ES2810573A1 - INTELLIGENT AND PREDICTIVE LIFT CONTROL SYSTEM (Machine-translation by Google Translate, not legally binding) - Google Patents

Abstract

The system of the invention comprises an individual management system (2), associated with the elevator controller (1), which can receive signals from the user (3) and store information about the use of the elevator (1) by the user (3) in a database that can be consulted before issuing orders to the elevator (1) to facilitate a subsequent prediction of the needs for the use of the elevator (1) by the user (3) and avoid both pressing buttons to call the elevator (1) and select the destination plant as unnecessary wait. The signals can be emitted by means of a mobile phone (4) carried by the user (3) or the presence of the user (3) and can be received directly in the individual management system (2) or by means of a device that can be a sensor radio frequency (6), a counting camera (7) or a facial recognition camera (8). (Machine-translation by Google Translate, not legally binding)

Description

DESCRIPTION

INTELLIGENT AND PREDICTIVE LIFT CONTROL SYSTEM

OBJECT OF THE INVENTION

The present invention refers to an elevator control system that does not require the user to press the call buttons, located on each floor, or the floor selection buttons, located inside the elevator.

The system detects the position of a user so that, through an analysis of historical data and Big Data with statistical formulas and artificial intelligence, it predicts whether a user is going to board an elevator on a certain floor and which floor they want to go to, so that it acts in a predictive way to send the elevator to the boarding floor, open the doors so that the user can enter the elevator, without pressing the call button, take it to the desired floor and open the doors on that floor, without the user having to press the plant selection button.

TECHNICAL PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED AND BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Although there are historical references to the use of elevators from the time of the Roman Empire, when Emperor Titus, in 80 AD, had an elevator built in the Colosseum to be used by gladiators and beasts, so that they could be transported from the basements to the sand, the elevators as we know them today began to become popular in the nineteenth century with the emergence of taller and taller buildings in the most important cities.

Since then, elevators have technologically improved both in terms of performance and occupant safety, although the way in which they are used has practically not changed in the last century, so that the user presses the call button, outside the elevator, in the floor on which he is waiting for the elevator and, once inside the elevator, the user presses the number of the floor on which he wishes to disembark. When the elevator reaches that floor, the user disembarks.

There are exceptions to the standard mode of use such as groups of elevators in which the user selects from the boarding floor the floor to which he wishes disembark and the system assigns the elevator that best optimizes the established parameters such as arrival and disembarkation time or energy consumption, so that when the user enters the elevator they no longer need to press the floor selection button, since it selected on the selection screen located in the boarding area next to the elevator.

Actually, except for this variant indicated, the standard mode of use has remained practically unchanged for a century because it is easy to use and does not represent an excessive inconvenience for users.

However, the present invention proposes improvements that current technology allows, such as:

- Mejorar la salud de las personas mediante la eliminación del contacto físico con los botones de llamada de ascensor y de selección de planta de desembarque, ya que al ser estos botones superficies de alto contacto, tienen una alta probabilidad de contener microorganismos patógenos o sustancias nocivas cuyo contacto con las mismas puede ser potencialmente perjudicial para las personas que pulsan esos botones. Esta prestación puede ser de gran importancia debido a la previsible aparición en el futuro próximo de superbacterias y otros organismos patógenos de posible contagio en superficies de contacto y de graves consecuencias para la salud.1.

- Improve people's health by eliminating physical contact with the elevator call buttons and the landing floor selection buttons, since these buttons are high-contact surfaces and have a high probability of containing pathogenic microorganisms or harmful substances whose contact with them can be potentially harmful to the people who press those buttons. This feature can be of great importance due to the foreseeable appearance in the near future of superbugs and other pathogenic organisms with possible contagion on contact surfaces and with serious consequences for health.

- Facilitar el uso de ascensores a las personas con dificultades de movilidad como personas mayores o personas con algún tipo de minusvalía o discapacidad, para las que pulsar el botón de llamada o el botón de selección de planta puede ser una tarea complicada o incómoda.two.

