Indicator system and method for elevators

Abstract: A disembarkation indicator system and method for an elevator operates such that, when a hall button (4) for calling an elevator car to a particular floor is on the same floor as the floor which has been selected as a destination floor by a passenger within the elevator car, a disembarkation indicator (7) on the floor at which the hall button has been pressed is turned on for informing passengers waiting to board the elevator car that other passengers will be disembarking. Thus the flow of passenger traffic in and out of the elevator car may be smoothed and passenger convenience enhanced.

Description: The present invention relates generally to an indicator system for an elevator. In conventional elevator systems commonly installed in office buildings, apartments, etc., each floor of the building is provided with a hall button for calling the elevator car to a floor on which the hall button has been pressed. When the elevator car arrives at the designated floor, the elevator car stops and the doors thereof open for taking on passengers. However, in a building there are various floors at which boarded passengers may wish to disembark the elevator car while other passengers may wish to board at the same floor. Thus it may occur that boarding passengers may attempt to get into the elevator car before disembarking passengers have gotten out. This presents inconvenience and possible injury to elevator users and impedes smooth flow of elevator service. US-A-2730693 discloses a system which illuminates a warning light at a floor when an elevator car reaches that floor in order to warn people at that floor that people are to leave the car at that floor. The light is extinguished when the elevator moves off from the floor. The present invention provides an alternative disembarkation indicator system. The invention provides a disembarkation indicator system for an elevator comprising: a plurality of hall buttons, one hall button respectively provided on each floor serviced by an elevator car, depression of a hall button indicating that a user wishes to board the elevator car at the floor at which the depressed hall button is located; a plurality of destination floor buttons provided inside the elevator car, each of the destination buttons respectively indicative of one of the floors serviced by the elevator car, depression of a destination floor buttons indicating that a user wishes to disembark the car at the floor corresponding to the depressed destination button; and a plurality of disembarkation indicators, one disembarkation indicator being provided on each floor serviced by the elevator car, each indicator being activated to indicate the disembarkation of a user from the elevator car at that indicator's floor; the disembarkation system being characterized in that it further comprises: a plurality of sensors, one sensor being provided on each of the floors serviced by the elevator car, each of the sensors outputting an arrival signal indicative of its corresponding floor upon opening of elevator doors at the floor; and an electronic control unit which receives call signals from the depressed hall buttons indicative of their respective floors, destination signals from the depressed destination floor buttons indicative of their respective floors, and the arrival signals, the control unit being operable to stop the elevator car at each floor from which a call signal has been received and at each floor selected by depression of one of the destination buttons, and being further operable to compare the call and destination signals, and, when a floor for which a destination signal has been received corresponds to a floor from which a call signal has been received, to output an ON signal to activate the disembarkation indicator provided on that floor, and, when an arrival signal is received from that floor, to output an OFF signal to deactivate the disembarkation indicator provided on that floor. The present invention provides a disembarkation indicator system for signalling waiting passengers that other passengers will disembark at the floor on which they are waiting, when hall and destination call signals correspond, and cancels the signal on receiving a signal that the elevator doors are opening at the relevant floor, and so promotes smooth boarding and disembarkation of the elevator car. An embodiment of the present invention will now be described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:- Fig. 1 is a block diagram showing the components of a disembarkation indicator system for an elevator according to an embodiment of the present invention; Fig. 2 is a front view of a hall button panel and a door for boarding and/or disembarking an elevator car; and Fig. 3 is a flowchart of a program executed for controlling the disembarkation indicator system according to the method of the present invention. Referring to Fig. 2, it may be seen that the elevator disembarkation indicator system according to the present embodiment comprises a door 1, provided respectively at each floor serviced by the elevator for boarding and disembarking an elevator car (not shown). To the left of the door 1 in the drawing an arrival indicator panel 2 is provided. The arrival indicator panel 2 includes numerical indicators 3 for each floor to indicate the present position of the elevator car (not shown). The numerical indicators may be backlit by a pilot light for example in a per se known fashion. Like the door 1, the arrival indicator panel 2 may be provided on each floor serviced by the elevator. Below the arrival indicator panel a hall button 4 is provided. The hall button 4 comprises an UP button 4a and a DOWN button 4b for allowing a passenger wishing to board the elevator car to indicate whether his/her destination floor is higher or lower than the present floor and to stop the elevator car when it is traveling in the appropriate direction. Referring to Fig. 1, when the UP button 4a or the down button 4b of the hall button 4 is pushed, a CALL signal representative of a floor on which the hall button is located is output to the control unit 5 of the elevator disembarkation indicator system. Like the door 1 and the arrival indicator panel 2, the hall button 4 may be provided on each floor serviced by the elevator. Within the elevator car (not shown) a plurality of destination floor buttons 6 are provided. When one of the floor buttons 6 is depressed, a DEST (destination) signal indicative of the selected floor is output to the control unit 5 and the control unit 5 is then active to operate the elevator car to go to the selected destination floor. Referring again to Fig. 2, according to the present embodiment, a 'PASSENGERS DISEMBARKING' indicator light 7 (hereinbelow: disembarkation indicator 7) is provided between the arrival indicator panel 2 and the hall button 4. The disembarkation indicator 7 may be comprised of a transparent, or translucent, panel 7a backed by a pilot light, which may be a light emitting diode (LED) such as a semiconductor chip or the like mounted in a metallic lead frame encased in synthetic resin, for example. When a DEST signal is received at the control unit 5 which corresponds to a floor for which a CALL signal has been received, the control unit is active to switch the disembarkation indicator 7 ON at the appropriate floor. Further, the system of the invention includes a door zone sensor 8 provided at each floor serviced by the elevator for determining when the elevator car has reached a selected destination floor. That is to say, when the elevator car stops at a floor which has been designated by a passenger pushing one of the destination floor buttons 6, the door zone sensor is active to output an ARRV (arrival) signal to the control unit 5 when the elevator car stops at that floor. When the ARRV signal received by the control unit 5 corresponds to a floor for which a CALL and DEST have been received, that is, when the ARRV signal is received from the floor on which the disembarkation indicator has been turned ON, the control unit 5 is active to switch the disembarkation indicator 7 OFF. It will be noted that the above arrangement may be suitably utilized in elevator systems having more than one elevator car. According to this, whereas, at each floor, a single call button 4 is applicable to call one of a plurality of elevator cars, separate disembarkation indicators 7 are respectively provided for each of the elevator cars in the system, at cach floor. Accordingly, a plurality of doors 1 and a plurality of door zone sensors 8 must also be provided at each floor. In other respects, the system is operable identically to the above described arrangement. Hereinbelow, a simplified explanation of a program executed by the control unit 5 for operating the elevator disembarkation indicator system according to the method of the invention will be described with reference to the flowchart of Fig. 3. First, at a step S1, when a passenger presses the hall button 4, the CALL signal is output to the control unit 5. Then, at a step S2, it is determined if a destination button 6 in the elevator car has been pushed for the same floor from which the CALL signal was received in step S1. If the answer is NO at step S2 the routine goes to end, however, if the answer is YES at step S2, the routine proceeds to step S3. At step S3, the disembarkation indicator 7 of the floor on which the hall button was pressed is turned ON by the control unit 5. At a step S4 it is determined whether the elevator car has arrived at the designated floor for which the hall button 4 and the destination button 6 in the elevator car (not shown) have been pressed. That is, the control unit 5 receives the ARRV signal from the door zone sensor 8 at the designated floor. If the answer is NO at step S4, this step is repeated until a YES determination is made and the routine proceeds to a step S5. At step S5, after arrival of the elevator car at the designated floor, the disembarkation indicator 7 is turned OFF by the control unit 5 and the routine proceeds to END. Variations on the above embodiments are possible. For example, the present invention may be suitably implemented with or without the arrival indicator panel 2. Further, though the above embodiment teaches a single elevator car, the system and method of the invention may be utilized for elevator systems in which a plurality of elevator cars are provided. Also, the system and method of the invention are effective even when a plurality of destination floors have been designated by waiting passengers pressing hall buttons on more than one floor and a plurality of destination floors have been selected for disembarkation by passengers on the elevator car. Thus, according to the present invention, passengers waiting to board an elevator car are informed in advance that other passengers are waiting to disembark at the same floor. According to this arrangement, smooth boarding and disembarking of the elevator car may be effected and smoother flow of elevator traffic resulting in an improved level of elevator service may be reliably obtained. Further, such improvements may be implemented with relatively simple components at low cost to the operator and/or elevator manufacturer.

