Patent ID: 8276715

Claim:
A method for assigning a new hall call to one of a plurality of elevator cars in an elevator system comprising the steps of: (a) receiving a hall call signal, the hall call signal originating at an elevator landing; (b) calculating a call cost for each of a plurality of elevator cars in response to receiving the hall call signal, wherein the step of calculating the call cost comprises (i) assigning a value to a handling capacity coefficient (HCx) representing a value associated with the handling capacity of the elevator cars under a current traffic condition of the elevator system, (ii) calculating estimated wait time (EWT) for each of the plurality of elevator cars, (iii) calculating estimated travel time (ETT) for each of the plurality of elevator car, (iv) varying the emphasis of at least one of estimated wait time (EWT) and estimated travel time (ETT) by multiplying the handling capacity coefficient (HCx) with at least one of estimated wait time (EWT) and estimated travel time (ETT), and (v) generating the call cost for each of the plurality of elevator cars, wherein the call cost is calculated from the HCx, EWT, and ETT; and (c) assigning to the hall call the elevator car of the plurality of elevator cars having the lowest call cost.