figure 8] FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating an example of a method for determining standby priority. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0008] Hereinafter, an embodiment will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an example of the configuration of an elevator system according to an embodiment. The elevator system 1 shown in FIG. 1 is a system that performs group control of elevators. The elevator system 1 shown in FIG. 1 performs group control of, for example, three elevators. Hereinafter, the three elevators may be referred to as elevator A, elevator B, and elevator C. Herein, FIG. 1 shows a system that performs group control of three elevators, but the number of elevators is not limited to three.

[0009] The elevator system 1 includes elevator control devices 11a, 11b, and 11c, cars 12a, 12b, and 12c, a hall call registration device 16, cameras 17a, 17b, and 17c, a group management control device 20, and a server 30. The hall call registration device 16 and the cameras 17a, 17b, and 17c are installed in an elevator hall 15 on each floor.

[0010] The elevator control device 11a controls the operation of the car 12a of car A. The elevator control device 11b controls the operation of the car 12b of car B. The elevator control device 11c controls the operation of the car 12c of car C. Specifically, the elevator control devices 11a-11c each control the corresponding car, such as controlling a motor (hoisting machine) (not shown) for raising and lowering the corresponding car, and controlling the opening and closing of the doors. The elevator control devices 11a-11c are configured using a computer including a processor and a memory.

[0011] Car 12a is the car of car A. Car 12b is the car of car B. Car 12c is the car of car C. Cars 12a-12c are each driven by a motor to move up and down in the elevator shaft. A load sensor 13a is installed, for example, at the bottom of car 12a. A load sensor 13b is installed, for example, at the bottom of car 12b. A load sensor 13c is installed, for example, at the bottom of car 12c. Load sensors 13a-13c are, for example, load cells, and detect the load inside the car. Load data detected by load sensors 13a-13c is transmitted to group management control device 20 via elevator control devices 11a-11c.

[0012] Furthermore, a camera 14a may be installed, for example, on the ceiling of the car 12a. A camera 14b may be installed, for example, on the ceiling of the car 12b. A camera 14c may be installed, for example, on the ceiling of the car 12c. The cameras 14a-14c photograph the interior of the car. The photographed images obtained by the cameras 14a-14c can be transmitted to the group management control device 20 via the elevator control devices 11a-11c.

[0013] The group management control device 20 is a control device of the elevator system 1 for group management control of the operation of the cars 12a-12c. The group management control device 20 is configured using a computer including a processor and memory, similar to the elevator control devices 11a-11c. The group management control device 20 has a call storage unit 21, a user information management device 22, and an operation control unit 23. Some or all of the functions of the user information management device 22 may be provided in the server 30.

[0014] The call storage unit 21 stores hall calls registered by operating the hall call registration device 16.

[0015] The user information management device 22 is a device that manages information about elevator users. The user information management device 22 recognizes the emotions of elevator users. Then, the user information management device 22 creates a movement table based on the recognition result of the user's emotions. The movement table is a table that compiles, for example, the floors from which each user who is feeling angry moved to which floor for each time period. Furthermore, the user information management device 22 determines the priority of the elevator cars 12a-12c based on the created movement table. Then, the user information management device 22 notifies the operation control unit 23 of the priority. The user information management device 22 may be configured to be able to communicate with the server 30. Details of the user information management device 22 will be described later.

[0016] The operation control unit 23 controls the operation of multiple elevators through the elevator control devices 11a-11c. The operation control unit 23 performs general group management control unless it receives an instruction from the user information management device 22, but performs group management control by prioritizing the notification when it receives a priority notification from the user information management device 22. Furthermore, when a new hall call is registered, the operation control unit 23 selects a car to which the hall call will be assigned from among the cars 12a-12c, and directs the selected car to the elevator hall 15 of the floor where the hall call is registered.

[0017] The server 30 stores in a predetermined storage device the information created by the user information management device 22. When the server 30 is provided with some or all of the functions of the user information management device 22, the server 30 can perform the same processing as the user information management device 22.

