Re-dispatching unoccupied elevator car for occupant evacuation operation
AssigneeOtis Elevator Company
InventorsDavid M. Hughes, James M. Collins, Jannah A. Stanley, Paul A. Stranieri, Ronnie E. Thebeau
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A method of operating an elevator system including: receiving an evacuation call from a first evacuation floor; moving an elevator car to the first evacuation floor; opening doors of the elevator car when the elevator car arrives at the first evacuation floor; monitoring, using a sensor system, a remaining capacity of the elevator car; and closing the doors of the elevator car when at least one of a first selected period of time has passed and the remaining capacity is equal to a selected remaining capacity.
Claims20
A method of operating an elevator system, the method comprising:
- receiving an evacuation call from a first evacuation floor;
- moving an elevator car to the first evacuation floor;
- opening doors of the elevator car when the elevator car arrives at the first evacuation floor;
- monitoring, using a sensor system, a remaining capacity of the elevator car;
- and
- closing the doors of the elevator car when at least one of a first selected period of time has passed and the remaining capacity is equal to a selected remaining capacity, wherein the first selected period of time is determined at least in part in response to the remaining capacity of the elevator car;
- receiving an elevator call from at least one of a second evacuation floor and a padding floor within a selected number of floors away from the first evacuation floor;
- and
- moving the elevator car to at least one of the second evacuation floor and the padding floor when the first selected period of time has passed and the remaining capacity is greater than zero.
A controller of an elevator system comprising:
- a processor;
- a memory comprising computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform operations, the operations comprising:
- receiving an evacuation call from a first evacuation floor;
- moving an elevator car to the first evacuation floor;
- opening doors of the elevator car when the elevator car arrives at the first evacuation floor;
- monitoring a remaining capacity of the elevator car;
- closing the doors of the elevator car when at least one of a first selected period of time has passed and the remaining capacity is equal to a selected remaining capacity, wherein the first selected period of time is determined at least in part in response to the remaining capacity of the elevator car;
- receiving an elevator call from at least one of a second evacuation floor and a padding floor within a selected number of floors away from the first evacuation floor;
- and
- moving the elevator car to at least one of the second evacuation floor and the padding floor when the first selected period of time has passed and the remaining capacity is greater than zero.
A computer program product embodied on a computer readable medium, the computer program product including instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising:
- receiving an evacuation call from a first evacuation floor;
- moving an elevator car to the first evacuation floor;
- opening doors of the elevator car when the elevator car arrives at the first evacuation floor;
- monitoring, using a sensor system, a remaining capacity of the elevator car;
- closing the doors of the elevator car when at least one of a first selected period of time has passed and the remaining capacity is equal to a selected remaining capacity, wherein the first selected period of time is determined at least in part in response to the remaining capacity of the elevator car;
- receiving an elevator call from at least one of a second evacuation floor and a padding floor within a selected number of floors away from the first evacuation floor;
- and
- moving the elevator car to at least one of the second evacuation floor and the padding floor when the first selected period of time has passed and the remaining capacity is greater than zero.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.