Empty elevator car determination
First Claim
1. An elevator car movably disposed in a hoistway of a building for servicing a plurality of floor landings served by doors adjacent said hoistway, comprising:
- passenger-actuatable switch means for registering demands for service by said car, and for providing demand signals indicative thereof;
characterized by;
signal processing means operative in each of a series of repetitive cycles recurring several times per second for monitoring said demand signals and for storing, in each cycle, previous demand signals in response to said demand signals, for comparing said demand signals monitored in each cycle with said previous demand signals stored in a cycle next preceding such cycle, and for providing a car empty signal in th event that said demand signals of said one cycle are the same as said previous demand signals stored in the next preceding cycle.
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Accused Products
Abstract
An elevator system includes a microprocessor-based cab controller mounted directly on an elevator car. The activity of passenger-actuatable switches within the elevator car, such as car call, open door, emergency stop switches, and the like, is monitored as an indication of the presence of passengers within the elevator car. Without such activity, the car is determined, preliminarily, to be empty. If the conditions exist for a period of time, the car is determined to be really empty, in a second level determination of the empty status of the car. The utilization of passenger load weight, along with passenger actuatable switch activity, is also disclosed as a determination of the empty status of the car. An exemplary elevator system, an exemplary microprocessor-based controller, and a logic flowchart illustrative of the details of the invention are disclosed herein.
17 Citations
6 Claims
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1. An elevator car movably disposed in a hoistway of a building for servicing a plurality of floor landings served by doors adjacent said hoistway, comprising:
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passenger-actuatable switch means for registering demands for service by said car, and for providing demand signals indicative thereof;
characterized by;signal processing means operative in each of a series of repetitive cycles recurring several times per second for monitoring said demand signals and for storing, in each cycle, previous demand signals in response to said demand signals, for comparing said demand signals monitored in each cycle with said previous demand signals stored in a cycle next preceding such cycle, and for providing a car empty signal in th event that said demand signals of said one cycle are the same as said previous demand signals stored in the next preceding cycle. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
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Specification