[0018] Fig. 2 is a diagram showing an example of the configuration of an elevator hall 15 as an elevator landing. However, the configuration shown in Fig. 2 is just one example. The configuration of the elevator hall 15 is not limited to the configuration shown in Fig. 2.

[0019] A hall call registration device 16 for registering hall calls is installed in the elevator hall 15 on each floor. In the example of Figure 2, for convenience, a hall call registration device 16 is shown installed on an arbitrary floor, but in reality, at least one hall call registration device 16 is installed on each floor. The hall call registration device 16 is connected to the group management control device 20 via a transmission cable (not shown). The hall call registration device 16 has a hall call button that allows the user to specify the destination direction as either up or down.

[0020] In the following explanation, a "hall call" refers to a call signal registered by operating the hall call registration device 16 in the elevator hall 15, and includes information on the departure floor and destination direction. In contrast, a "car call" refers to a call signal registered by operating the destination floor button inside the car, and includes information on the car and the destination floor.

[0021] Furthermore, cameras 17a, 17b, and 17c are installed corresponding to the respective elevators in elevator hall 15 on each floor. Cameras 17a-17c are installed, for example, above landing doors 18a-18c, and capture images including the faces of users waiting near landing doors 18a-18c. The images captured by cameras 17a-17c are transmitted to user information management device 22 in group management control device 20.

[0022] The user information management device 22 will now be further described. As shown in Fig. 1, the user information management device 22 has an image analysis unit 22a, a transfer table creation unit 22b, an information storage unit 22c, and a priority determination unit 22d. The user information management device 22 can execute the operations of the image analysis unit 22a, the transfer table creation unit 22b, and the priority determination unit 22d by, for example, executing a program stored in a memory using a processor.

[0023] The image analysis unit 22a analyzes the captured images obtained by the cameras 17a-17c installed in the elevator halls 15 on each floor. Then, the image analysis unit 22a stores the image analysis results of the captured images in the information storage unit 22c.

[0024] Specifically, the image analysis unit 22a recognizes the faces of users waiting near the landing doors 18a-18c by performing facial recognition processing on the captured image, thereby identifying the users. The image analysis unit 22a then recognizes the emotions of each user. For example, the image analysis unit 22a extracts facial features from the captured image, recognizes facial expressions from the facial features, and recognizes emotions from the facial expressions. In the embodiment, the image analysis unit 22a recognizes at least the anger of the user. Here, the image analysis unit 22a may perform emotion recognition based on an emotion recognition model constructed by training a deep learning model such as CNN to learn the relationship between facial features and facial expressions. Furthermore, the image analysis unit 22a may distinguish between the emotions of joy, anger, sadness, and happiness, or may classify the emotions of joy, anger, sadness, and happiness into positive emotions and negative emotions. Specifically, the image analysis unit 22a may classify emotions of joy and enjoyment as positive emotions, and emotions of anger and sadness as negative emotions. Furthermore, the image analysis unit 22a may be configured to recognize the degree of each emotion as a numerical value based on the relationship between facial features and facial expressions, for example.

[0025] Furthermore, the image analysis unit 22a estimates which floors each user has traveled to and from based on the user identification results obtained by analyzing the images captured by the cameras 17a-17c between multiple floors. Specifically, the image analysis unit 22a identifies the floors where each user boarded the car and the floor where each user disembarked from the car based on the images captured on multiple floors. The image analysis unit 22a then associates the departure floor and destination floor of each user with the ID of the identified user.

[0026] 3 is a diagram showing an example of the image analysis result by the image analysis unit 22a. As shown in FIG. 3, the example of the image analysis result includes fields for storing information on "date," "time period," "user ID," "departure floor," "destination floor," and "emotion."

