JP4509276B2 - Elevator group management system - Google Patents

Description

[0001]
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to an elevator group management system in which a plurality of unit control devices are connected to a network to perform group management control.
[0002]
[Prior art]
In recent years, it has become possible to realize a large amount of information processing and advanced control by adopting a microcomputer as a control device for controlling an elevator.
[0003]
Now, several systems have been proposed in which a plurality of unit control devices are connected via a network. In these systems, each unit control device is assigned a group management function, so technology for improving system reliability is particularly important with respect to operation when one unit control device fails. Come.
[0004]
Therefore, for example, what is presented in Japanese Examined Patent Publication No. 7-2573 has a function to evaluate the response sharing for a hall call distributed to each vehicle control unit, and to have a platform call registration function for each specific vehicle control unit. I have to. Then, as shown in FIG. 7, the control units are connected in a loop, and when the transmission line fails, it is divided into several groups (for example, A, B, C, H, G with A as the main). Group, and E, D, and F groups having E as the main group), and the group management is performed in the group.
[0005]
In addition, as shown in FIG. 8, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 63-12578 discloses that two independent lines 151 and 152 are connected in series to two control devices 150 on both sides, and one control is performed. When the device breaks down, the information regarding the hall is configured to be transmitted / received to / from another control device. That is, the information of each control device is sent to different control devices in two directions via two independent lines 151 and 152.
[0006]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
In this type of conventional system as described above, for example, one control device among a plurality of unit control devices is provided with a group management function, and if that control device fails, the remaining control devices are Next, a control device that performs group management is selected, and the control device continuously performs the group management function. However, in such a system, it is necessary to share the group management control function for performing group management in each of the control devices, and the implementation method is complicated. It is necessary to prepare a special CPU and memory space in the control device, and extra resources are required for both software and hardware, resulting in a problem of increased costs.
[0007]
The present invention has been made to solve the above-described problems, and even when the group management control device is down, backup operation based on local management control such as 2CAR operation and cooperative distributed operation that can be realized with a simple configuration. It aims at providing the elevator group management system which realizes.
[0008]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
In view of the above object, the present invention connects a group management control device for managing a plurality of elevators as a group and a plurality of unit control devices managed by the network, and controls each of the plurality of units. In the elevator group management system in which a landing button is connected to each specific unit control device among the devices, each unit control device individually manages and controls the corresponding elevator based on the control of the group management control device , and In the case of each unit control device to which the platform button is connected, each station control means for transmitting the hall call information obtained from the hall button from the communication means, and the communication for communicating information including the hall call information with the elevator and the network It means, a communication abnormality detection means for detecting a communication abnormality between the group management control device, when detecting an abnormality in the communication with the group management control device, the hall call information In elevator group control system comprising: the simplified backup means for performing operation based on the local management control in cooperation based on a predetermined said each unit control device.
[0013]
In the present invention, when the group management control device having the group management function fails, the group management is stopped and the two adjacent elevators perform the 2CAR operation simply. In addition, in a method in which each unit control device individually sets a hall call area to which its own unit responds in consideration of the position and direction with other units, coordinated distributed operation in which each elevator operates in a coordinated manner is performed. .
[0014]
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
Hereinafter, the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings according to each embodiment.
[0015]
Embodiment 1 FIG.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an elevator group management system according to an embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 1, 1 is a group management control device for group management control of the entire elevator, 2 is each unit control device for controlling each unit, 3 is each unit control means for mainly controlling each unit alone, 4 is It is a communication means for performing communication between each machine control device 2 and the network. 6 is a communication abnormality detecting means for detecting a communication abnormality with the group management control device 1 on the network, and 5 is a simple operation for performing a 2CAR operation which is a local management control or a backup operation by distributed cooperation when a communication abnormality is detected. It is a backup means.
[0016]
Reference numeral 7 is a network for connecting each of the car control devices 2 and the group management control device 1 to a network, 8 is a hall button installed at each hall, and 9 is a computation for performing communication between the hall button 8 and each car control device. It is a hall station that is a device.
[0017]
In addition to car information such as the car position, car direction, and car load of each car, the network 7 also contains information related to the hall button 8 such as registration / cancellation of hall calls and lighting / extinguishing of hall button lamps. Also, normally, each unit control device 2 is connected to the landing button 8 at a ratio of one to two adjacent units.
