Elevator Evacuation Routing Past Locked Floors
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Solution Overview
Problem
Elevator cars can become trapped at locked floors during emergency stops due to fire protection doors or other obstructions, posing a safety risk to passengers.
Innovation Solution
The elevator system is configured to detect an event requiring a stop and select the closest unlocked floor in the moving direction, allowing the car to pass locked floors if necessary, and then stop at the unlocked floor for evacuation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If the elevator system stops at the next possible floor due to a detected fault, then the elevator car can be evacuated, but the car may become trapped at a locked floor where doors cannot be opened
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary detection of locked floors before initiating the stop command. The controller identifies whether the selected floor has locked doors (fire protection doors) and preemptively selects an alternative floor, preventing the evacuation trap scenario before it occurs.
Solution Approach 2:
The system continuously monitors the lock status of floors and uses this feedback information to adjust the evacuation destination. When a floor is detected as locked, the controller receives feedback and automatically selects the next available unlocked floor, creating a closed-loop decision-making process.
2Productivity
If the elevator car is forced to stop at a locked floor, then the stop command is executed, but passenger safety is compromised due to inability to open doors
Solution Approach 1:
The system applies preliminary anti-action by detecting and avoiding locked floors before the stop command is executed. The controller proactively identifies floors with locked doors and excludes them from the stop destination selection, preventing the harmful effect of passenger trapping before it can occur.
Solution Approach 2:
The system converts the potentially harmful situation of locked floors into a beneficial filtering mechanism. By using the locked floor status information, the controller makes smarter evacuation decisions, selecting only unlocked floors as destinations, thereby turning a constraint into a safety feature.
3Loss of time
If the elevator system selects the closest unlocked floor, then evacuation time is reduced, but the system complexity increases due to additional floor status monitoring
Solution Approach 1:
The controller performs multiple functions: it manages normal elevator operation, monitors floor lock status, determines evacuation destinations, and executes stop commands. By making the controller universal and multi-functional, the patent avoids adding separate dedicated hardware for each function, thereby minimizing overall system complexity while achieving rapid evacuation.
Data Source
AI summary
According to an aspect, there is provided a solution in which an event requiring a stop to a next possible floor is detected for a moving elevator car. The stop is then selected to the next possible floor, the next possible floor being the closest unlocked floor in the moving direction of the elevator car.