- Facilitate the use of lifts for people with mobility difficulties such as elderly people or people with some kind of handicap or disability, for whom pressing the call button or the floor selection button can be a complicated or uncomfortable task.

3. -Optimize the waiting time of the elevator and the time of arrival at the desired floor, since thanks to the predictive system, the elevator can be waiting for us when we arrive at the boarding gate and when we know which floor we want to reach, the system You can send us the elevator that best optimizes the route to that floor.

- Comodidad y mejora de la experiencia del usuario al no necesitar pulsar los botones de llamada y de selección de planta cada vez que utiliza el ascensor. Four.

- Convenience and improvement of the user experience by not needing to press the call and floor selection buttons every time you use the elevator.

5.- Energy saving, since if the elevator knows in advance the moment when it will have demand for use, the floors it must go to, and the number of people expected to enter and leave each floor of the elevator, the elevator will be able to optimize its operation taking into account energy consumption.

DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

In order to achieve the objectives and avoid the aforementioned drawbacks, the present invention describes an intelligent and predictive management system for elevators that by means of one or more of the indicated methods for determining the location of the user, of the intention to board in an elevator and from the desired landing floor, you can know in advance which floor and at what time the user should board and which floor they should go to disembark.

In order for this system to function efficiently and to continuously improve with use, the system foresees the use of historical data of hours, positions and uses of the elevator by users that, as Big Data, can be used by the system through statistical formulas and artificial intelligence, thus being able to establish patterns of behavior.

The elevators, at least in a first phase, will be able to maintain their call buttons on each of the floors and their floor selection buttons within the elevator, which will serve not only to give orders to the elevator, but also to improve predictive behavior of the same.

The elevators also, as an alternative method, may have microphones in each boarding area near the elevator and inside the elevator, so that a user can call the elevator from the boarding area using a selected word or phrase, such as " elevator ”, and you can select from within the elevator the floor on which you want to disembark, using a selected word or phrase, such as“ floor 7 ”to disembark on floor 7. This concept is focused very especially on the use of lifts for people with little mobility, not already disabled, but even elderly people.

Users may also have an application, or app, built into their mobile phone that can interact with the system, for example by sending the user's location to the system.

The app can also be used by the user to manually make calls to the elevator and select the destination floors of the elevator, especially in cases where the system for some reason cannot foresee that the user is going to board the elevator. elevator on a certain floor or cannot foresee on which floor the user will disembark. An example may be the use of an elevator for the first time or the desire to board or disembark on an unusual floor.

The app can also provide the user with different information, such as:

- Concrete elevator that will pick up the user when there is more than one elevator inside a building.

- Acoustic and visual signal that the system foresees which elevator the user will take and which floor they will go to.

- Acoustic and visual signal that the system has called the elevator.

- Time remaining for the elevator to reach the floor where the user will board.

- Acoustic and visual signal that the elevator has reached the desired floor.

At any time, the user may deactivate the application or change its use parameters.

The mobile phone application can be used not only for one elevator, but for multiple elevators located in a multitude of buildings.

The app can also be used by the user to configure their privacy, add or delete planned uses of elevators and to configure the acoustic, light or vibratory signals that they wish to receive.

The detection of the user's position or the information on the possible use of an elevator by the user can be done with one or more of the following solutions:

a) Sending the user's position from the user's phone to the elevator management system.

b) Identification and detection of the user's position by means of mobile phone radio frequency sensors.

c) Detection of the position of users by people counting cameras.

d) Identification and detection of the position of users by means of facial identification cameras of users.

Each of these modalities will be detailed below.

Envío de la posición del usuario desde el teléfono del usuario al sistema de gestión del ascensor.to)

Sending the user's position from the user's phone to the elevator management system.

In this case, the user's position is determined by the mobile phone itself through a positioning system, such as GPS or similar, outside the building and mainly through different Wi-Fi or other signals inside the building where the device is located. elevator, so that the mobile phone allows knowing its location inside and outside the building and transmitting it to the elevator management system.