[0027] "Date" is the date the image was taken. "Time zone" is the time zone when the image was taken. The time zone may be determined in units of time, such as every hour of each day or every day, or may be determined in units of morning, noon, evening, or night of each day. Furthermore, instead of or in addition to the time zone, the image analysis results may have a field for storing information about the actual time when the image was taken.

[0028] "User ID" is a unique ID assigned to each user recognized from a captured image. The same user will be assigned the same user ID.

[0029] The "departure floor" is the floor where the user with the corresponding user ID boarded the car during the corresponding time period. The "destination floor" is the floor where the user with the corresponding user ID disembarked during the corresponding time period.

[0030] "Emotion" is the emotion of the user with the corresponding user ID during the corresponding time period. FIG. 3 shows an example in which either "Anger" indicating anger or "-" indicating no anger is stored. As mentioned above, emotions other than anger may also be stored separately as emotion information. Furthermore, when the degree of emotion is recognized as a numerical value, "Emotion" may store information indicating the type and degree of emotion.

[0031] Here, the image analysis unit 22a may perform similar image analysis on the images captured by the cameras 14a-14c instead of or in addition to the images captured by the cameras 17a-17c. In one example, the image analysis unit 22a performs both the determination of the emotion of anger and the determination of floor movement. These determinations may be performed by separate image analysis units.

[0032] The travel table creation unit 22b creates a travel table based on the image analysis results by the image analysis unit 22a. The travel table creation unit 22b then stores the travel table in the information storage unit 22c. FIG. 4 illustrates an example travel table. The travel table is created, for example, for each time period. The travel table is a table created, for example, with departure floors in the column direction and destination floors in the row direction, with each field storing the number of angry users who moved from the corresponding departure floor to the destination floor. The travel table creation unit 22b tallies the number of angry users who have the same departure floor and destination floor during the same time period and stores the total in the corresponding field. The example in FIG. 4 indicates that the number of angry users who moved from the fourth floor to the first floor and the number of angry users who moved from the third floor to the second floor were high. By accumulating such travel tables, it is possible to grasp the approximate trends for each time period regarding which floors angry users are trying to go from and to.

[0033] Here, instead of storing each created movement table in the information storage unit 22c, the movement table creation unit 22b may store in the information storage unit 22c an average movement table of movement tables created in the past for the same time period.

[0034] Furthermore, the movement table may be created for each time period and for each day of the week. Alternatively, the movement table may be created separately for weekdays and holidays. For example, in an elevator in an office building, in the early morning of a weekday, many users tend to use the base floor, i.e., a floor that tends to have a lot of users, such as one that is directly connected to the building entrance. As a result, it is thought that the number of users with angry emotions tends to be high on the base floor. On the other hand, this tendency may not necessarily apply on holidays. By creating a movement table for each time period and for each day of the week, or separately for weekdays and holidays, multiple types of movement tables with different tendencies can be taken into consideration, thereby preventing erroneous determination of priority, as described below.

[0035] Furthermore, when the image analysis unit 22a recognizes each of the emotions of joy, anger, sadness, and happiness, the movement table creation unit 22b may store the number of users who have each of the emotions in each field. Furthermore, the movement table creation unit 22b may store the number of users who have positive emotions and negative emotions in each field. Furthermore, when the image analysis unit 22a quantifies the degree of each emotion, the movement table creation unit 22b may weight the count of the number of users according to the numerical value representing each emotion. For example, the movement table creation unit 22b may create the movement table shown in FIG. 3 by dividing the numerical value of the emotion of anger into three levels, counting the number of users with high anger as 1, the number of users with medium anger as 0.67, and the number of users with low anger as 0.33.

[0036] The information storage unit 22c is configured, for example, by a storage device, and stores various information such as images taken by cameras 14a-14c, images taken by cameras 17a-17c, image analysis results created by the image analysis unit 22a, and movement tables created by the movement table creation unit 22b.

