Automatically supporting social distancing for elevator call requests and identification of waiting passengers using deep learning and machine learning

A system comprising:

• an elevator car and elevator controller;
• one or more sensors operably coupled to the elevator car and the elevator controller, wherein the one or more sensors are adapted to capture an image of an elevator floor registering a call request,
• wherein the elevator controller is configured to:
• receive a call request from an elevator floor;
• responsive to receiving the call request, capture an image of the elevator floor registering the call request;
• determine a presence of one or more waiting passengers on the elevator floor registering the call request;
• dispatch an elevator car to the elevator floor registering the call request;
• and
• control the elevator car on the elevator floor based at least in part on determining the presence of the one or more waiting passengers;
• the elevator controller is further configured to:
• receive a new hall call request prior to the elevator car departing the elevator floor registering the new hall request;
• determine remaining capacity inside the elevator car responsive to receiving the new hall call request;
• in response to the remaining capacity inside the elevator car being not available to accept additional passengers, ignore the new hall call request;
• in response to the remaining capacity inside the elevator car being available to accept additional passengers, re-open elevator car doors to allow one or more waiting passengers to board the elevator car.

A method comprising:

• receiving, at an elevator controller, a call request from an elevator floor;
• responsive to receiving the call request, capturing an image of the elevator floor registering the call request;
• determining, from the image, a presence of one or more waiting passengers on the elevator floor registering the call request;
• dispatching an elevator car to the elevator floor registering the call request;
• controlling the elevator car based at least in part on determining the presence of the one or more waiting passengers;
• receiving a new hall call request prior to the elevator car departing the elevator floor registering the new hall call request;
• determining remaining capacity inside the elevator car responsive to receiving the new hall call request;
• in response to the remaining capacity inside the elevator car being not available to accept additional passengers, ignoring the new hall call request;
• in response to the remaining capacity inside the elevator car being available to accept additional passengers, re-opening elevator car doors to allow one or more waiting passengers to board the elevator car;
• wherein controlling the elevator car based at least in part on determining the presence of the one or more waiting passengers comprises:
• counting a number of the one or more waiting passengers in the image;
• predicting a number of elevator cars needed to service the one or more waiting passengers based at least in part on the number of one or more waiting passengers;
• dispatching the number of elevator cars to the elevator floor registering the call request based at least in part on the number of the one or more waiting passengers, wherein the number of the dispatched elevator cars is reduced if the number of the one or more waiting passengers is reduced below a waiting passenger threshold and the number of the dispatched elevator cars is increased if the number of the one or more waiting passengers is above the waiting passenger threshold.