WO2017103320A1

WO2017103320A1 - Condition-based monitoring of elevator

Info

Publication number: WO2017103320A1
Application number: PCT/FI2015/050889
Authority: WO
Inventors: Riitta Partanen-Jokela
Original assignee: Kone Corp
Current assignee: Kone Corp
Priority date: 2015-12-15
Filing date: 2015-12-15
Publication date: 2017-06-22
Anticipated expiration: 2018-06-15

Abstract

Condition-based maintenance of at least one elevator is performed by a mobile communications device in a service area of an indoor positioning system. Information indicating condition-based maintenance tasks of elevator components in the elevator is obtained by the communications device (404). A condition-based maintenance task comprises an elevator component and a location of the elevator component in the service area of the elevator. A current indoor location of the mobile communications device is determined by utilizing the indoor positioning system (406). Cost values of moving from the current location to a location of the first maintenance task and from the location of the first maintenance task to one or more other locations of maintenance tasks are determined by the mobile communications device (408). The maintenance tasks are ordered by the mobile communications device into a sequence by minimizing a cost value of moving from the current location through the ordered sequence of the maintenance tasks (410).

Description

CONDITION-BASED MONITORING OF ELEVATOR

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to condition-based maintenance of at least one elevator. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Conventionally preventive maintenance tasks of elevators are organized into calendar-based modules, and call-out visit are separate visits. The order of tasks to be done during a site visit is organized so that during each visit the time to move from one location to another is minimized. Since the maintenance tasks per each visit are determined by the calendar, the ordered maintenance tasks can include locations, where actual maintenance is not needed. Visiting such locations takes time from the maintenance personnel and increases the time elevator is out of service. The time the elevator is out if service can be further increased if separate call-out visits are needed between the maintenance tasks scheduled based on the calendar.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

An object of the present invention to provide a method and an apparatus for implementing the method so as to alleviate at least some of the above disadvantages. The objects of the invention are achieved by a method, an ap- paratus and a computer program product which are characterized by what is stated in the independent claims. The preferred embodiments of the invention are disclosed in the dependent claims.

Some embodiments provide maintenance tasks in optimized order for condition-based maintenance of elevators. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

In the following the invention will be described in greater detail by means of preferred embodiments with reference to the attached drawings, in which

Figure 1 illustrates an example of an arrangement for condition- based maintenance of at least one elevator in an embodiment;

Figure 2 illustrates an example of ordering maintenance tasks for condition-based maintenance according to an embodiment;

Figure 3 illustrates an example of a condition-based maintenance task according to an embodiment;

Figure 4 illustrates an example of method for condition-based maintenance according to an embodiment;

Figure 5 illustrates an example of determining maintenance tasks for ordering, according to an embodiment; and

Figure 6 illustrates an example of a method for displaying maintenance tasks, according to an embodiment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Figure 1 illustrates an example of an arrangement for condition- based maintenance of at least one elevator in an embodiment. The condition- based maintenance may be performed for one or more elevators 102, 104. Each of the elevators may comprise one or more components C_1 , C_2, ...C_m, i.e. elevator components. A condition-based maintenance service (CBMS) 106 may be connected to the elevators for obtaining information for determining condition-based maintenance tasks of the elevators. The condition-based maintenance task may be determined per each elevator and/or component of the elevator. The CBMS may be implemented for example as a single computer or computer system. The computer system may be a cloud computing system.

An elevator may comprise at least one elevator car that is arranged movable between floors. The elevator car may be moved between the floors along a hoistway that may be determined by a direction, where the elevator car is hoisted. The floors may be separated in a vertical direction. Accordingly, the hoistway may extend in a vertical direction such that the elevator car may be moved from floor to floor by hoisting it. It should be appreciated that the vertical direction is typically defined by the direction of gravitation. However, the hoistway may extend also in other directions, for example in directions that are at an angle, i.e. inclined, to the vertical direction. These directions comprise at least a horizontal direction and a combination of the horizontal and vertical di- rection, where the elevator car may be moved in both the horizontal and the vertical direction.

Conventionally hoisting may be effected by hoisting machinery that connects to the elevator car by ropes. The elevator car is then moved by reeling the ropes up or down. Elevator cars are typically installed in elevator shafts. An elevator shaft is a part of a structure of a building. A single shaft may have one or more hoistways and corresponding elevator cars. It is also possible that the hoistways of the elevator cars in the shaft are the same. The hoistways may be the same for example, when two elevator cars are connected one upon another and they are hoisted by ropes attached to the upper ele- vator car.