Current mobile phones have multiple ways of knowing their location, the most accurate being the GPS outside of buildings. Inside buildings a precise geolocation can be carried out by detecting Wi-Fi access points or Wi-Fi beacons precisely geolocated, by means of the geolocation of different points inside a building, to which different signal strengths of the signals are assigned. nearby Wi-Fi networks or through other technologies currently under development for geopositioning both indoors and outdoors.

Other less precise positioning modes in mobile phones can be achieved by exchanging data with mobile phone antennas, usually geolocated, or by detecting nearby Wi-Fi networks whose access points are not exactly geolocated.

The mobile phone will be able to send this information about its location, and therefore the location of the user who is wearing it, to the elevator management system.

b) Identification and detection of the user's position by means of mobile phone radio frequency sensors.

In this case, it is the mobile phone detection sensors located inside the building and in its vicinity that determine the location of a mobile phone carried by the user and identify it through Wi-Fi and bluetooth signals, or other types of signals that it sends. each phone in an unambiguous way, as these signals include the phone's MAC (Media Access Control) address, which is unique for each phone.

This type of technology is used, among other things, to make "heat maps" in commercial areas such as shopping centers or stores, so that the areas that customers visit the most can be known.

c) Detection of the position of users by people counting cameras.

These people counting cameras are capable of detecting the passage of people in the proximity of the elevator boarding gates, as well as the position of people waiting and their number in front of the elevator boarding gate and inside the elevator.

In this case, they are people counting cameras that, autonomously or within a people counting system, are capable of detecting and counting people who pass through a certain area near the elevator, who are waiting for the elevator now. the people inside the elevator.

The presence of still people in front of an elevator boarding gate will be an indicative sign that those people are waiting for the elevator on that floor.

The people counting cameras will be able to detect and count the passage of people through access corridors to the elevator boarding area, which may be an indicative sign that those people want to board the elevators of that boarding area.

The people counting cameras will be able to detect the entry and exit of people in the elevator, as well as determine the number of people inside the elevator, so that the system can know the number of people disembarking and embarking on each floor.

d) Identification and detection of the position of users by means of facial identification cameras of users.

In this case, they are facial identification cameras that, in an autonomous way or within a facial detection system, identify in an individualized way the people who approach the elevator, the people who are waiting for the elevator, the people entering and exiting the elevator and the people inside the elevator.

The presence of a still person in front of an elevator door will be an indicative sign that that person is waiting for the elevator on that floor and, thanks to facial identification, the system will be able to know not only the floor on which they will probably want disembarking that person, but also the plant in which that person actually disembarks, in order to take into account that data within the data set used by Big Data and artificial intelligence to continuously improve the predictive capacity.

The facial identification cameras will be able to detect the passage of a person through the access corridors to the elevator boarding area, and thanks to facial identification, the system will be able to know if that person wishes to board an elevator in that area of embarkation and the plant where you want to disembark.

The facial identification cameras will be able to detect the entry and exit of people in the elevator, so that the system can know which people boarded and landed on each floor and thus use this information to feed their database (Big Data), learn from it and improve their accuracy in predicting the use of the elevator by users.

The facial identification cameras of people inside the elevator may be able to interpret the floor to which the travelers go by means of simple predetermined signals, such as showing the fingers to the camera in a number that matches the desired floor or showing the camera a number or code, such as bidi written on paper or on the phone screen. As an alternative, this function of recognition of commands sent by the user through gestures, numbers or codes can be used by using a specific camera independent of the facial identification camera.

These detection methods may be constituted by an individual management system of an elevator or a group of elevators located in the same building and it may also be a multiple management system focused, in the most general way, on a plurality of elevators located in a plurality of buildings, combined with individual management systems for each of the elevators.

The usage histories and usage trends may be stored on the user's own telephone, in the individual elevator management system or in the multiple management system.

In this way, if a person arrives at the building where their workplace is located, at their home, at a leisure center, at a commercial center for regular use or at any other building, the system can learn from the location information. of users who arrive at the elevator by any of the different means indicated in the present invention, so that the system can predict with increasing accuracy the moment in which the user will need to enter the elevator and, of course, the floor to the one you will want to go

The historical data that are received by the management system about the use of the elevators on different days of the year and the different hours of the day, from different users, including the way in which they arrive at the building, are very useful to improve the database, capable of being treated with Big Data and artificial intelligence algorithms, of so that the system can create increasingly accurate user behavior models when it comes to the use of lifts, and therefore continuously improve its ability to anticipate the arrival of a user to board an elevator and its ability to take the user to the required floor, without the user having to press any of the call or floor selection buttons.

