Apparatus for performing group control on elevators utilizing distributed control, and method of controlling the same

Claim 1

An apparatus for performing group control on elevators, wherein a plurality of elevators are operated for a plurality of floors, a predetermined evaluation calculation is performed for each of the plurality of elevators upon generation of a hall call, an optimum elevator car is selected on the basis of an evaluation calculation result, and the selected elevator car is assigned to the hall call, thereby responding to the hall call, said apparatus comprising: unit control means, arranged in units of cars of the elevators, for controlling unit control of each car and inputting/outputting information associated with its own car; a plurality of group control means for performing the evaluation calculation for determining hall-call assignment in units of cars on the basis of the information associated with its own car and for performing group management of each elevator car on the basis of an evaluation calculation result; and communicating means for causing said plurality of group control means to communicate with each other through a first data field and causing said unit control means and said group control means to communicate with each other through a second data field independent from said first data field.

Claim 2

An apparatus for performing group control on elevators, wherein a plurality of elevators are operated for a plurality of floors, a predetermined evaluation calculation is performed for each of the plurality of elevators upon generation of a hall call, an optimum elevator car is selected on the basis of an evaluation calculation result, and the selected elevator car is assigned to the hall call, thereby responding to the hall call, said apparatus comprising: unit control means, arranged in units of cars of the elevators, for controlling unit control of each car and inputting/outputting information associated with its own car; a plurality of group control means for performing the evaluation calculation for determining hall-call assignment in units of cars on the basis of the information associated with its own car and for performing group management of each elevator car on the basis of an evaluation calculation result; and communicating means for causing said plurality of group control means to communicate with each other through a first data field and causing said unit control means and said group control means to communicate with each other through a second data field independent from said first data field.

Claim 7

An apparatus for performing group control on elevators, wherein a plurality of elevators are operated for a plurality of floors, a predetermined evaluation calculation is performed for each of the plurality of elevators upon generation of a hall call, an optimum elevator car is selected on the basis of an evaluation calculation result, and the selected elevator car is assigned to the hall call, thereby responding to the hall call, said apparatus comprising: unit control means, arranged in units of elevator cars, for controlling unit control of each elevator car and inputting/outputting information associated with its own car; a plurality of group control means each having a first process for exchanging each car information, a second process for determining a priority of its own by monitoring each active group control means and for scheduling load distribution and assignment of group control processes on the basis of the determined priority, a third process for performing evaluation calculations in units of cars for hall-call assignment on the basis of each car information, and a fourth process for instructing execution of the third process upon occurrence of a hall call, waiting an evaluation calculation result obtained by the execution of the third process, assigning an optimum car upon reception of the evaluation result from the third process, and generating an end instruction to the third process; and communicating means for establishing connecting said unit control means and said group control means to each other and between said group control means, and performing communication with each unit control means in a data field different from that for each group control means.

Claim 8

An apparatus for performing group control on elevators, wherein a plurality of elevators are operated for a plurality of floors, a predetermined evaluation calculation is performed for each of the plurality of elevators upon generation of a hall call, an optimum elevator car is selected on the basis of an evaluation calculation result, and the selected elevator car is assigned to the hall call, thereby responding to the hall call, said apparatus comprising: unit control means, arranged in units of elevator cars, for controlling unit control of each elevator car and inputting/outputting information associated with its own car; a plurality of group control means each having a first process for exchanging each car information, a second process for determining a priority of its own by monitoring each active group control means and for scheduling load distribution and assignment of group control processes on the basis of the determined priority, a third process for performing evaluation calculations in units of cars for hall-call assignment on the basis of each car information, and a fourth process for instructing execution of the third process upon occurrence of a hall call, waiting an evaluation calculation result obtained by the execution of the third process, assigning an optimum car upon reception of the evaluation result from the third process, and generating an end instruction to the third process; and communicating means for establishing connecting said unit control means and said group control means to each other and between said group control means, and performing communication with each unit control means in a data field different from that for each group control means.

Claim 9

An apparatus for performing group control on elevators, wherein a plurality of elevators are operated for a plurality of floors, a predetermined evaluation calculation is performed for each of the plurality of elevators upon generation of a hall call, an optimum elevator car is selected on the basis of an evaluation calculation result, and the selected elevator car is assigned to the hall call, thereby responding to the hall call, said apparatus comprising: unit control means, arranged in units of elevator cars, for controlling unit control of each elevator car and inputting/outputting information associated with its own car; a plurality of group control means each having a first process for exchanging each car information, a second process for determining a priority of its own by monitoring each active group control means and for scheduling load distribution and assignment of processes including car assignment so as to assign average loads of group control in correspondence with the number of active group control means and the priority on the basis of the determined priority, a third process for performing evaluation calculations for hall-call assignment on the basis of information of each car of process assignment upon reception of an instruction and for sending back the evaluation result to an instruction source, and a fourth process for instructing execution of the third process upon occurrence of a hall call, waiting an evaluation calculation result obtained by the execution of the third process, assigning an optimum car upon reception of the evaluation result from the third process, and generating an end instruction to the third process; and communicating means for connecting said unit control means and said group control means to each other and between said group control means, and performing communication with each unit control means in a data field different from that for each group control means.

Claim 10

An apparatus for performing group control on elevators, wherein a plurality of elevators are operated for a plurality of floors, a predetermined evaluation calculation is performed for each of the plurality of elevators upon generation of a hall call, an optimum elevator car is selected on the basis of an evaluation calculation result, and the selected elevator car is assigned to the hall call, thereby responding to the hall call, said apparatus comprising: unit control means, arranged in units of elevator cars, for controlling unit control of each elevator car and inputting/outputting information associated with its own car; a plurality of group control means each having a first process for exchanging each car information, a second process for determining a priority of its own by monitoring each active group control means and for scheduling load distribution and assignment of processes including car assignment so as to assign average loads of group control in correspondence with the number of active group control means and the priority on the basis of the determined priority, a third process for performing evaluation calculations for hall-call assignment on the basis of information of each car of process assignment upon reception of an instruction and for sending back the evaluation result to an instruction source, and a fourth process for instructing execution of the third process upon occurrence of a hall call, waiting an evaluation calculation result obtained by the execution of the third process, assigning an optimum car upon reception of the evaluation result from the third process, and generating an end instruction to the third process; and communicating means for connecting said unit control means and said group control means to each other and between said group control means, and performing communication with each unit control means in a data field different from that for each group control means.

Claim 16

A method according to either of claims 8 or 11, further comprising the steps of: exchanging information associated with each car; and performing the evaluation calculations on the basis of the information exchanged.