The CBMS may comprise a task generator (TG) for generating condition-based maintenance tasks and a database DB for storing information of the elevators. Information of the elevators may comprise information identifying the elevators and condition information of the elevators and/or of the compo- nents of the elevators. The condition information may indicate wear and/or a maintenance need of the elevator and/or the component of the elevator. Examples of the condition information comprise condition levels and measurements. The condition levels may comprise levels such as "NEW", "GOOD" and "SERVICE NEED" and "FAULT". The measurements may comprise measure- ments of characteristics that may indicate wear of the components. The CBMS may be connected to the elevators for obtaining the condition information. The condition information may be delivered from the elevators automatically for example according to a pre-defined schedule or following an automated condition monitoring performed in the elevators.

A mobile communications device MCD 108 may be operatively connected to the CBMS for obtaining information indicating condition-based maintenance tasks of elevator components in the elevator. The MCD may be a portable, for example handheld, equipment such that the MCD may be moved by maintenance personnel from one location to another, when the mainte- nance personnel is performing condition-based maintenance tasks. The MCD is preferably capable of displaying one or more maintenance tasks and possible information related to the tasks such for assisting the maintenance personnel in performing the maintenance tasks. The displayed maintenance tasks may be ordered into a sequence minimizing a cost value. The CBMS may pro- vide communications of information indicating condition-based maintenance tasks from the TG to the MCD. The CBMS may comprise an interface unit (IFU) for connecting the MCD and the TG for communicating the information indicating condition-based maintenance tasks from the TG to the MCD. Examples of the MCD comprise a smart phone or a tablet computer.

An indoor positioning system (POS) 1 10 may be available to the

MCD over a data connection. The POS may have a service area, where the POS may be capable of determining a position of the MCD. The service area may substantially correspond to an area, for example a building, around the elevator. Accordingly, the service area of the elevator may be within the service area of the POS or at least partly overlapping with the service area of the POS. The MCD may be capable of indoor navigation on the basis of indoor positioning information obtained from the indoor positioning system. The indoor positioning information may comprise a location of the MCD within the service area of the POS.

Connections between the MCD, elevators, CBMS, indoor position- ing system may be implemented by data communications connections. In this way data such as data comprising information indicating condition-based maintenance tasks, information for determining condition-based maintenance tasks, condition information of the elevators and condition information of the components of the elevators may be communicated in the arrangement. The data communications connections may be connections in a communications network. Examples of the communications networks comprise mobile communications networks, internet, private networks and local area networks. The communications networks may be wired or wireless. In one example, wireless local area networks may be implemented according to the IEEE 802.1 1 family of standards. Capabilities for a data communications connection may be implemented in data communications unit and/or module.

Figure 2 illustrates an example of ordering maintenance tasks for condition-based maintenance according to an embodiment. The ordering may be performed by an MCD. Figure 2 illustrates the ordering of maintenance tasks by functional blocks that may be performed by the arrangement described in Figure 1 for example. The ordering may comprise obtaining a plurality of maintenance tasks and defining their order with respect to one another. The maintenance tasks may be ordered into a sequence, where a first maintenance task in the sequence is followed by another maintenance task until the last maintenance task is reached. Therefore, each maintenance task may be associated with the next maintenance task that should be performed after the current maintenance task.

A TG 206 may generate one or more condition-based maintenance tasks. The generated condition-based maintenance tasks may be obtained by a scheduler 204. A current indoor location 202 of the MCD may be determined on the basis of indoor positioning information. The indoor positioning infor- mation may be obtained from a POS for example. The scheduler may process the current indoor location of the MCD and the condition-based maintenance tasks and cause ordering the maintenance tasks into a sequence 208 by minimizing a cost value of moving from the current location through the ordered sequence of the maintenance tasks. The processing may comprise determining cost values for various permutations of ordered sequences of maintenance tasks. The ordered sequence that has the lowest cost value may be determined as the sequence of maintenance tasks to be followed in the condition- based maintenance.

Figure 3 illustrates an example of a condition-based maintenance task according to an embodiment. A condition-based maintenance task 302 may be generated by a TG, for example in the arrangement of Figure 1 . The condition-based maintenance task may comprise a location 304, where the task is performed and information 306 identifying one or more components of the elevator. The components may be the components that are subjected to a maintenance operation, when the condition-based maintenance is performed at the location. The location of the maintenance task may be the location of the components. The maintenance task and its components 304, 306 may be implemented as information elements in a data structure. The data structure may be relational database for example.

Figure 4 illustrates an example of a method according to an embodiment. The method provides optimizing maintenance tasks for performing condition-based maintenance of at least one elevator. The method may start 402, when a MCD is located in a service area of a POS. The MCD may be the MCD described with the arrangement of Figure 1 . The service area of the POS may substantially correspond to an area, for example a building, around the elevator. Accordingly, the service area of the elevator may be within the service area of the POS or at least partly overlapping with the service area of the POS. Preferably the MCD is in the service area of the elevator such that mainte- nance tasks may be performed to components of the elevator.