[0018]
The means 3 to 6 and 9 are all configured by software in the microcomputer, and the hardware configuration including the CPU is common to each unit control device 2. Also, information necessary for group management, such as registration information for hall calls, allocation information, etc., is constantly transmitted on the network 7.
[0019]
Next, how information regarding the hall button 8 flows to the network 7 will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 2A shows landing button registration information (landing call information) generated when the landing button 8 is pressed at the landing, and is composed of information of 5 bytes in total. The 1st byte is transmission destination data, and identification data of the group management control device 1 is set. The second byte is transmission source data, for example, identification data corresponding to the hall station 9 is set. The third byte is attribute data, in which data for identifying among a plurality of hall button sequences grouped is set. The 4th byte is floor data, and the floor where the hall button 8 is installed is set by numerical data. The 5th byte is direction data, and numerical data for identifying UP (up) / DN (down) is set.
[0020]
On the other hand, the hall button lamp information for turning on the hall button lamp from the group management control device 1 is shown in FIG. This information is composed of 5 bytes as in (a). The first byte is transmission destination data, for example, identification data corresponding to the hall station 9 of the lighting hall is set. The second byte is transmission source data, and identification data of the group management control device 1 is set. The third byte is attribute data, in which data for identifying from a plurality of hall button sequences is set. The 4th byte is floor data, and the floor where the hall button 8 is installed is set by numerical data. The 5th byte is direction data, and numerical data for identifying UP / DN is set. These pieces of information are communicated between the hall button 8 and the communication means 4 via the hall station 9.
[0021]
Next, the operation of the elevator group management system according to the present invention will be described. Here, the operation when the group management control device 1 is down will be described, and operations such as normal group management control operation will be omitted.
[0022]
A procedure when the group management control device 1 is down will be described with reference to FIG. First, in step ST30, the communication abnormality detection means 6 of each unit checks the communication state with the group management control device 1. This can be detected by a general method such as abnormal health check. If an abnormality in communication with the group management control device 1 is detected in step ST31, each unit control means 3 determines in step ST32 whether or not the own unit is a landing button connection unit, and if it is a landing button connection unit, step ST33. To transmit the landing button information to the adjacent car. This can be performed by changing the destination data (1 byte) of the information shown in FIG. 2A from the group management control device 1 to an adjacent machine. And if it is a hall button non-connection machine, hall button information is received from an adjacent hall button connection machine in Step ST34. By such a procedure, when the group management control device 1 goes down, it becomes possible to share the landing button information between adjacent cars, and based on this, the operation based on the local management control described below by the simple backup means Is done.
[0023]
Next, a procedure for performing 2 CAR operation, which is an example of local management control, will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. Here, the basic procedure of local management control in which a landing button is registered and one elevator is assigned will be described for two elevators, # 1 and # 2.
[0024]
First, a new hall call is generated in step ST40. Next, in step ST41, it is determined whether both # 1 and # 2 are empty cars. If both cars are empty cages, it is determined in step ST42 whether # 1 is closer. If they are close or the same distance, # 1 responds in step ST47. If not, # 1 is returned in step ST48. Unit 2 responds. If both # 1 and # 2 are not empty cars in step ST41, it is determined in step ST41a whether either # 1 or # 2 is an empty car, and the empty car is made to respond.
[0025]
If it is found in step ST41a that # 1 and # 2 are not empty cars, then in step ST43, the new call is a forward call as viewed from # 1, and is not a forward call as viewed from # 2, If the new call is a back call as viewed from # 2 in step ST44 and is not a back call as viewed from # 1, it is assigned to # 1 in step ST47. The forward call here is a landing call registered on any floor in the direction of travel from the current position of the car, and the back call is any floor in the direction opposite to the travel direction from the current position of the car. It is a hall call registered on the floor.
[0026]
Next, in step ST45, the new call is a forward call when viewed from # 2, and is not a forward call as viewed from # 1, or, in step ST46, the new call is a back call as viewed from # 1, # 2 If it is not the back call from the point of view of the unit, it is assigned to # 2 in step ST48. If neither of the above conditions is satisfied, both # 1 and # 2 respond in step ST49.
[0027]
This procedure causes the empty car to respond preferentially, and if there is no empty car, the new hall call is a forward call and the other party is the reverse rather than the back call; otherwise, This is a very simple call assignment backup procedure in which both units are made to respond, and can be realized without preparing a special CPU or memory space for each unit control device.
[0028]
Embodiment 2. FIG.
