Abstract: A particular elevator (1-9) is commandeered to transfer an emergency cab F to (or near) a floor where an alarm has been sounded. The commandeered car is brought to the floor FF where the emergency cab is parked. The fire cab is exchanged for the normal cab C on the commandeered car, and is then carried to (or near) the alarm floor for responding to the alarm. Passengers in the normal cab may exit through landing doorways (23). Emergency personnel have access to the alarm area through emergency hoistway doors (27). A rack and pinion horizontal motive means for moving the cabs is illustrated (FIG. 12 ).

Abstract: Horizontally moveable elevator cabs A-E are transferrable between the car frames (72) of two elevators HI, LO in adjacent hoistways which extend between at least three levels (GND, MID, SKY) of a building, and between the car frames and landings L, R at said levels. The vertical movement of cars in the hoistways is synchronized, and transfer of elevator cabs between landings and car frames is simultaneous.

Abstract: A socket plug assembly (44) on an elevator cab (10) may engage with complimentary socket plug assemblies (46) on either of two car frames (11, 13) when it is horizontally moved therebetween. A socket plug assembly (44a) on a horizontally moveable elevator cab may have a horizontal interface with a complimentary socket plug assembly (45b) mounted on an elevator car frame or landing, and one of them is moved vertically to cause engagement with the other. Socket plug assemblies (169) tethered to a cab (10) by means of an umbilical cord (168) is engageable with socket plug assemblies (170, 171) on booms (172, 173) on the elevator car frames (21, 22) or landings. An uninterruptible power supply (50) maintains power when the cab is unplugged; a transceiver (51) on the cab maintains communications with a transceiver (62) in the building when the cab is unplugged.

Abstract: In one embodiment, fuzzy sets indicative of the degree to which the time since the last passenger boarded an escalator can be deemed to be zero, a very long time, or something in between, are combined with fuzzy sets indicative of the extent to which the maximum number of passengers in a recent temporal or cyclic period can be deemed to be a zero passenger, a very large group, or something in between. In another embodiment, fuzzy sets indicative of the degree to which the time since the last passenger exited an empty escalator can be deemed to be nearly zero, a very long time, or something in between, are combined with fuzzy sets indicative of the degree to which the maximum group of passengers on the escalator at any time since the last time it was empty can be deemed to be a single passenger, a very large group, or something in between.

Abstract: An elevator system has a low rise group of floors and a high rise group of floors and a swing car having doors and car call buttons enabling it to operate in either the low rise or high rise, the swing car being assignable to one or the other rise depending upon the burden, but also being able to accept calls in the other rise in response to a variety of characteristics of traffic within the elevator system. In one embodiment, the swing car is always assigned at the lobby to the low rise but proceeds into the high rise in response to hall calls therein; the swing car can accept down calls in the low rise if there is a high burden in the low rise or a down call has been waiting for a long time, or if the car has a very light load. Dedicated cars may be shut down and only the swing cars used at nights and on weekends. At nights and on weekends, the high rise and low rise can be effectively merged into a single system served by swing cars, thereby to save energy in light traffic.

Abstract: In an elevator system having a low rise group of floors and a high rise group of floors and a swing car having doors and car call buttons that enable it to operate in both the low rise group of floors and the high rise group of floors, interise hall calls made within one of said group of floors for service within another of said group of floors are assigned to the swing car for response. In one embodiment, the call is assigned to the first car approaching the call in the right direction; in another embodiment, the call is assigned in accordance with ordinary hall call assignment logic.

Abstract: Elevator car call buttons and hall call buttons are illuminated in a first fashion (such as a first color or intermittent flashing) to indicate that the service corresponding to that call button is available to passengers (while buttons corresponding to unavailable service would have either no illumination or different illumination); the buttons then become illuminated in a distinctly different way when a service call corresponding to that button has been registered. The illumination may be thin rings surrounding the call button switch or the call button switch itself; many variations of color, position, and flashing vs. steady are disclosed.

Abstract: Elevator swing cars 37 have doors 50 opening into a low rise lobby service corridor 31 and doors 51 opening into a medium rise lobby service corridor 32 with car panels 52 associated with the low rise group of floors (such as floors 1-13) and car panels 53 associated with floors of the medium rise group of floors (such as floors 14-22). Each swing car is assigned (FIG. 12) to either one of the two groups which it can serve at the conclusion of each run, as the car approaches the lobby, thereby operating an enunciator lantern 56 in the low rise corridor 31 or an enunciator lantern 57 in the medium rise corridor 32, depending upon which rise the elevator has been assigned to for service in the next following run. Similar swing cars 39 relate to the medium rise (32) and the high rise (33). A variety of alternatives and features are disclosed.

Abstract: Elevator door dwell time is varied as a function of arrival time so that a show-and-go time is met. The show-and-go time is the time from when the passengers are shown which elevator to board to the time when the elevator door is ready to close after the pasengers have entered the elevator. The arrival time is a function of the distance of the elevator from the floor of the hall call signal and is the time remaining after an elevator reaches a stop control point where a hall call assignment is fixed to a car until the door of said elevator begins to open. Door opening time, door dwell time, and arrival time are subtracted from a show-and-go time. If the difference is greater than or equal to zero, the door dwell time is increased by the difference, but if the difference is less than zero the door dwell time is decreased by the difference, and the doors are then held open at a landing for the door dwell time.