[0037] The priority determination unit 22d acquires a movement table for each time period from the information storage unit 22c, and determines the priority of the cars 12a-12c for each time period based on the acquired movement table. For example, when multiple hall calls are registered, the priority determination unit 22d increases the priority of car allocation to floors where many angry passengers are present among the floors where hall calls are registered, and decreases the priority of car allocation to floors where few angry passengers are present. Furthermore, when no hall calls are registered, the priority determination unit 22d may increase the priority of car waiting at floors where many angry passengers tend to be present, and decrease the priority of car waiting at floors where few angry passengers tend to be present.

[0038] Here, when the image analysis unit 22a recognizes each of the emotions of joy, anger, sadness, and happiness, the priority determination unit 22d may use emotions other than anger in determining the priority. For example, the priority determination unit 22d may determine the final priority by subtracting the number of users who have the emotion of joy from the priority determined based on the number of users who have the emotion of anger. Alternatively, the priority determination unit 22d may determine the priority based on the ratio of the number of users who have the emotion of anger to the number of users who have the emotion of joy. Furthermore, the priority determination unit 22d may determine the priority based on the ratio of the number of users who have the emotion of negative emotions to the number of users who have the emotion of positive emotions.

[0039] Next, we will explain the operation of the elevator system 1. Figure 5 is a flowchart showing the movement table creation operation of the user information management device 22. The movement table creation operation is performed at a predetermined time such as early in the morning or at night each day.

[0040] In step S1, the image analysis unit 22a acquires a photographed image from, for example, the information storage unit 22c. Here, the image analysis unit 22a does not need to acquire a photographed image that has already been used to create a movement table.

[0041] In step S2, the image analysis unit 22a performs image analysis on each of the acquired captured images. Specifically, the image analysis unit 22a recognizes the faces of the users in each captured image by performing face recognition processing on the captured images, and recognizes at least the anger emotion of each recognized user. Furthermore, the image analysis unit 22a estimates which floors each user has traveled to based on the user identification results obtained by analyzing the captured images acquired by cameras 17a-17c between multiple floors. The image analysis unit 22a then creates an image analysis result by associating the capture date, capture time period, user ID, departure floor, and emotion. As described above, the image analysis unit 22a may perform image analysis on the captured images acquired by cameras 14a-14c.

[0042] In step S3, the image analysis unit 22a stores the generated image analysis results in the information storage unit 22c.

[0043] In step S4, the movement table creation unit 22b acquires the image analysis results for each time period from the information storage unit 22c, and creates a movement table based on the acquired image analysis results. For example, the movement table creation unit 22b tallies the number of people who moved from which floor to which floor each user who feels angry moved. Then, the movement table creation unit 22b stores the tallied number of people who moved in the corresponding field of the movement table. Here, the movement table creation unit 22b may create an average movement table in which the average value of the number of people who moved is stored in each field.

[0044] In step S5, the transfer table creation unit 22b stores the newly created transfer table and / or the newly created average transfer table in the information storage unit 22c, after which the processing of FIG.

[0045] 6 is a flowchart showing the priority determination operation of the user information management device 22. The priority determination operation is performed periodically while the elevator system 1 is in operation.

[0046] In step S11, the priority determination unit 22d determines whether or not hall calls to multiple different floors are registered in the call memory unit 21. If it is determined in step S11 that multiple hall calls are registered in the call memory unit 21, the process proceeds to step S12. If it is determined in step S11 that multiple hall calls are not registered in the call memory unit 21, the process proceeds to step S16.

[0047] In step S12, the priority determination unit 22d determines whether the number of data items in the movement table created for the current time period exceeds a predetermined threshold. If it is determined in step S12 that the number of data items in the movement table created for the current time period exceeds the threshold, the process proceeds to step S13. If it is determined in step S12 that the number of data items in the movement table created for the current time period does not exceed the threshold, the process returns to step S11. In this case, the priority determination unit 22d does not notify the operation control unit 23 of the priority. Therefore, the operation control unit 23 performs general group management control.

