Autonomous elevator car mover configured with guide wheels
AssigneeOtis Elevator Company
InventorRandy Roberts
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Disclosed is a car mover, configured for autonomously moving an elevator car along a track beam in a hoistway lane, having: a car mover body; a drive wheel operationally connected a lateral side of the car mover body, and configured to rotate about a drive wheel axis; a first guide wheel operationally connected to the lateral side of the car mover body, wherein the first guide wheel is offset from the drive wheel so that, in operation: the first guide wheel engages a lateral sidewall of the track beam when the drive wheel laterally moves on the track beam, to thereby restrict lateral motion of the drive wheel on the track beam.
Claims20
An car mover, configured for autonomously moving an elevator car along a track beam in a hoistway lane, comprising:
- a car mover body;
- a drive wheel operationally connected a lateral side of the car mover body, and configured to rotate about a drive wheel axis;
- a first guide wheel operationally connected to the lateral side of the car mover body,
- wherein the first guide wheel is offset from the drive wheel so that, in operation:
- the first guide wheel engages a lateral sidewall of the track beam when the drive wheel laterally moves on the track beam, to thereby restrict lateral motion of the drive wheel on the track beam.
A method of operating a car mover configured for autonomously moving an elevator car along a track beam in a hoistway lane, comprising:
- rotating a drive wheel, operationally connected a lateral side of a car mover body, about a drive wheel axis;
- sensing, with a sensor that is operationally connected to the car mover, one or more of:
- lateral motion of the drive wheel on the track beam;
- lateral motion of the first guide wheel on the track beam;
- and a rotational speed of the first guide wheel;
- engaging the first guide wheel with the lateral sidewall of the track beam when the drive wheel laterally moves on the track beam, to thereby restrict lateral motion of the drive wheel on the track beam;
- and
- determining, with a car mover controller, whether the drive wheel is moving laterally relative to the track beam from sensor data transmitted from the sensor.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.