The individual elevator management system will receive the information on the user's location, obtained by any of the above methods and, depending on it and the data stored in the individual management system itself, in the form of historical or Big data. Data, and analyzed algorithms and artificial intelligence capable of establishing behavior patterns, can proceed to send the elevator to a floor to wait for the user and can take the user to the desired floor, all without the need for the user to press any button or to call the elevator or to select the destination floor.

The individual management system, making use of artificial intelligence, fed by the big data that make up a multitude of users with a multitude of behavior patterns, will be able to optimize the use of the elevators by sending several elevators to the floor where they are expected to be used. intensive at a given time, organizing users by elevators according to the floors where they want to disembark or giving priority to the floors with the highest demand over those with less demand or avoiding stopping at some floors if it is estimated that the elevator is already it is full and nobody wants to disembark or in order to expedite the service to plants in high demand.

In the case of the multiple elevator management system, the system will have an individual component in each elevator or set of elevators within the same building and a general component of sets of elevators in sets of buildings.

The individual management system may be an independent module connected to the elevator controller or it may be incorporated into the elevator controller itself.

The innovation may be incorporated into new lifts through the use of elevator controllers incorporating an intelligent management system component or by installing the individual component of the intelligent management system compatible with the elevator controller.

The innovation may also be incorporated into existing elevators by replacing the existing standard elevator controller with an elevator controller incorporating the individual component of the intelligent management system, or by incorporating an individual component added to the existing elevator controller.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

To complete the description of the invention and in order to help a better understanding of its characteristics, according to a preferred example of its embodiment, a set of drawings is attached where, by way of illustration and not limitation, they have been represented the following figures:

- Figure 1 represents an elevator governed by an individual management system that detects a user with a mobile phone at the entrance of the elevator by means of some type of signal, such as GPS, GSM, Wi-Fi or similar, emitted by the mobile phone.

- Figure 2 represents the situation of figure 1 where the individual elevator management system is connected to a multiple management system that, in turn, is connected to other elevators in other buildings.

- Figure 3 represents an elevator governed by an individual management system that detects the location of a user with a mobile phone at the entrance of the elevator by means of a radio frequency sensor.

- Figure 4 is similar to figure 3 also incorporating a radio frequency sensor to detect the location of a user inside the elevator.

- Figure 5 represents the situation of figures 3 and 4 where, in addition to incorporating radio frequency sensors in proximity to the elevator entrance and inside the elevator, it is also incorporated into an access area to the elevator entrance, so that a user can be located further in advance on their journey to the elevator.

- Figure 6 represents the situation of figure 3 where the individual management system is connected to a multiple management system which, in turn, is connected to other elevators in other buildings.

- Figure 7 represents an elevator governed by an individual management system that detects a user at the entrance of the elevator by means of a people counting camera.

- Figure 8 is similar to Figure 7 also incorporating a people counting chamber inside the elevator.

- Figure 9 is very similar to figure 5, where instead of using radio frequency sensors, people counting cameras are used.

- Figure 10 represents the situation of figure 7 where the individual management system is connected to a multiple management system which, in turn, is connected to other elevators in other buildings.

- Figure 11 represents the situation of figure 7 where a facial identification camera is used instead of a people counting camera.

- Figure 12 is similar to Figure 11 also incorporating facial identification cameras inside the elevator.

- Figure 13 is very similar to Figures 5 and 9, where instead of using radio frequency sensors or people counting cameras, facial identification cameras are used.

- Figure 14 represents the situation of figure 11 where the individual management system is connected to a multiple management system which, in turn, is connected to other elevators in other buildings.