[0048] In step S13, the priority determination unit 22d acquires a movement table for the current time period from the information storage unit 22c. The priority determination unit 22d may acquire all movement tables created in the past for the current time period, some of the past movement tables, or an average movement table.

[0049] In step S14, the priority determination unit 22d determines the allocation priority based on the acquired movement table. The allocation priority indicates which floor hall call should be given priority in car allocation among multiple hall calls. An example of a method for determining the allocation priority will be described below.

[0050] Fig. 7 is a diagram illustrating an example of a method for determining allocation priority. Fig. 7 shows a movement table for a certain time period. Here, the number of people in each field in Fig. 7 is assumed to be the average number of people moving in multiple past movement tables. The priority determination unit 22d may obtain multiple past movement tables from the information storage unit 22c and create an average movement table from the obtained multiple movement tables.

[0051] In one example of determining the allocation priority, the priority determination unit 22d calculates the total number of angry users at each departure floor. This total is the "total" shown in Fig. 7. For example, in Fig. 7, the total number of angry users whose departure floor is the 7th floor is 1+1+0+6+7+7+2+6+0=30 (people).

[0052] If the number of data points in the travel tables created for the same time period exceeds a threshold, the average travel table can be said to represent a rough trend of the number of angry passengers at each departure floor during that time period. Therefore, it can be assumed that the trend in the number of angry passengers during the current time period also follows a similar trend to this average travel table. Therefore, the priority determination unit 22d prioritizes car allocation to floors with a higher number of angry passengers among floors where hall calls are registered. In the example of FIG. 7, if hall calls are registered on the 7th and 1st floors, the priority determination unit 22d prioritizes car allocation to the 7th floor over the 1st floor.

[0053] 7, the departure floor with the largest number of angry passengers is floor 7. On the other hand, if no hall calls are registered for floor 7, the priority determination unit 22d does not consider floor 7 as a target for determining the priority of car allocation.

[0054] Furthermore, the priority determination unit 22d may adjust the priority according to the number of users who have the emotion of joy. For example, when there are three users who have the emotion of joy on the seventh floor, the priority determination unit 22d may adjust the priority by setting the "total" value to 30-3=27 (people). The priority determination unit 22d may also adjust the priority directly to lower the value according to the number of users who have the emotion of joy.

[0055] Furthermore, the priority determination unit 22d may weight the priority according to the number of angry users. That is, the weight for the priority of car allocation to floors with a large number of angry users may be increased, and the weight for the priority of car allocation to floors with a small number of angry users may be decreased.

[0056] In step S15, the priority determination unit 22d notifies the operation control unit 23 of the allocation priority. Thereafter, the processing in FIG. 6 ends. The operation control unit 23 performs group management control of the operation of the elevator cars, taking into account the allocation priority notified by the priority determination unit 22d. Therefore, among floors where hall calls are registered, the elevator cars are more likely to arrive preferentially at floors where a large number of angry passengers are present. Here, the degree of consideration of the allocation priority notified by the priority determination unit 22d in the group management control of the operation control unit 23 may be given as a weight. For example, if a time period has a large number of angry passengers, the weight of the consideration of the allocation priority may be increased, and if a time period has a small number of angry passengers, the weight of the consideration of the allocation priority may be decreased.

[0057] In step S16, if it is determined that multiple hall calls are not registered, the priority determination unit 22d determines whether the number of data items in the transfer table created for the current time slot exceeds a predetermined threshold. If it is determined in step S16 that the number of data items in the transfer table created for the current time slot exceeds the threshold, the process proceeds to step S17. If it is determined in step S16 that the number of data items in the transfer table created for the current time slot does not exceed the threshold, the process returns to step S11. In this case, the priority determination unit 22d does not notify the operation control unit 23 of the priority. Therefore, the operation control unit 23 performs general group management control.

[0058] In step S17, the priority determination unit 22d acquires a movement table for the current time period from the information storage unit 22c. The priority determination unit 22d may acquire all movement tables created in the past for the current time period, some of the past movement tables, or an average movement table.

