Planning and Control Models for Elevators in High-Rise Buildings

The passenger service level in an elevator system depends on the planning of the elevator group and on the control of the elevators. In this thesis the contribution of passenger and elevator traffic for an elevator group with multiple shafts is studied by simulations and theoretical analysis. During this work an elevator control system, the Traffic Master System 9000 (TMS9000), was developed. The TMS9000 group control system optimizes passenger waiting times instead of hall call times, and the control actions can be started in advance, which is not the case with conventional controls. With the TMS9000 control system, average passenger waiting times became shorter and more balanced floor by floor compared to conventional controls. The functional properties of the TMS9000 group control system were tested with the Advanced Lift Traffic Simulator (ALTS), which is described in the thesis. ALTS has also been applied in elevator planning to predict hall call times in new buildings, or to estimate improvement potential in hall call times for existing elevator groups. Simulation has revealed new correlation between the passenger and elevator traffic. In this thesis, new equations and planning criteria for the mean passenger journey time and ride time inside the car during an up-peak are introduced, and the results are verified with simulations. 3 PREFACE This thesis is based on work that was carried out in the KONE Research an Development Department and, later, in the KONE Elevators Research Center. My starting point was to develop an elevator traffic simulator, and to get acquainted with the elevator planning problems. I am very grateful to Mr. Nils-Robert Roschier, and also to the late Mr. Matti Kaakinen, for their encouragement and enthusiasm shown towards my work. Later on the work continue with the development of group control principles. I owe my thanks to Mr. Risto Kontturi, who also gave me the opportunity to finish this thesis. I also want to express my gratitude to my supervisor, Prof. Raimo Hämäläinen, for his interest in my work. The group control study included in this thesis started in 1985 as a research project funded by the Technology Development Centre in Finland (TEKES). The objective was to apply an expert system framework for embedded applications. One of the applications in this project was the elevator group control, where cooperation was made with Helsinki University of Technology (HUT). The original idea of the work was subsequently rejected, but the study …