PREVENTING ELEVATOR USE DURING A GIVEN POWER FAILURE PERIOD BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION:

Field of the Invention:

The invention relates to elevator systems. In particular, the invention relates to preventing elevator use during a given power failure period.

Description of the Related Art:

Elevators require ongoing, consistent mainte ^¬ nance to be safe. Maintenance includes both preventive maintenance and call-back maintenance. Preventive maintenance consists of scheduled appointments during which elevator technicians can check whether the elevator is running as it should be. Call-back mainte ^¬ nance occurs when someone calls an elevator service company because an elevator isn't working properly.

A callout rate is the number of unplanned service outages during a set time period. This can be expressed e.g. as the number of service calls experi ^¬ enced during a quarter or year, or as the "mean time between call outs." For example, if an elevator re- quires maintenance about once each quarter, the mean time between failures would be 90 days.

Typically, service calls are categorized into those that are controllable and have a technical cause, and those that are uncontrollable from an ele- vator maintenance perspective. This second group in ^¬ cludes calls prompted by inappropriate use of the ele ^¬ vator, such as a call to repair a door that's knocked off track due to a passenger's carelessness. An eleva ^¬ tor service company aims to reduce the rate of con- trollable service calls. Power failures or outages are a cause for el ^¬ evator service calls. If there are passengers in an elevator car, when a power failure occurs, battery power is typically utilized in an effort to reach the nearest floor. However, if this fails, the passengers will typically need to make a service call. Similarly, people outside the elevator car, e.g. in the lobby or upper floors may notice that the elevator cars have stopped (due to the power failure) and again make ser- vice calls. All these service calls add to the callout rate .

At least currently, there is not much that can be done to reduce service calls that are caused by unexpected power failures. However, there are also ex- pected power failures or outages in certain geographical locations. These can be caused e.g. by a need to cut down electricity distribution for a given time period .

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to alleviate the problems described above and to introduce a solution that allows preventing elevator use during a given power failure period, thereby re ^¬ ducing the number of service calls caused by expected power failures.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION:

A first aspect of the present invention is a method of preventing elevator use during a given power failure period. An advance warning signal indicating that a power failure will occur at a given power failure period having a start time is received at an appa ^¬ ratus associated with an elevator system. In response, a predetermined functionality for preventing use of at least one elevator car of the elevator system by the start time is triggered with the apparatus.

A second aspect of the present invention is an apparatus associated with an elevator system. The apparatus comprises means for receiving an advance warning signal indicating that a power failure will occur at a given power failure period having a start time. The apparatus further comprises means for trig- gering, in response, a predetermined functionality for preventing use of at least one elevator car of the el ^¬ evator system by the start time.

A third aspect of the present invention is an apparatus associated with an elevator system. The ap- paratus comprises a receiver configured to receive an advance warning signal indicating that a power failure will occur at a given power failure period having a start time. The apparatus further comprises a trigger configured to trigger, in response, a predetermined functionality for preventing use of at least one ele ^¬ vator car of the elevator system by the start time.

A fourth aspect of the present invention is a system that comprises an elevator system comprising at least one elevator car and a controller unit. The sys- tern further comprises an apparatus of the second or third aspect.

In an embodiment of the invention, a report about the triggered functionality for preventing the use of the at least one elevator car is sent to a ser- vice center associated with the elevator system.

In an embodiment of the invention, the prede ^¬ termined functionality for preventing the use of the at least one elevator car comprises at least one of: keeping the at least one elevator car stopped after passengers have exited; and playing a notification about the power failure period.

In an embodiment of the invention, the noti ^¬ fication about the power failure period comprises at least one of an audio notification and a visual noti- fication. In an embodiment of the invention, the appa ^¬ ratus comprises one of a local apparatus and a remote apparatus .

In an embodiment of the invention, the ad- vance warning signal is received from one of a smart power grid and a manual input.

In an embodiment of the invention, an end of the power failure period until which the predetermined functionality prevents the use of the at least one el- evator car is determined by one of: an end time of the power failure period included in the received advance warning signal; an end-of-power-failure indication signal; and detection of the power being switched back on .

It is to be understood that the aspects and embodiments of the invention described above may be used in any combination with each other. Several of the aspects and embodiments may be combined together to form a further embodiment of the invention. A meth- od or an apparatus which is an aspect of the invention may comprise at least one of the embodiments of the invention described above.