[0059] In step S18, the priority determination unit 22d determines the waiting priority based on the acquired movement table. The waiting priority is a priority indicating at which floor the elevator car should be kept waiting in advance. An example of a method for determining the waiting priority will be described below.

[0060] Fig. 8 is a diagram for explaining an example of a waiting priority determination method. Fig. 8 shows a movement table for an early morning time period. Here, the number of people in each field in Fig. 8 is assumed to be the average number of people moving in multiple past movement tables. The priority determination unit 22d may obtain multiple past movement tables from the information storage unit 22c and create an average movement table from the obtained multiple movement tables.

[0061] In one example of determining the waiting priority, the priority determination unit 22d calculates the total number of angry users at each departure floor. As shown in Fig. 8, since there are many users at the first floor, which is the reference floor, in the early morning hours, the number of angry users tends to be the highest on the first floor.

[0062] Unlike the allocation priority, in the case of the waiting priority, the priority determination unit 22d increases the waiting priority of the car going to the floor where the number of angry passengers is large. In the example of Fig. 8, the waiting priority of the car going to the first floor is set to the highest.

[0063] As with the allocation priority, the priority determination unit 22d may adjust the priority depending on the number of users who have the emotion of joy.Furthermore, the priority determination unit 22d may weight the priority depending on the number of users who have the emotion of anger.

[0064] In step S19, the priority determination unit 22d notifies the operation control unit 23 of the standby priority. Thereafter, the processing in FIG. 6 ends. The operation control unit 23 performs group management control of the operation of the cars, taking into account the standby priority notified by the priority determination unit 22d. This makes it easier to implement control that prioritizes the standby of cars at floors where a large number of angry users are expected to be present. Here, the degree of consideration of the allocation priority notified by the priority determination unit 22d in the group management control in the operation control unit 23 may be given as a weight. For example, if the time period has a large number of angry users, the weight of the consideration of the allocation priority may be increased, and if the time period has a small number of angry users, the weight of the consideration of the allocation priority may be decreased.

[0065] As described above, according to the embodiment, a movement table is created for each time period, showing which floors angry users have moved from and to. Then, based on the movement table for each time period, the priority of car allocation and waiting priority for cars are determined when multiple hall calls are registered. It is expected that group management control that takes such priorities into account will enable elevator systems to be controlled in a way that takes into account the emotions of users in each time period.

[0066] In addition, in the embodiment, if the number of data in the travel table created for each time period does not exceed a threshold, priority determination is not performed, which can prevent group management control based on priorities determined based on an inaccurate travel table.

[0067] (Variation) Modifications of the embodiment will be described below. In the embodiment, for example, an average travel table is used to determine the priority. In contrast, as described above, there is a certain trend in the number of angry passengers present at each departure floor for each time period. Therefore, the travel table creation unit 22b may be configured to have a machine learning model that inputs time period information and outputs a travel table. Learning is performed by inputting past travel tables as training data into this machine learning model. Then, the travel table creation unit 22b may input time period information into this trained model to create a current travel table in step S13 or step S17.

[0068] In addition, in the embodiment, the total number of angry passengers at each departure floor is used to determine the priority. The travel table does not necessarily have to include information on the destination floor. However, it goes without saying that destination floor information may also be taken into account in determining the priority. For example, in the travel table, a field with a large number of passengers indicates that a large number of passengers are traveling to that destination floor, meaning that passenger demand is high. Therefore, such a field with a large number of passengers may be weighted and counted more than usual when calculating the total.

[0069] In the embodiment, the emotion is determined based on the facial expression of the user detected from the captured image acquired by the cameras 14a-14c or 17a-17c. The emotion may be determined by any method. For example, the emotion may be determined by detecting a specific behavior of the user that indicates anger detected from the captured image acquired by the cameras 14a-14c or 17a-17c. The specific behavior that indicates anger may be a predetermined user gesture, such as stomping one's feet or crossing one's arms. The emotion may also be determined based on the user's voice collected by a microphone installed in the elevator hall 15 or the cars 12a-12c. The emotion may also be determined based on the user's brain wave pattern collected by an electroencephalogram sensor installed in the elevator hall 15 or the cars 12a-12c.

