Patent Description:
During a lockdown event, for example within a University building, passengers such as students and faculty who are in an elevator may be unaware of active conditions. An elevator with such passengers may stop at a locked-down floor as elevators may be unequipped to inform passengers about of safe floors, zones, save evacuation paths or the like. In addition, outdoor residents at a University may be unaware of a lockdown event occurring at a University, and may be unaware that they should avoid the University during this time. <CIT> describes an elevator system having a lockdown mode in which a range of operational parameters are adjusted in response to a lockdown signal. <CIT> describes a system and method for emergency evacuation of a building using an elevator system.

Disclosed is an elevator system according to claim <NUM>.

In some embodiments, the controller is configured to render a fifth determination for a first mobile device associated with the first passenger to communicate an alert to the first passenger, wherein the alert is indicative of the lockdown event occurring on the second floor and that the third floor includes access to a safety zone, and execute a second communication to the first mobile device to effect the fifth determination.

In some embodiments, the second communication includes instructing the mobile device to communicate directions for reaching the safety zone to the first passenger.

In some embodiments, the first communication includes the controller instructing the elevator car to effect audible and/or visual alerts with on-board audible and/or visual implements, wherein the audible and/or visual alerts are indicative of the occurrence of the lockdown event occurring on the second floor and that the third floor includes access to the safety zone, and execute a third communication to the elevator car to effect the sixth determination.

In some embodiments, prior to rendering the second determination the controller receives a communication from a third device, wherein the communication is indicative of the lockdown event occurring on the second floor, and the third device is one or more of a building management system (BMS), a front desk system (FDS) and a second mobile device associated with a second passenger or person, the second mobile device being communicatively connected to the elevator car and at least one of the BMS and the FDS to forward information indicative of the lockdown event occurring on the second floor.

In some embodiments, the system controller communicates with a controller for the elevator car over a first network, and the system controller communicates with the first mobile device over a second network, and the system controller communicates with the third device over a third network.

In some embodiments, the first network is a control area network, the second network is a personal area network (PAN), and the third network is a local area network or wide area network.

In some embodiments, the system includes one or more beacons for communicating over the PAN.

Further disclosed is a university including a BMS and an FDS and a system that includes one or more of the above disclosed features and elements.

The counterweight <NUM> is configured to balance a load of the elevator car <NUM> and is configured to facilitate movement of the elevator car <NUM> concurrently and in an opposite direction with respect to the counterweight <NUM> within an elevator hoistway <NUM> and along the guide rail <NUM>.

The controller <NUM> is located, as shown, in a controller room <NUM> of the elevator hoistway <NUM> and is configured to control the operation of the elevator system <NUM>, and particularly the elevator car <NUM>. When moving up or down within the elevator hoistway <NUM> along guide rail <NUM>, the elevator car <NUM> may stop at one or more landings <NUM> as controlled by the controller <NUM>.

Although shown and described with a roping system including tension member <NUM>, elevator systems that employ other methods and mechanisms of moving an elevator car within an elevator hoistway may employ embodiments of the present disclosure.

The following figures illustrate additional technical features associated with one or more disclosed embodiments. Features disclosed in the following figures having nomenclature similar to features disclosed in <FIG> may be similarly construed though being positively reintroduced with numerical identifiers that may differ from those in <FIG>. Further, process steps disclosed hereinafter may be sequentially numbered to facilitate discussion of one or more disclosed embodiments. Such numbering is not intended to identify a specific sequence of performing such steps or a specific requirement to perform such steps unless expressly indicated.

Turning to <FIG> and <FIG>, disclosed is an elevator system <NUM> that includes a system controller <NUM>. At step S100 the controller <NUM> is configured provide elevator service during a lockdown event. Step S100 includes the controller <NUM> executing step S110 of rendering a plurality of determinations. Step S110 includes step S120 of rendering a first determination that an elevator car <NUM> is transporting a first passenger <NUM> to a first floor <NUM>. A second determination S130 includes that a lockdown event is occurring at a second floor <NUM>. A third determination at step S140 for the elevator car <NUM> to transport the first passenger <NUM> to a third floor <NUM> to avoid travel proximate the second floor <NUM>. After rendering the plurality of determinations, at step S150 the controller <NUM> may execute one or more communications including step S155 of executing a first communication to an elevator car controller <NUM> for the elevator car <NUM> to effect the third determination. It is to be appreciated that the floor designations are not intended to be limiting. For example the scope of the disclosure includes the first floor being the same as (or different than) the second floor and/or third floor.

According to an embodiment, as illustrated in <FIG>, the third determination at step S140 includes step S160 of rendering a forth determination that the third floor <NUM> includes a safety zone <NUM>. The safety zone <NUM> may be an area in a common hallway or room, a stairwell, or the like. The safety zone <NUM> may be on a different floor that can be accessed through the third floor <NUM>. The safety zone <NUM> may also be a "sheltering-in-place" area, created or identified for people to occupy in the event of a Lockdown.