A procedure for performing cooperative distributed operation, which is another example of local management control in the present invention, will be described below. The movement of the elevator will be described with reference to FIG. In FIG. 5, a building with 3 units and 10 stops is assumed. Now, # 1 is in a non-directional door-closing standby at 5F, # 2 is traveling 2F in the UP direction, and # 3 is traveling 9F in the DOWN direction. At this time, each floor is scanned in the direction that each unit has, and a car to be serviced in any direction on any floor is determined.
[0029]
In this example, if a call is generated at an arbitrary floor at this moment, # 2 responds to a call that occurs in the UP direction from 2F to 4F, and # 1 receives an UP direction from 5F to 9F and a DOWN of 10F. In response to a call originating in the direction, # 3 responds to calls originating in the DOWN direction from 9F to 2F and the UP direction of 1F.
[0030]
Thus, each unit can individually set the floor to which its own unit responds in consideration of the positional relationship and direction with other units, and can cover calls generated on all floors. That is, when the three arrows in FIG. 5 are combined, it can be seen that all of the UP direction and the DOWN direction generated on all floors are covered because one round trip is made from 1F to 10F. Further, since it is necessary to communicate the hall button information to all the cars, the identification code of the transmission destination is set to “all cars” in the content of step ST33 of the flowchart described in FIG.
[0031]
Next, a procedure for performing cooperative distributed operation, which is an example of local management control according to this embodiment, will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. The means to be configured is the same as the means described in FIG.
[0032]
First, in step ST61, the car argument N is initialized. In step ST62, the information on the floor of the car N is set to L, and the direction of the car N is set to the scan direction. Next, in step ST63, it is determined whether the scan direction is UP (rising). Similarly, in step ST64, it is determined whether the scan direction is DN (descending). Alternatively, it is determined whether or not there is a non-directional car. If yes, it is determined in step ST76 whether all the cars have been checked. If not checked, N is updated in step ST77, and thereafter, steps ST62 and after are repeated.
[0033]
On the other hand, if the scan direction is non-directional in steps ST63 and ST64, the scan direction is set to the UP direction in step ST66, and it is determined in step ST67 whether the call on the L floor has already been assigned to another car. If not, a call in the L floor and scan direction is assigned to the car N in step ST68.
[0034]
Next, in step ST69, it is determined whether the scan direction is the UP direction. If it is UP, it is determined in step ST71 whether the L floor is the top floor, and if it is not the top floor, L is updated in the UP direction in step ST74. If it is the highest floor, the scanning direction is reversed to the DN direction in step ST75. If the scan direction is DN, it is determined in step ST70 whether the L floor is the lowest floor, and if it is not the lowest floor, the L floor is updated in the DN direction in step ST73. If it is the lowest floor, the scanning direction is reversed to the UP direction in step ST72.
[0035]
In this way, it is possible to set the floor and direction to be responded to for each car, that is, for each car controller, by a simple procedure while taking into account the position and direction of other cars.
[0036]
In the above description, as shown in FIG. 1, the group management control device and each unit control device are connected to a single network. However, the present invention is similarly realized even if the network is a ring shape. it can.
[0037]
【The invention's effect】
As described above, according to the present invention, a group of elevators configured by connecting a group management control device for managing a plurality of elevators as a group and a plurality of unit control devices managed by the group to the network. In the management system, when each unit control device that individually manages and controls the corresponding elevator based on the control of the group management control device detects an abnormality in communication with the group management control device, it is based on the hall call information. Simple backup means that performs operation based on local management control in cooperation with each unit control device, so backup operation based on local management control that can be realized with a simple configuration even when the group management control device goes down Can be realized.
[0038]
In addition, each unit control device individually controls and controls each elevator, communication unit that communicates information including elevator and network and landing call information, and communication error between the group management control device When the communication abnormality detecting means detects a communication abnormality and the communication abnormality detecting means detects a communication abnormality, the adjacent call control information is shared between adjacent unit control devices on the basis of the landing call information, and a simple 2 CAR operation is performed. Therefore, it is not necessary to provide each unit controller with extra software and hardware resources for group management as in the prior art, and the cost can be reduced.
[0039]
Also, in 2CAR operation, the empty car is preferentially responded, and when there is no empty car, the new hall call is a forward call and the other party is the reverse, not the back call, Since both units are made to respond, it is a very simple call assignment backup procedure and can be realized without preparing a special CPU or memory space for each unit control device.