The MCD may obtain 404 information indicating condition-based maintenance tasks of elevator components in the elevator. The obtained information may comprise the condition-based maintenance tasks or links to the condition-based maintenance tasks. The links may be Uniform Resource Loca- tor (URL) -links for example. A condition-based maintenance task comprises an elevator component and a location of the elevator component in the service area of the elevator. Figures 3 illustrates an example of the condition-based maintenance task.

A current indoor location of the mobile communications device may be determined 406 by utilizing the POS. The MCD may be capable of indoor navigation on the basis of indoor positioning information obtained from the POS. The MCD may be capable of executing an indoor navigation application that may display the current indoor location of the MCD in a service area of the elevator. The current indoor location may be the indoor positioning information obtained from the POS. Data for representing the service area of the elevator may be stored in the MCD or delivered from the POS.

The MCD may determine 408 cost values of moving from the current location to a location of the first maintenance task and from the location of the first maintenance task to one or more other locations of maintenance tasks. In an embodiment the cost value is expressed as time, for example seconds, minutes, hours or any combination of the previous. Time may be calculated on the basis of speed of the maintenance personnel and a distance between the locations in the ordered sequence.

The mobile communications device may order 410 the maintenance tasks into a sequence by minimizing a cost value of moving from the current location through the ordered sequence of the maintenance tasks. When the cost value is expressed as time, the accumulated time from the maintenance personnel moving from the current location to the first maintenance task and through an ordered sequence of locations may be minimized.

It should be appreciated that the current location of the MCD may not necessarily be the location of the first maintenance task. Accordingly, the current location of the maintenance personnel may be anywhere in the service area of the indoor positioning system. However, it may be that the location of the MCD cannot be determined in the service area of the indoor positioning system. In such a case a default location may be used as the current location. The default location may be set in the POS or in the navigation application executed in the MCD. In this way the condition-based maintenance tasks may be ordered before the maintenance personnel carrying the MCD arrive to the location of the elevator. Then, once the maintenance personnel is at the location of the elevator and within the service area of the indoor positioning system, the maintenance tasks are already in order and the maintenance personnel may navigate to the location of the first maintenance task. The default location may be set for example in the floor, where the maintenance personnel is likely to arrive to the service area of the elevator.

The ordered maintenance tasks may be used for performing condition-based maintenance of the at least one elevator in an optimized order and the method may end 412.

Figure 5 illustrates an example of selecting maintenance tasks for ordering, according to an embodiment. The ordering may be performed as described with step 410 in Figure 4. A service area of the elevator may be within a service area 502 of the POS or at least partly overlapping with the service area of the POS. Figure 1 illustrates examples of the POS and the elevator. The service area of the elevator may include the elevator and components 506a, 506b, 506c of the elevator. The components within the service area may be associated with maintenance tasks 508. Figure 3 illustrates an example of associating components to maintenance tasks. In one example a task genera- tor may have generated maintenance tasks to components that are located within the service area of the elevator. A maintenance area 504 of the elevator may comprise a portion of the service area of the elevator and only the maintenance tasks that are within the maintenance area may be selected for ordering 510. The service area of the elevator may comprise one or more land- ing zones of the elevator, all the landing zones the elevator. Accordingly the maintenance area may comprise the whole service area of one, two or more elevators, or a part of the service area of one, two or more elevators.

The maintenance tasks selected for ordering may be determined on the basis of the current location of the MCD. The maintenance area may be the neighbourhood of the MCD. The size of the neighbourhood may be adjusted. The current location of the MCD may be updated as the MCD is moved. The maintenance tasks may be selected for ordering after the current location of the MCD has been determined 406 in the method of Figure 4.

Figure 6 illustrates an example of a method for displaying mainte- nance tasks, according to an embodiment. An ordered sequence of maintenance tasks may be obtained to be processed by the method. The ordered sequence may be received as a result form step 410 in Figure 4 for example.

Maintenance tasks near the current indoor location of the mobile communications device may be determined 602. The determined maintenance tasks may comprise at least the maintenance task closest to the current indoor location. The determined maintenance tasks may further comprise mainte- nance task within a specified distance from the current indoor location of the MCD. The determined maintenance tasks may be located in a maintenance area in the service area of the elevator. The specified distance from the current location of the MCD may define a neighbourhood of the MCD. The mainte- nance tasks within the neighbourhood may be selected for ordering as described above with Figure 5.

The determined maintenance tasks may be displayed 604. When the determined maintenance tasks comprise the maintenance task closes to the MCD, the maintenance tasks may be displayed in a relatively small area. When the determined maintenance tasks comprise further maintenance tasks, a larger area may be needed for displaying the maintenance tasks. Accordingly, the criteria for determining 602 the maintenance tasks may be used to adjust the number of maintenance tasks. In this way the area needed on a display and/or user interface for displaying the maintenance tasks may be limited.