According to an embodiment, illustrated in <FIG>, step S110 includes step S170 of the controller <NUM> rendering a fifth determination for a first mobile device <NUM> associated with the first passenger <NUM> to communicate an alert to the first passenger <NUM>. The alert may be indicative of the lockdown event occurring on the second floor <NUM>, and that the third floor <NUM> includes access to a safety zone <NUM>. Step S <NUM> may include step S180 of the controller <NUM> executing a second communication to the first mobile device <NUM> to effect the fourth determination.

According to a further embodiment the second communication at step S180 includes instructing the first mobile device <NUM> to communicate to the first passenger <NUM> directions for reaching the safety zone <NUM>. According to an embodiment the first communication includes the controller <NUM> instructing the elevator car to effect audible and/or visual alerts with on-board audible and/or visual implements <NUM>. The audible and/or visual, for example via speakers and video panels, alerts may be indicative of the occurrence of the lockdown event occurring on the second floor <NUM> and that the third floor <NUM> includes access to the safety zone <NUM>.

According to an embodiment prior to rendering the second determination, the controller <NUM> receives a communication from a third device <NUM>, wherein the communication is indicative of the lockdown event occurring on the second floor <NUM>. The third device may be one or more of a building management system <NUM>, a front desk system <NUM> and a second mobile device <NUM> of a second person <NUM>. The second mobile device <NUM> in this configuration may be communicatively connected to the elevator car <NUM>, at least one of the building management systems <NUM> and the front desk system <NUM>. With this configuration, the second mobile device <NUM> may forward information to the controller <NUM> that includes information indicative of the lockdown event occurring on the second floor. For example, the second mobile device <NUM> may covey the lockdown information to the system controller <NUM> over a network <NUM> (identified below). That is, the front desk system <NUM> may communicate with the mobile device <NUM>, which may communicate with the system controller <NUM> over the network <NUM>.

According to an embodiment the system controller <NUM> may communicate with the controller <NUM> for the elevator car <NUM> over a first network <NUM>. The elevator car controller <NUM> may be locally located, remotely located, accessible over a cloud connection, and may be capable of communicating using wired protocols, wireless protocols, etc. The system controller <NUM> may communicate with the first mobile device <NUM> over a second network <NUM>. Such network <NUM> may be any type of telecommunications network, including a local network executing protocols such as Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, for example, and may include the Internet, cellular networks, satellite networks, etc..

Further, the system controller <NUM> may communicate with the third device <NUM> over a third network <NUM>. One or more beacons <NUM> may be provided for communicating over the PAN. The first network may be a control area network (CAN), the second network may be a personal area network (PAN), and the third network may be a local or wide area network (LAN or WAN). According to one application of the embodiments, the system <NUM> may be implemented in a building <NUM>, which may be within a University and the first mobile device <NUM> and second mobile device <NUM> may be student mobile phones.

Additionally, in one embodiment, a second determination by the controller may include determining that a lockdown event is occurring at a second floor. The controller may convey this information to a mobile device of an outdoor student or staff member (for example a professor), where the mobile device is executing a mobile application (App) registered by the outdoor student or staff member. An outdoor student or staff member may be a person walking around or arriving at a University. With the App, the mobile device may display a nearest safe zone along with a route map, for example using a text or voice message, utilizing a cellular network or a land based wireless network, such as Wi-Fi.

Disclosed above is an elevator group controller (EGC) is interconnected with a building management system (BMS). During a lockdown event (LE), the EGC may receive an LE alert status from a front desk system (FDS) directly and/or through a mobile device in possession of a building occupant. The EGC may convey the lockdown status to an elevator controller (EC) for an elevator car. The elevator car may be equipped with audio and video consoles and the EGC may instruct the EC to convey the LE information to one or more elevator occupants using both the audio and video consoles. The EGC may decide a safe destination floor based on a present location and a locked-down floor. The EGC may direct the EC to bring the elevator car to a safe floor/zone. The EGC may also communicate with a second mobile device associated with a passenger and inform the second mobile device about safe floors, zones, save evacuation paths or the like. In one embodiment the (FDS) is a University FDS, the building is a college campus building, and the first device and second device may be in possession of students, and the wireless protocols, including Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, zWave, Zigbee, cellular and the like.

In addition, the EGC may communicate with the elevator car over a controller area network (CAN) with a CAN Bus. In addition the EGC controller may communicate with the mobile devices over a personal area network (PAN) using over a network beacons applying, for example, Bluetooth. The EGC may communicate with the BMS over a local area network (LAN) over a LAN access point. The CAN bus, PAN and LAN are examples of suitable networks; it is understood that other network topologies may be used in the disclosed system.