The invention allows preventing elevator use during a given power failure period, thereby reducing the number of service calls caused by expected power failures. This in turn allows reducing the callout rate .

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS:

The accompanying drawings, which are included to provide a further understanding of the invention and constitute a part of this specification, illus ^¬ trate embodiments of the invention and together with the description help to explain the principles of the invention. In the drawings: Figure 1 is a signaling diagram illustrating a method according to an embodiment of the present in ^¬ vention ;

Figure 2a is a block diagram illustrating an apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention; and

Figure 2b illustrates a system incorporating an apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention .

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS:

Reference will now be made in detail to the embodiments of the invention, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings.

Figure 1 is a signaling diagram illustrating a method of preventing elevator use during a given power failure period according to an embodiment of the present invention.

At step 101, an advance warning signal is re- ceived at an apparatus of the invention associated with an elevator system. The advance warning signal indicates that a power failure will occur at a given power failure period having a start time.

Furthermore, in one or more embodiments of the invention disclosed herein, an end of the power failure period until which the predetermined function ^¬ ality prevents the use of the at least one elevator car may be determined by an end time of the power failure period also included in the received advance warning signal. In another embodiment, the end of the power failure period may be determined by an end-of- power-failure indication signal that may e.g. be re ^¬ ceived separately from the advance warning signal. In yet another embodiment, the end of the power failure period may be determined from detecting that the power is being switched back on, e.g. manually or automati ^¬ cally. As shown in Figure 1, the advance warning signal may be received e.g. from a smart power grid. Alternatively, the start time (and optionally the end time) of the power failure period may e.g. be entered manually (not shown in Figure 1) by e.g. service cen ^¬ ter personnel to e.g. service center equipment (such as a computer) , and then signaled to the apparatus of the invention associated with the elevator system.

In response, a predetermined functionality for preventing use of at least one elevator car of the elevator system by the start time is triggered with the apparatus, step 102.

At step 103, to apply the predetermined ele ^¬ vator usage prevention functionality, a signal for preventing the use of the at least one elevator car is sent e.g. to a controller unit of the elevator system. The predetermined functionality for preventing the use of the at least one elevator car may comprise at least one of: keeping the at least one elevator car stopped after passengers have exited; and playing a notifica ^¬ tion about the power failure period.

If the predetermined functionality for pre ^¬ venting the use of the at least one elevator car comprises keeping the at least one elevator car stopped after passengers have exited, then at optional step 104, the controller unit of the elevator system sends a stop signal to the at least one elevator car. Then, at step 106, the at least one elevator car is stopped after its passengers (if any) have exited.

If the predetermined functionality for pre ^¬ venting the use of the at least one elevator car comprises playing a notification about the power failure period, then at optional step 105, the controller unit of the elevator system sends a notification signal to an audio and/or video playback unit of the elevator system. The notification about the power failure period may comprise e.g. an audio notification and/or a visual notification. Then, at step 107, the notifica ^¬ tion is played.

At optional step 108, a report about the triggered functionality for preventing the use of the at least one elevator car is sent to a service center associated with the elevator system.

Figure 2a is a block diagram illustrating an apparatus 240 according to an embodiment of the pre ^¬ sent invention. The apparatus 240 comprises means 241 for receiving an advance warning signal indicating that a power failure will occur at a given power failure period having a start time. The apparatus 240 fur ^¬ ther comprises means 242 for triggering, in response, a predetermined functionality for preventing use of at least one elevator car 212 of the elevator system 210 by the start time. The apparatus 240 may further com ^¬ prise means 243 for sending a report about the trig ^¬ gered functionality for preventing the use of the at least one elevator car 212 to a service center (i.e. service center equipment 220) associated with the ele ^¬ vator system 210. The apparatus 240 and the means 241- 243 may be implemented as hardware, software, or as a combination of hardware and software.