Below is a list of the references used in the figures:

1. Elevator.

2. Individual management system.

3. User.

4. Mobile phone.

5. Multiple management system.

6. Radio frequency sensor.

7. People counting chamber.

8. Face identification camera.

DESCRIPTION OF A PREFERRED EMBODIMENT OF THE INVENTION

The present invention refers to an elevator control system (1) by means of which the intention of a user (3), carrying a mobile phone (4), to enter an elevator (1) on a certain floor is foreseen and the intention of which is the floor in which it is planned to get off without the user (3) having to press any button. An important focus of the invention is the use of the elevator (1) by people with little mobility, whether they are disabled or elderly, for example.

Figure 1 represents an elevator (1) located in a building in which a user (3) is on one of the floors. An individual management system (2) controls the management of the elevator (1) or a group of elevators (1) located within the building itself. The individual management system (2) receives orders, through any of the available means, which it sends to the elevator (1). The orders received by the individual management system (2) can come from information detected by the individual management system (2), or come from information sent by the user (3). To do this, the user (3) carries a mobile phone (4) with geolocation capacity using different types of signals (GPS, GSM, Wi-Fi ...), and transmission of location data and information exchange between the phone. mobile (4) and the individual management system (2) of the elevator (1).

Figure 2 represents how the individual management system (2) of an elevator (1) can also form part of a multiple management system (5) by means of which the elevator (1) is connected to elevators (1) of other buildings . This situation is represented in figure 2 so that the information detected by the individual management system (2) is incorporated into a multiple management system (5) so that it can be exchanged with other individual management systems (2) of other elevators (1) located in other buildings.

Figure 3 shows how the positioning of the mobile phone (4), and therefore the user (3), is done through a radio frequency sensor (6), through which Wi-Fi and Bluetooth signals from the phones are detected. mobile phones (4) that, by including in the information packages the MAC (Media Access Control) address, distinctive of each mobile phone (4), can not only establish the user's location (3) within the building, but also differentiate between each user and, therefore, identify him. Furthermore, the radio frequency sensors (6) centralize the information captured in the individual management system (2) of the elevator (1) of the building. In this figure 3, the radio frequency sensor (6) is represented in proximity to the elevator entrance (1), so that the individual management system (2) of the elevator (1) can identify which users (3) are arriving to the elevator boarding area (1), which users (3) are waiting for the elevator (1) and which users (3) have exited the elevator (1) on that floor.

Figure 4 shows the radio frequency sensor (6) inside the elevator (1) in addition to being near the entrance to the elevator (1). In this way, the management system can know which users (3) enter the elevator (1) on each floor, which users (3) exit the elevator (1) on each floor and which users (3) remain in the elevator (one).

Figure 5 represents a situation in which several radio frequency sensors (6) are included at different points in the building. In addition to including a radio frequency sensor (6) near the elevator entrance (1) and inside the elevator (1), as a combination between the situations reflected in figures 3 and 4, a radio frequency sensor is also incorporated (6) in an access area to the location of the elevator (1), so that users (3) can be located further in advance on their journey to the elevator (1).

Figure 6 represents a situation similar to that of figure 3, with the difference that the individual management system (2) of the elevator (1) is connected to a multiple management system (5), which is also connected and exchanges information with other individual management systems (2) of other elevators (1) located in other buildings.

Figures 7-10 are similar to Figures 3-6, respectively, with the difference that the positioning of the user (3) is done through a people counting camera (7) instead of through a radio frequency sensor (6). By means of this counting chamber (7) the users (3) who enter, leave or are inside the elevator (1), as well as the users (3) who approach or move away from the elevator door, can be detected and counted (one). Figure 7 represents a user (3) who has reached the elevator boarding area (1) and is waiting for him. The people counting camera (7) detects that a user (3) has arrived and stopped in front of the elevator door (1), which makes the individual management system (2), where the information received by The counting chamber (7) will interpret that there is a user waiting for the elevator (1) and must send an elevator (1) to that floor so that the user (3) can board.

Figures 11-14 are also similar to Figures 3-6, respectively, with the difference that the positioning of the users (3) is done through facial identification cameras (8) instead of using radio frequency sensors. (6).