As used herein an elevator controller and/or elevator group controller (EGC) may be a microprocessor based controller that controls many aspects of the elevator operation. A series of sensors, controllers, sequences of operation and real-time calculations or algorithms that balance passenger demand and car availability. Elevator sensors may provide data on car positions, car moving direction, loads, door status, hall calls, car calls, pending up hall and down hall calls, number of runs per car, alarms, etc. The controllers may also have a function enabling the testing the systems without shutdown of the elevator. From collected data, a management system consisting of a workstation and software applications that may create metrics for a group or particular car such as total number of door openings, number of runs per car or call, up and down hall calls, etc. Some performance indicators may be related to passenger wait times and/or elevator car travel times. These metrics may indicate inadequate controls, misconfiguration or even equipment malfunction. Elevator monitoring may be provided as Software as a Service (SaaS). The monitoring may identify malfunctions or abnormal operating parameters and automatically dispatch a technician and/or provide alerts to relevant persons such as building owners. Some systems may provide customer dashboards accessible via a web browser and/or provide owners with information such as performance summaries and maintenance histories. As indicated, the elevator controller may communicate with the one or more elevators over a Controller Area Network (CAN) bus. A CAN is a vehicle bus standard that allow microcontrollers and devices to communicate with each other in applications without a host computer. CAN is a message-based protocol released by the International Organization for Standards (ISO). Downstream communications from the elevator system controller may be over a LAN.

Further, a building management system (BMS), referenced above, may be otherwise known as a building automation system (BAS). The BMS is a computer-based control system installed in buildings that may have a need for controlling and monitoring mechanical and electrical equipment such as ventilation, lighting, power systems, fire systems, security systems, fire alarm systems and elevator systems. In addition to controlling an internal environment in a building, BMS systems may provide for access control (access doors) for implementing building security protocols, or to control other security systems such as closed-circuit television (CCTV) and motion detectors. A BMS may be responsible for controlling equipment that accounts for a majority of energy usage in a building. As indicated the elevator system controller may communicate with the BMS over a LAN.

A front desk system (FDS), as referenced herein, may be also referred to as a property management system, and is a technology solution that automates many of the administrative tasks the front desk staff is responsible for. The front desk system may store the guest information at a property. The system manages check-in and checkout details, such as provided with building identification cards, and provides for recording of special instructions for extenuating circumstances. The front desk system also records data, manages bookkeeping and provides for generating reports about a usage of a building.

As used herein, mobile devices may be "smart devices" and may contain one or more processors capable of communication using with other such devices by applying wired and/or wireless telecommunication protocols. Non-limiting examples of a smart device include a mobile phone, personal data assistant (PDA), tablet, watch, wearable or other processor-based devices. An application executed by such devices may be identified as an "App", and may be available from an App Store, which is a digital distribution platform for distributing computer software applications over the Internet. Apps contain program level protocols enabling structured and logical communications between devices. Communication protocols applied by smart devices may include cellular, local area network (LAN) protocols and/or a private area network (PAN) protocols. LANs that apply Transport Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP protocol), for example, through a default gateway, may be interconnected over the Internet, and such systems that share computing resources over the Internet may be considered as computing over a Cloud. Locally, LAN protocols may apply Wi-Fi technology for communicating over Wi-Fi access points. Wi-Fi technology is a technology based on the Section <NUM> standards from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, or IEEE. Technology applying PAN protocols may communicate over PAN beacons. PAN technology includes, for example, Bluetooth Low Energy (BTLE), which is a wireless technology standard designed and marketed by the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) for exchanging data over short distances using short-wavelength radio waves. PAN protocols may also include Zigbee, a technology based on Section <NUM>. <NUM> protocols from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). More specifically, Zigbee represents a suite of high-level communication protocols used to create personal area networks with small, low-power digital radios for low-power low-bandwidth needs, and is best suited for small scale projects using wireless connections. Wireless protocols may further include short range communication (SRC) protocols, which may be utilized with radio-frequency identification (RFID) technology. RFID may be used for communicating with an integrated chip (IC) on an RFID smartcard. Wireless protocols may further include long range, low powered wide area network (LoRa and LPWAN) protocols that enable low data rate communications to be made over long distances by sensors and actuators for machine-to-machine (M2M) and Internet of Things (IoT) applications.

The above embodiments may be in the form of processor-implemented processes and devices for practicing those processes, such as a processor.

Claim 1:
An elevator system (<NUM>) comprising a system controller (<NUM>), wherein the system controller (<NUM>) is configured to:
render a plurality of determinations for effecting elevator service during a lockdown condition, including
a first determination that an elevator car (<NUM>) is transporting a first passenger (<NUM>) to a first floor (<NUM>),
a second determination that a lockdown event is occurring at a second floor (<NUM>),
a third determination for the elevator car (<NUM>) to transport the first passenger (<NUM>) to a third floor (<NUM>) to avoid travel proximate the second floor (<NUM>), and
execute one or more communications including:
a first communication to an elevator car controller for the elevator car (<NUM>) to effect the third determination; characterized in that:
the third determination includes the controller (<NUM>) rendering a fourth determination that the third floor (<NUM>) includes access to a safety zone (<NUM>).