Conveyor Maintenance Access Control for Subsystem Security
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conveyor systems, such as elevators and escalators, face challenges in efficiently managing maintenance operations due to their complexity and the need to ensure safety-critical systems remain operational while allowing third-party access to non-critical subsystems.
Innovation Solution
An apparatus and method for managing maintenance by controlling access rights through control signals to disable and enable communication with subsystems, enabling secure and efficient maintenance operations.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If third parties are allowed to access non-critical subsystems for maintenance, then maintenance efficiency is improved, but system security and operational reliability may deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The system divides subsystems into safety-critical and non-safety-critical categories, and further segments access rights into different levels (first access right for non-critical, second access right for safety-critical). This segmentation allows third parties to maintain non-critical subsystems independently while preserving security for critical systems.
Solution Approach 2:
The control system acts as an intermediary between third-party maintenance devices and subsystems. It receives maintenance requests, verifies access rights, and controls communication enabling/disabling. This intermediary role ensures that third parties can access non-critical subsystems while the control system maintains overall system security and prevents unauthorized access to safety-critical components.
2Ease of repair
If maintenance operations are performed on subsystems, then system maintenance needs are met, but communication with subsystems may be disrupted
Solution Approach 1:
The control system periodically enables and disables communication with subsystems based on maintenance status. During maintenance, communication is disabled to prevent interference, and after maintenance completion, communication is re-enabled. This periodic control ensures both maintenance accessibility and communication continuity are maintained at appropriate times.
Solution Approach 2:
The system uses feedback signals from maintenance devices to determine when maintenance is complete. The control system receives feedback about maintenance status and automatically adjusts communication enabling/disabling accordingly, ensuring that communication is restored only after successful maintenance completion.
3Reliability
If access control is implemented for maintenance, then system security is improved, but maintenance operation complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The access control system dynamically adjusts communication enabling/disabling based on real-time maintenance status and access right verification. Rather than static access control, the system adapts its behavior according to the current operational context, maintaining security while simplifying the user experience through automated decisions.
Data Source
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Figure 3~4
AI summary
The invention relates to an apparatus (210, 120) for managing a maintenance of a conveyor system (110), the apparatus (210, 120) configured to: receive (410) data indicative of an access right to perform the maintenance; generate (430), in response to a detection (420) of an access right to perform the maintenance, a first control signal to disable communicatively reaching the sub-system (225); generate (450), in response to a receipt (440) of an acknowledgement signal indicative of a predefined state of the maintenance, a second control signal to enable the interface (215, 260) to communicatively reach the sub-system (225). The invention also relates to a method, a computer program, and a conveyor system.