Claims: A disembarkation indicator system for an elevator comprising: a plurality of hall buttons (4), one hall button (4) respectively provided on each floor serviced by an elevator car, depression of a said hall button (4) indicating that a user wishes to board the elevator car at the floor at which the depressed hall button (4) is located; a plurality of destination floor buttons provided inside said elevator car, each of said destination buttons respectively indicative of one of said floors serviced by said elevator car, depression of a said destination floor button indicating that a user wishes to disembark the car at the floor corresponding to the depressed destination button; and a plurality of disembarkation indicators (7), one disembarkation indicator (7) being provided on each floor serviced by said elevator car, each indicator (7) being activated to indicate the disembarkation of a user from the elevator car at that indicator's floor; the disembarkation system being characterized in that it further comprises: a plurality of sensors (8), one sensor (8) being provided on each of said floors serviced by said elevator car, each of said sensors (8) outputting an arrival signal indicative of its corresponding floor upon opening of elevator doors (1) at said floor; and an electronic control unit (5) which receives call signals from said depressed hall buttons (4) indicative of their respective floors, destination signals from said depressed destination floor buttons indicative of their respective floors, and said arrival signals, said control unit (5) being operable to stop said elevator car at each floor from which a call signal has been received and at each floor selected by depression of one of said destination buttons, and being further operable to compare said call and destination signals, and, when a floor for which a destination signal has been received corresponds to a floor from which a call signal has been received, to output an ON signal to activate the disembarkation indicator (7) provided on that said floor, and, when an arrival signal is received from that said floor, to output an OFF signal to deactivate said disembarkation indicator (7) provided on that said floor. The disembarkation indicator system of claim 1, wherein said disembarkation indicators (7) are provided proximate said hall buttons (4) at said respective floors. The disembarkation indicator system of claim 1 or 2, further including a plurality of arrival indicators (3) provided on each of said floors for displaying a current location of said elevator car. The disembarkation indicator system of claim 1, 2 or 3, wherein each of said hall buttons (4) comprises a first button (4a) for calling said elevator car while said elevator car moves in the up direction and a second button (4b) for calling said elevator car while said elevator car moves in the down direction. The disembarkation indicator system of any preceding claim, wherein each of said hall buttons (4) is applicable to call one of a plurality of elevator cars, a separate disembarkation indicator (7) being respectively provided for each of said elevator cars on each floor.

Inventors: HATTORI KAZUHIRO, HONGO MASAHARU, HATTORI, KAZUHIRO, HONGO, MASAHARU
Applicants: OTIS ELEVATOR CO, OTIS ELEVATOR COMPANY
Application year: 1993
Main classification: B66B3
IPC codes: B66B1, B66B3