Method for using door cycle time in dispatching elevator cars
AssigneeWestinghouse Electric Corp.
InventorsRobert C. MacDonald, Gerald M. Rees, Elsa Abrego, Matthew Martin, Jon Howard, Marjorie J. Polis, Jeffrey W. Blain
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An elevator dispatching method which estimates the time of arrival (ETA) of each car at the floor of a hall call to be assigned. A building profile of average door cycle times per floor, over predetermined periods of the day, is tabulated and used in the ETA calculations, to provide more accurate ETA values and thus a lower average call waiting time.
Claims4
A method for assigning hall calls registered from floors of a building to a plurality of elevator cars having doors which open and close when a car stops at a floor during the process of providing elevator service for the floors of the building, comprising the steps of:
- tabulating the number of door cycles and the cumulative door cycle time for each floor of the building,
- calculating the average door cycle time for each floor of the building by dividing the cumulative door cycle time by the number of door cycles,
- storing the average door cycle times for the floors of the building which result from the calculating step,
- selecting a travel path for each car relative to a floor having a registered hall call to be assigned,
- preparing a trip list for each car using the travel path selected,
- determining the time (ETA) for each car to service the associated trip list and arrive at the floor of a hall call under consideration,
- and assigning each hall call to an elevator car based upon the relative ETA times,
- said step of determining the ETA time for each car including the step of adding the door cycle time for each stop of the elevator car on the associated trip list before reaching the floor of the hall call to be assigned,
- said step of adding the door cycle time using the stored door cycle time for the floor of the stop.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.