In the case of using a facial identification camera (8) inside the elevator (1), it may be necessary to use more than one camera (8), as shown in figure 13, to avoid cases in which Some person may interfere with the adequate facial identification of others due to a high level of occupation of the elevator (1) or, simply, that the user is not looking in the direction of the camera (8).

Furthermore, the facial identification camera (8) may be capable of recognizing gestures, numbers and codes for capturing manual orders sent by the user (3). Although this chamber (8) may be located outside the elevator (1), it is typically located inside the elevator (1). On the other hand, instead of being a facial identification camera (8), it could be a specific camera.

Finally, it must be taken into account that the present invention should not be limited to the embodiments described here. Other configurations can be made by those skilled in the art in light of the present description. Accordingly, the scope of the invention is defined by the following claims.

Claims (15)

1. - Intelligent and predictive control system for elevators that comprise a controller for receiving orders from a user (3), receiving information from the elevator itself (1) and issuing orders to the elevator (1), the system being characterized because the controller is associated with an individual management system (2) with the capacity to receive signals from the user (3), so that the individual management system (2) stores information about the use of the elevator (1) by of the user (3) in a database with the capacity to be treated by Big Data algorithms and artificial intelligence to facilitate a subsequent prediction of the needs for the use of the elevator (1) by the user (3) and thus avoid unnecessary waiting such as pressing buttons to call the elevator (1), and selecting the destination floor, facilitating the use of the elevator (1) for people with mobility problems. 2. - Intelligent and predictive elevator control system, according to claim 1, characterized in that it comprises a multiple management system (5) that manages information about the use of a plurality of elevators (1) located in a plurality of buildings by a user (3) through each of the individual management systems (2) of each of the elevators (1). 3. - Intelligent and predictive elevator control system, according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the signals are to be selected from location signals, identification signals, manual orders and a combination of the above. 4. - Intelligent and predictive control system for elevators, according to claim 3, characterized in that the signals are emitted by a mobile phone (4) carried by the user (3). 5. - Intelligent and predictive elevator control system, according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that it comprises a device with the ability to detect the user (3) and send the received signals to the individual management system (2), being the device located in a location to be selected between the interior of the elevator (1), the exterior of the elevator (1) and both. 6. - Intelligent and predictive control system of elevators, according to claim 5, characterized in that the detection of the user (3) is to select between location and identification and is carried out through the mobile phone (4) that it carries. 7. - Intelligent and predictive control system for elevators, according to claim 6, characterized in that the device is a radio frequency sensor (6). 8. - Intelligent and predictive control system for elevators, according to claim 5 or 6, characterized in that the device is a people counting camera (7), with the ability to detect a user. 9. - Intelligent and predictive control system for elevators, according to claim 5 or 6, characterized in that the device is a facial identification camera (8), with the ability to perform user detection and identification actions. 10. - Intelligent and predictive elevator control system, according to claim 9, characterized in that the facial identification camera (8) is capable of recognizing gestures, numbers and codes for capturing manual orders sent by the user. 11. - Intelligent and predictive elevator control system, according to claim 1, characterized in that it comprises microphones located inside the elevator (1) and outside, next to the boarding gate so that the user (3) can send voice commands to the individual management system (2). 12. - Intelligent and predictive control system for elevators, according to claim 4, characterized in that the mobile phone (4) comprises an application with access to the individual management system (2) with the ability to call the elevator (1) and request the destination plant, avoiding waiting. 13. - Intelligent and predictive control system for elevators, according to claim 11, characterized in that the application is programmed so that the mobile phone (4) emits an acoustic and visual signal when requesting an action from the individual management system (2) lift (1) and report the estimated time for this action to be carried out. 14. - Intelligent and predictive control system for elevators, according to one of claims 5-9, characterized in that it comprises a device for receiving signals to be selected from a radio frequency sensor (6), a counting chamber (7) and a facial identification camera (8), located in an access area to the elevator boarding area (1), so that the use of the elevator (1) can be anticipated with more time and unnecessary waiting is avoided. 15. - System of intelligent and predictive control of elevators, according to claim 3, characterized in that it comprises a camera for recognition of gestures, numbers and codes for capturing manual orders sent by the user.