Multi-drive thrust manager for elevator control

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9840395-B2
Application number	US-201615214648-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 20, 2016
Priority date	Aug 3, 2015
Publication date	Dec 12, 2017
Grant date	Dec 12, 2017

Abstract

According to an aspect, an elevator system includes a propulsion system having a plurality of motor segments forming a primary portion and a plurality of drives to impart force on a secondary portion coupled to an elevator car. The elevator system also includes a controller operable to identify a local neighborhood of the drives and determine a health status of each of the drives within the local neighborhood. The controller is further operable to adjust a thrust command per active drive of the local neighborhood based on at least one of the health status and a position of each active drive of the local neighborhood with respect to the secondary portion.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An elevator system comprising:
a propulsion system comprising a plurality of motor segments forming a primary portion and a plurality of drives to impart force on a secondary portion coupled to an elevator car; and
a controller operable to identify a local neighborhood of the drives, determine a health status of each of the drives within the local neighborhood, and adjust a thrust command per active drive of the local neighborhood based on at least one of the health status and a position of each active drive of the local neighborhood with respect to the secondary portion.

2. The elevator system of claim 1 , wherein the controller is further operable to detect a position of the secondary portion based on a sensed location of the elevator car in a hoistway.

3. The elevator system of claim 2 , wherein the controller is further operable to determine the position of each active drive of the local neighborhood based on drive location table data that defines a location of each of the drives in the hoistway.

4. The elevator system of claim 1 , wherein the controller is further operable to provide the thrust command per active drive to a commanding drive of the local neighborhood that implements a feedback control or a combination of feedback and feedforward control with respect to the active drives of the local neighborhood.

5. The elevator system of claim 1 , wherein adjustment of the thrust command per active drive attempts to optimize motion of the elevator car by adjusting thrust and moments applied to the elevator car.

6. The elevator system of claim 5 , wherein adjustment of the thrust command per active drive is further based on geometric coverage of each active drive with respect to the secondary portion.

7. The elevator system of claim 1 , wherein the motor segments are linearly arranged on opposite sides of the elevator car, and the local neighborhood of the drives spans across the opposite sides of the elevator car.

8. The elevator system of claim 7 , wherein the local neighborhood of the drives is dynamically defined as the elevator car moves.

9. The elevator system of claim 1 , further comprising one or more additional elevator cars, wherein the controller is further operable to monitor and adjust thrust for local neighborhoods of drives surrounding each of the one or more additional elevator cars.

10. The elevator system of claim 1 , wherein the health status of each of the drives within the local neighborhood is determined by one or more of:
comparing performance of the drives with respect to one or more of: an average value, a threshold value, or at least one neighboring drive value;
detecting a loss of drive communication;
detecting a drive internal error; and
detecting a power distribution failure.

11. A method comprising:
identifying, by a controller, a local neighborhood of drives in a propulsion system, the propulsion system comprising a plurality of motor segments forming a primary portion and a plurality of drives to impart force on a secondary portion coupled to an elevator car;
determining a health status of each of the drives in the local neighborhood; and
adjusting, by the controller, a thrust command per active drive of the local neighborhood based on at least one of the health status and a position of each active drive of the local neighborhood with respect to the secondary portion.

12. The method of claim 11 , further comprising:
detecting a position of the secondary portion based on a sensed location of the elevator car in a hoistway.

13. The method of claim 12 , further comprising:
determining the position of each active drive of the local neighborhood based on drive location table data that defines a location of each of the drives in the hoistway.

14. The method of claim 11 , further comprising:
providing the thrust command per active drive to a commanding drive of the local neighborhood that implements a feedback control or a combination of feedback and feedforward control with respect to the active drives of the local neighborhood.

15. The method of claim 11 , wherein adjustment of the thrust command per active drive attempts to optimize motion of the elevator car by adjusting thrust and moments applied to the elevator car.

16. The method of claim 15 , wherein adjustment of the thrust command per active drive is further based on geometric coverage of each active drive with respect to the secondary portion.

17. The method of claim 11 , wherein the motor segments are linearly arranged on opposite sides of the elevator car, and the local neighborhood of drives spans across the opposite sides of the elevator car.

18. The method of claim 17 , further comprising:
dynamically defining the local neighborhood of drives as the elevator car moves.

19. The method of claim 11 , further comprising:
monitoring and adjusting thrust, by the controller, for local neighborhoods of drives surrounding each of one or more additional elevator cars.

20. The method of claim 11 , wherein the health status of each of the drives within the local neighborhood is determined by one or more of:
comparing performance of the drives with respect to one or more of: an average value, a threshold value, or at least one neighboring drive value;
detecting a loss of drive communication;
detecting a drive internal error; and
detecting a power distribution failure.

Assignees

• Otis Elevator Co

Inventors

• Roberts Randall
• Ginsberg David
• Chevva Konda Reddy
• Schmidt Walter Thomas

Classifications

• B66B1/30 Primary

  effective on driving gear {, e.g. acting on power electronics, on inverter or rectifier controlled motor} · CPC title

• B66B11/0407

  actuated by an electrical linear motor (in the counterweight B66B17/12) · CPC title

• H02K41/031

  of the permanent magnet type · CPC title

• B66B1/34 Primary

  Details {, e.g. call counting devices, data transmission from car to control system, devices giving information to the control system} · CPC title

• B66B9/003

  for lateral transfer of car or frame, e.g. between vertical hoistways or to/from a parking position · CPC title