Method and system for scheduling elevator cars in a group elevator system with uncertain information about arrivals of future passengers
AssigneeMitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories, Inc.
InventorDaniel Nikolaev Nikovski
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A method schedules elevator cars in a group elevator system in a building by first generating a set of probability distributions for arrivals of future passengers at any floor of the building, wherein the set of probability distributions are characterized by probabilistic variables that specify arrival information of the future passengers, wherein the arrival information includes a probability of service requests by the future passengers and a probability of possible times of the service requests. A schedule for the elevator cars is based on the set of probabilistic distribution. Then, the schedule is provided to a controller of the group elevator system to move the elevator cars according to the schedule.
Claims20
A method for scheduling elevator cars in a group elevator system in a building, wherein a decision of which an elevator car serves a newly arrived passenger in time is made at a time of arrival of the newly arrived passenger, and not at a later time, comprising steps of:
- registering a request for service by the newly arrived passenger by a signal at an elevator landing;
- accessing data from a memory, wherein the data includes arrival information of future passengers, wherein the processor is in communication with the memory, and the processor is configured for:
- generating a set of probability distributions for arrivals of future passengers at any floor of the building, wherein the set of probability distributions are characterized by probabilistic variables that specify arrival information of the future passengers, wherein the arrival information includes a probability of a number of service requests by the future passengers and a probability of a possible number of times of the service requests;
- determining a schedule for the elevator cars based on the set of probabilistic distribution using the arrival information by generating multiple continuation sets from some probabilistic variables of the probabilistic variables for arrivals of future passengers, and determining an optimal elevator car assignment for the newly arrived passenger that registered the request for service, by averaging an average waiting time (AWT) of all newly arrived passengers over all continuation sets, after finding assignments for all future passengers in the continuation sets of the multiple continuation sets;
- and
- providing the schedule to a controller of the group elevator system to move the elevator cars according to the schedule, wherein the processor is in communication with the controller.
A system for scheduling elevator cars in a group elevator system in a building, wherein a decision of which an elevator car serves a newly arrived passenger in time is made at a time of arrival of the newly arrived passenger, and not at a later time, comprising:
- a memory having stored data including arrival information of future passengers;
- a processor in communication with the memory, is configured to:
- register a request for service by the newly arrived passenger by a signal at an elevator landing;
- generate probability distributions for arrivals of future passengers at any floor of the building, wherein the probability distributions are characterized by probabilistic variables that specify arrival information of the future passengers, wherein the arrival information includes a probability of a number of service requests by the future passengers and a probability of a possible number of times of the service requests;
- determine a schedule for the elevator cars based on the probabilistic distributions using the arrival information by generating multiple continuation sets from some probabilistic variables of the probabilistic variables for arrivals of future passengers, and determining an optimal elevator car assignment for the newly arrived passenger that registered the request for service, by averaging an average waiting time (AWT) of all newly arrived passengers over all continuation sets, after finding assignments for all future passengers in the continuation sets of the multiple continuation sets;
- and
- a controller of the group elevator system to move the elevator cars according to the schedule.
A method for scheduling elevator cars in a group elevator system in a building, wherein a decision of which an elevator car serves a newly arrived passenger in time is made at a time of arrival of the newly arrived passenger, and not at a later time, comprising:
- registering a request for service by the newly arrived passenger by a signal at an elevator landing;
- accessing data from a memory, wherein the data includes arrival information of future passengers, wherein the processor in communication with the memory, is configured for:
- generating a set of probability distributions for arrivals of future passengers at any floor of the building, wherein the set of probability distributions are characterized by probabilistic variables that specify arrival information of the future passengers, wherein the arrival information includes a probability of a number of service requests by the future passengers and a probability of a possible number of times of the service requests;
- determining a schedule for the elevator cars based on the set of probabilistic distribution using the arrival information by generating multiple continuation sets from some probabilistic variables of the probabilistic variables for arrivals of future passengers;
- determining an optimal elevator car assignment for the newly arrived passenger that registered the request for service;
- and
- providing the schedule to a controller of the group elevator system to move the elevator cars according to the schedule, wherein the processor is in communication with the controller.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.