In an embodiment the displayed 604 maintenance tasks may comprise maintenance tasks selected for ordering. The maintenance tasks may be selected for ordering as described with Figure 5.

The method may end 608 after the maintenance tasks have been displayed.

An apparatus according to an embodiment may comprise processor; and a memory including computer program code, the memory and the computer program code configured to, with the processor, cause the apparatus at least to perform a method according to an embodiment. The apparatus may be a mobile communications device, for example a smart phone or a tablet computer. The mobile communications device may comprise a display for displaying information to a user for example a maintenance personnel. The information may be displayed on a user interface, where user may enter commands for making selections. The user interface may comprise user interface elements that may serve for displaying information and/or receiving user input.

According to an embodiment, an apparatus such as a mobile communications device, or a part of the mobile communications device, for example a data processing unit or a module may comprise processing means configured to carry out an embodiment. The processing means may be formed by at least one processor and a memory. The processing means may be a com- puter or a part of a computer. In an embodiment there is provided a computer program comprising computer program code for execution on a computer to cause a method according to an embodiment, when said product is run on a computer. The computer program may be embodied on a computer -readable storage medium.

In an embodiment there is provided a computer program product for a computer, comprising a computer program according to an embodiment.

An embodiment concerns a computer program embodied on a computer -readable storage medium, the computer program comprising program to execute a process comprising a method according an embodiment.

Embodiments as described may also be carried out in the form of a computer process defined by a computer program. The computer program may be in source code form, object code form, or in some intermediate form, and it may be stored in some sort of carrier, which may be any entity or device capable of carrying the program. For example, the computer program may be stored on a computer -readable storage medium. The computer -readable storage medium may be a computer program distribution medium readable by a computer or a processor. The computer -readable storage medium may be, for example but not limited to, a record medium, computer memory, read-only memory, electrical carrier signal, telecommunications signal, and software dis- tribution package, for example.

The various embodiments may be applied to elevators and elevator arrangements, where people and goods may be transferred by an elevator. The techniques described herein may be implemented by various means so that an apparatus implementing one or more functions of a mobile communica- tions device described with an embodiment comprises not only prior art means, but also means for implementing the one or more functions of a corresponding apparatus described with an embodiment and it may comprise separate means for each separate function, or means may be configured to perform two or more functions. For example, these techniques may be implemented in hardware (one or more apparatuses), firmware (one or more apparatuses), software (one or more modules), or combinations thereof. A hardware implementation may be through one or more circuits, for example Application Specific Circuits (ASICs). For a firmware or software, implementation can be through modules (e.g., procedures, functions, and so on) that perform the functions described herein. The software codes may be stored in any suitable, processor/computer-readable data storage medium(s) or memory unit(s) or article(s) of manufacture and executed in a cloud computing system or by one or more processors/computers. The data storage medium or the memory unit may be implemented within the processor/computer or external to the processor/computer, in which case it can be communicatively coupled to the proces- sor/computer via various means as is known in the art.

It will be obvious to a person skilled in the art that, as the technology advances, the inventive concept can be implemented in various ways. The invention and its embodiments are not limited to the examples described above but may vary within the scope of the claims.

Claims

1 . A method comprising:

performing condition-based maintenance of at least one elevator by a mobile communications device in a service area of an indoor positioning sys- tern;

obtaining by the communications device information indicating condition-based maintenance tasks of elevator components in the elevator, wherein a condition-based maintenance task comprises an elevator component and a location of the elevator component in the service area of the elevator;

determining by utilizing the indoor positioning system a current indoor location of the mobile communications device;

determining by the mobile communications device cost values of moving from the current location to a location of the first maintenance task and from the location of the first maintenance task to one or more other locations of maintenance tasks;

ordering by the mobile communications device the maintenance tasks into a sequence by minimizing a cost value of moving from the current location through the ordered sequence of the maintenance tasks.

2. A method according to claim 1 , comprising:

displaying at least a portion of the ordered maintenance tasks on a display, wherein the displayed maintenance tasks comprise maintenance task closest to the current indoor location.

3. A method according to claim 1 or 2, comprising:

determining a maintenance area in the service area of the elevator and maintenance tasks within the maintenance area are selected for ordering.

4. A method according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the maintenance tasks are ordered on the basis of the current location being a default location within the service area of the indoor positioning system.

5. A method according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the maintenance area comprises at least one of: one or more landing zones of the elevator, all the landing zones the elevator, a service area of the elevator and service areas of two or more elevators.

6. A method according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the cost value is expressed as time.

7. A method according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the mobile communications device is a smart phone or a tablet computer.

8. An apparatus comprising:

a processor; and a memory including computer program code, the memory and the computer program code configured to, with the processor, cause the apparatus at least to perform the method according to any one of claims 1 to 7.

9. A computer program product comprising executable code that when executed cause to perform a method according to any of claims 1 to 7.