Abstract: The present invention is directed to notifying a user of an arriving elevator car in response to a hall call registered by the user, wherein notification occurs a threshold time value before elevator car arrival. In the preferred embodiment, an elevator car is assigned to a floor in response to a hall call. The amount of time required for the assigned elevator car to arrive at the floor is determined and compared with the threshold time value. If the arrival time is greater than the threshold time value, the system reexamines assignment, possibly reassigning a different elevator car to respond to the hall call. The arrival time of the assigned (or newly assigned) elevator car is again determined, and this process continues until the arrival time is less than or equal to the threshold time value. When the arrival time is less than or equal to the threshold time value, the hall lantern at the door of the assigned elevator car is energized, e.g., illuminated and/or sounded.

Abstract: An elevator system including a variable speed motive means is disclosed wherein the motive means is controlled in response to a selected motion profile to effect desired operation of the elevator car. Multiple elevator car motion profiles are stored and a appropriate profile is selected to operate the elevator car such that the level of service necessary to meet demand is provided while operating the elevator cars at reduced acceleration and jerk rates to provide increased ride comfort. Appropriate motion profiles are selected based on factors such as demand for elevator service and whether the building is in an up-peak or down-peak traffic period.

Abstract: During up-peak, a dispatcher selecting method chooses among three dispatching algorithms: (i) an up-peak sectoring scheme triggered when two cars leave the lobby fully loaded, (ii) static sectoring, and (iii) dynamic sectoring, in response to any of three criteria: car load, floor population, and average waiting time, allowing a group of elevators to be operated under any three of the dispatching algorithms, not locked into any two.

Abstract: An elevator control system employing a micro-processor-based group controller (FIG. 2) which communicates with the cars (3, 4) of the elevator system to determine conditions of the cars and responds to hall calls registered at a plurality of landings in the building serviced by the cars under control of the group controller, to provide assignments of the hall calls to the cars based on the summation for each car, with respect to each call, a weighted summation of a plurality of system response factors, some indicative, and some not, of conditions of the car irrespective of the call to be assigned, assigning "bonuses" and "penalties" to them in the weighted summation.

Abstract: An elevator system contains a group of elevator cars. A group controller contains signal processing means for controlling the dispatching of the cars from a main floor or lobby in relation to different group parameters. During up-peak conditions, each car is dispatched from the main floor to an individual plurality of contiguous floors, defining a "sector". Sectors are contiguous. The number of sectors may be less than the number of cars. Floors that constitute a sector assigned exclusively to a car are displayed on an indicator at the lobby. Sectors and cars are selected for assignment in a cyclical or round-robin sequence. If the next car selected is not available for assignment, another car is selected. If no car calls are made to the floors in the sector that is assigned to a car, the next sector is selected. The floors in the sector assigned to a car are displaced to direct passengers to the car.

Abstract: An elevator system contains a group of elevator cars. A group controller contains signal processing means for controlling the dispatching of the cars from a main floor or lobby in relation to differnt group parameters. During up-peak conditions, each car is dispatched from the main floor to an individual plurality of contiguous floors, defining a "sector". Sectors are contiguous. The number of sectors may be less than the number of cars. Floors that constitute a sector are assigned exclusively to a car and are displayed on an indicator at the lobby. Sectors are selected for assignment according to preset order (e.g. numerical). Cars are selected for assignment to a selected sector according to a preset order (e.g. numerical). If no car calls are made to the floors in the sector that is assigned to a car, the next sector is selected along with the next car according to that order.

Abstract: An elevator system employs a microprocessor-based group controller to control the service of a group of elevator cars to a plurality of floor landings in a building. The group controller includes zone-control type operation, including up peak traffic handling, down peak traffic handling, and distributing of cars around the building during periods of low traffic or no demand, when in a cars-to-floors mode of operation. The group controller can assign any unanswered call to any car in the builing, in dependence upon factors relating the desirability of assigning any call to a car, in a calls-to-cars mode of operation. The group controller is in the cars-to-floors mode of operation whenever there is up peak traffic conditions, down peak traffic conditions, or no registered hall calls, provided that the cars-to-floors mode of operation cannot be entered into as a consequence of no registered hall call until at least one car is located at the lobby.

Abstract: A microprocessor cab controller for an elevator car processes signals to control car calls by means of routines which prevent car calls from being registered behind the advancing direction of the car unless the car is headed for the lobby without further demand or the car has no advance direction. Also disclosed are routines which respond to directives from a car controller mounted in the building to reset all car calls, reset selected car calls, reset the car call at a floor landing where the car is stopping, or force selected car calls; to inhibit car calls in a selected one of two zones of continuous floors for implementing dual up peak operation, and for selectively inhibiting registration of car calls at floors which are designated as cut off from service by the car.

Abstract: An elevator control system employes microprocessor-based group controller which communicates with the cars of the elevator system to determine conditions of the cars and responds to hall calls registered at a plurality of landings in the building serviced by the cars under control of the group controller, to provide assignments of calls to cars based on the summation for each car, with respect to each call, a weighted summation of a plurality of system response factors indicative of conditions of the car irrespective of the call to be assigned, and indicative of conditions of the car relative to the call to be assigned, including factors relating to preferring cars which are running, which require motion to provide service already assigned to the car, which do not have lobby calls, which are not positioned at the lobby, which are not full, even though the car may have a car call at the floor of the hall call under consideration, which do not have excessive car calls in them, and so forth.

Abstract: Requests for elevator express priority service are assigned to a car committable to the floor of the request if possible, or otherwise to a car which can reach the floor of the request sooner than other available cars. Whenever there are requests for express priority service and no cars available to respond thereto, polling of floor landings in subsequent cycles to determine if there are requests which can be assigned is commenced at a floor landing next in sequence to the one for which an outstanding request was unassignable for lack of available cars, and the unassignable request is reset so as to provide an indication thereof to the requestor. Express priority service requests are reassigned whenever the assignment is outstanding for an impermissible time.