[0040]
In addition, each unit control device individually manages and controls each elevator, each unit control unit communicates with the elevator and the network and information including landing call information, and communication with the group management control unit Communication abnormality detection means for detecting an abnormality, and when the communication abnormality detection means detects a communication abnormality, each unit controller considers the position and direction with other units based on the hall call information And a simple backup means that performs coordinated distributed operation that individually sets the area of the hall call that responds to each other, so each unit control device has extra software and hardware for group management as in the past There is no need to provide resources, and costs can be reduced.
[0041]
In addition, in order to cover all the hall calls in the upward and downward directions that occur on all floors in coordinated distributed operation, the area of the hall call to which each machine controller responds, the position with other machines, Since it is set individually in consideration of the direction, it is a very simple call assignment backup procedure, and can be realized without preparing a special CPU or memory space in each unit control device.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a configuration of an elevator group management system according to an embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a diagram showing hall button registration information and hall button lamp information according to the present invention.
FIG. 3 is a flowchart for explaining a procedure when a communication abnormality is detected in the group management control device according to the present invention.
FIG. 4 is a flowchart for explaining the procedure of 2CAR operation performed by the simple backup means of the present invention.
FIG. 5 is a diagram for explaining cooperative distributed operation in the present invention.
FIG. 6 is a flowchart for explaining the procedure of cooperative distributed operation performed by the simple backup means of the present invention.
FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram showing the configuration of a system for performing conventional group management control.
FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram showing the configuration of a conventional system for performing group management control.
[Explanation of symbols]
1 group management control device, 2 each unit control device, 3 each unit control means, 4 communication means, 5 simple backup means, 6 communication abnormality detection means, 7 network, 8 hall button, 9 hall station.

Claims (6)

A group management control device for managing a plurality of elevators as a group and a plurality of unit control devices managed by the network are connected to a network, and a specific unit control unit among the plurality of unit control units is connected to a network. In the elevator group management system to which the landing buttons are connected ,
Each unit control device above
Based on the control of the group management control device, each elevator is individually managed and controlled , and in the case of each unit control device to which the landing button is connected, the landing control information obtained from the landing button is transmitted from the communication means. Means,
The communication means for communicating information including elevator and the network with hall call information;
A communication abnormality detecting means for detecting a communication abnormality with the group management control device;
When an abnormality is detected in communication with the group management control device, simple backup means for performing operation based on local management control in cooperation with each predetermined unit control device based on hall call information ,
An elevator group management system characterized by comprising: The landing button is provided at a rate of one of the two adjacent units of each unit control device,
When the communication abnormality detecting means detects a communication abnormality, each unit control means of each unit control device to which the hall button is connected is connected to the communication means, and each adjacent unit control to which the hall button is not connected is controlled. Let the device send the hall call information obtained from the hall button,
When the simple backup means of each unit control device detects the communication abnormality by the communication abnormality detection unit, the unit control device to which the landing button is connected and the landing button adjacent to the unit control device are connected. 2. The elevator group management system according to claim 1, wherein hall control information is shared by each of the unit control devices that are not connected to perform 2 CAR operation.   The above-mentioned 2 CAR operation makes the empty car respond preferentially, and when there is no empty car, the new hall call is a forward call and the other party is the reverse, not the back call, The elevator group management system according to claim 2, characterized in that both units respond. When the simple backup means of each unit control device detects the communication abnormality by the communication abnormality detection unit, each unit control device considers the position and direction with other units based on the landing call information. The elevator group management system according to claim 1, wherein cooperative distributed operation for individually setting a hall call area to which the own machine responds is performed .   In order for the above coordinated distributed operation to cover all the hall calls in the upward and downward directions that occur on all floors, the area of the hall call to which each unit controller responds is the position and direction with other units. The elevator group management system according to claim 4, wherein the system is set individually in consideration of the above. When the simple backup means of each unit control device above sets the scan direction for the current unit in the current traveling direction, or in the upward direction if it is currently stopped, and the current stop floor call is not assigned After assigning a call in the scanning direction of the stop floor to the own machine, the scanning direction is reversed in the scanning direction on the top floor and the bottom floor, and scanning is performed on each floor, and the vehicle is traveling in the same direction as the scanning direction or not. 6. The elevator group management system according to claim 5, wherein a call in a scanning direction up to a floor in front of a floor where another unit whose direction is stopped is allocated to the own unit.

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