[0070] Although several embodiments of the present invention have been described, these embodiments are presented as examples and are not intended to limit the scope of the invention. These novel embodiments can be embodied in various other forms, and various omissions, substitutions, and modifications can be made without departing from the spirit of the invention. These embodiments and their modifications are included within the scope and spirit of the invention, and are also included in the scope of the invention and its equivalents as defined in the claims. [Explanation of symbols]

[0071] 1... elevator system, 11a, 11b, 11c... elevator control device, 12a, 12b, 12c... car, 13a, 13b, 13c, 14a, 14b, 14c... camera, 15... elevator hall, 16... call registration device, 17a, 17b, 17c... camera, 18a, 18b, 18c... landing door, 20... group management control device, 21... call memory unit, 22... user information management device, 22a... image analysis unit, 22b... movement table creation unit, 22c... information storage unit, 22d... priority determination unit, 23... operation control unit, 30... server.

Claims

1. a first analysis unit that analyzes information related to elevator users and determines which of the elevator users have at least an angry emotion; a second analysis unit that analyzes information related to the elevator user and determines a departure floor from which the user boarded the elevator car and a destination floor from which the user exited the car; a movement table creation unit that creates a movement table for each time period that tallies the number of users who have at least an angry emotion for each correspondence between the departure floor and the destination floor; a priority determination unit that determines the priority of the elevator for each time period based on the movement table for each time period; An operation control unit that performs group management control of the operation of the elevator cars based on the priority; A control device for an elevator system comprising:

2. The information relating to the elevator user is an image taken by a camera installed at the elevator hall or in the elevator car, the first analysis unit determines whether the user has at least an angry emotion based on a facial expression of the user in the image captured by the camera. The control device for an elevator system according to claim 1 .

3. The information relating to the elevator user is an image taken by a camera installed at the elevator hall or in the elevator car, the first analysis unit detects a specific gesture of the user in the image captured by the camera, and thereby determines whether the user has at least an angry emotion. The control device for an elevator system according to claim 1 .

4. the information relating to the elevator user is the user's voice, the first analysis unit determines, based on the voice, whether the user has at least an angry emotion. The control device for an elevator system according to claim 1 .

5. the information relating to the elevator user is the user's brain waves, the first analysis unit determines whether the user has at least an angry emotion based on the electroencephalogram pattern. The control device for an elevator system according to claim 1 .

6. The information relating to the elevator user is an image taken by a camera installed at the elevator hall or in the elevator car, The second analysis unit determines a departure floor and a destination floor of each of the users based on images of the cameras on multiple floors in which the same user is photographed. The control device for an elevator system according to claim 1 .

7. When a plurality of hall calls are registered, the priority determination unit acquires the movement table for the time period in which the plurality of hall calls are registered, and based on the acquired movement table, increases the priority of the elevator car allocation to a departure floor where a large number of people have the emotion of anger among the departure floors where a plurality of hall calls are registered. The control device for an elevator system according to claim 1 .

8. The priority determination unit acquires the movement table for the current time period, and based on the acquired movement table, increases the waiting priority of the elevator car for a departure floor where a large number of people have the angry emotion. The control device for an elevator system according to claim 1 .

9. the priority determination unit does not perform the priority determination when the number of data in the movement table created for the time period used for determining the priority is equal to or less than a threshold value; The control device for an elevator system according to claim 1 .

10. The first analysis unit further determines the user having an emotion of joy, The movement table creation unit further counts the number of users who have the emotion of joy for each correspondence between the departure floor and the destination floor, The priority determination unit further determines the priority of the car allocation based on the number of users who have the emotion of joy. The control device for an elevator system according to claim 1 .

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