Figure 2b in turn illustrates a system with incorporating the apparatus 240 of Figure 2a. The sys ^¬ tem of Figure 2b comprises an elevator system 210 which in turn comprises at least one elevator car 212, at least one audio and/or video playback unit 213, and a controller unit 211 for controlling the at least one elevator car 212 and the at least one audio and/or video playback unit 213. The audio and/or video play ^¬ back unit 213 may be e.g. a display screen and/or a loudspeaker. The controller unit 211 is communicatively connected to the at least one elevator car 212 and the audio and/or video playback unit 213. As discussed above, the predetermined functionality for preventing the use of the at least one elevator car 212 may com- prises at least one of keeping the at least one eleva ^¬ tor car 21) stopped after passengers have exited; and playing a notification about the power failure period. The notification may comprise at least one of an audio notification and a visual notification, and it may be played back with the audio and/or video playback unit 213.

The system of Figure 2b further comprises a service center equipment 220 for managing various ele- vator service tasks, and associated with the elevator system 210. The service center equipment 220 may com ^¬ prise e.g. a computer with user interface means 221, such as a display, a keyboard, and a mouse. The ser ^¬ vice center equipment 220 is communicatively connected to the controller unit 211.

As shown in Figure 2b, the apparatus 240 of the invention may be a remote apparatus (i.e. remote from the elevator system 210) that is integrated e.g. in the service center equipment 220. Alternatively, the apparatus 240 of the invention may be a local ap ^¬ paratus (i.e. local to the elevator system 210) that is integrated e.g. in the controller unit 211 (not shown in Figure 2b) . Alternatively, the apparatus 240 of the invention may be implemented as a separate en- tity, either remote from or local to the elevator sys ^¬ tem 210.

In the example of Figure 2b, the system fur ^¬ ther comprises a smart electrical power grid 230 which is communicatively connected to the service center equipment 220 and/or the apparatus 240 of the inven ^¬ tion. The smart power grid 230 is configured to send to the apparatus 240 the advance warning signal indi ^¬ cating that the power failure will occur at the given power failure period having the start time. However, as discussed in connection with Figure 1, the advance warning signal is not required to be directly received from the smart power grid 230. For example, e.g. ser- vice center personnel may manually enter the start time (and optionally the end time) of an expected pow ^¬ er failure period to the service center equipment 220 e.g. with the user interface means 221, and then the advance warning signal comprising the entered start time (and optional end time) may be transmitted to the apparatus 240 of the invention. In yet another embodi ^¬ ment, the advance warning signal may be input (e.g. manually) utilizing e.g. the controller unit 211.

The exemplary embodiments can include, for example, any suitable servers, workstations, PCs, lap ^¬ top computers, other devices, and the like, capable of performing the processes of the exemplary embodiments. The devices and subsystems of the exemplary embodi- ments can communicate with each other using any suita ^¬ ble protocol and can be implemented using one or more programmed computer systems or devices.

One or more interface mechanisms can be used with the exemplary embodiments, including, for exam- pie, Internet access, telecommunications in any suita ^¬ ble form (e.g., voice, modem, and the like), wireless communications media, and the like. For example, em ^¬ ployed communications networks or links can include one or more wireless communications networks, cellular communications networks, 3G communications networks, Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTNs) , Packet Data Networks (PDNs) , the Internet, intranets, a combina ^¬ tion thereof, and the like.

It is to be understood that the exemplary em- bodiments are for exemplary purposes, as many varia ^¬ tions of the specific hardware used to implement the exemplary embodiments are possible, as will be appre ^¬ ciated by those skilled in the hardware and/or soft ^¬ ware art(s) . For example, the functionality of one or more of the components of the exemplary embodiments can be implemented via one or more hardware and/or software devices. All or a portion of the exemplary embodiments can be conveniently implemented using one or more gen ^¬ eral purpose processors, microprocessors, digital sig ^¬ nal processors, micro-controllers, and the like, pro- grammed according to the teachings of the exemplary embodiments of the present inventions, as will be ap ^¬ preciated by those skilled in the computer art(s) . The exemplary embodiments can be implemented by the prepa ^¬ ration of application-specific integrated circuits or by interconnecting an appropriate network of conventional component circuits, as will be appreciated by those skilled in the electrical art(s) . Thus, the ex ^¬ emplary embodiments are not limited to any specific combination of hardware and/or software.

If desired, the different functions discussed herein may be performed in a different order and/or concurrently with each other.

While the present inventions have been de ^¬ scribed in connection with a number of exemplary em- bodiments, and implementations, the present inventions are not so limited, but rather cover various modifica ^¬ tions, and equivalent arrangements, which fall within the purview of prospective claims.