Patent Document ID: 4846311
Application ID: 07209745
Patent Flag: 1

Claim One:
1. An elevator system, including a plurality of cars for transporting passengers from a main floor to a plurality of contiguous floors spaced from the main floor; car call means for entering car calls for each car; indicating means at the main floor for indicating the intended floor stops for each car; car motion control means for moving each car; traffic volume measuring means for measuring data related to the traffic volume on a per floor basis upon which varying estimated traffic volumes are made; memory means for recording values based at least in part on data measured by said traffic volume measuring means; and a controller, with which said traffic volume measuring means and said memory means are associated, for providing signals that control the operation of the motion control and the indicating means in response to the car calls, characterized in that said controller comprises: signal processing means for providing signals for determining when the system is in an up-peak condition and, when such up-peak condition exists, for providing further signals for dividing the floors in the building into a plurality of sectors, no greater in number than the plurality of cars, each sector comprising at least one floor, with multiple floors being contiguous floors, with the sectors being contiguous with each other, with the floors being assigned to the sectors to at least nearly equalize the estimated total traffic volumes among the sectors during a cycle of a first cyclical assignment sequence that assigns a floor to a sector during one cycle based on estimated values based at least in part on the traffic volume related data measured by said traffic volume measuring means measured during the last relatively short period of time of the order of no more than some minutes; for assigning a sector to a car during a cycle of a further cyclical assignment sequence that assigns each sector to a car during one cycle; for allowing a car to which a sector has been assigned to move away from the main floor in response to car calls only if the car calls are to floors in the sector assigned to the car; and for indicating on the indicating means the floors in a sector assigned to that car.