1. An elevator operation management method, characterized by comprising the steps of:

establishing a communication connection with at least one robot movably arranged within a preset area;

receiving data information from the robot, the data information including elevator service information generated by the robot from input information relating to elevator visitors; and

controlling the operation of the elevator and/or the operation of at least one other of said robots on the basis of the received data information.

2. The elevator operation management method according to claim 1, wherein the robots include at least a first robot and a second robot which are respectively disposed at different positions of the preset area, and the input information is acquired from an elevator visitor by the first robot to generate the elevator service information, the elevator service information including an identity, a current position and a call floor of the elevator visitor.

3. The elevator operation management method according to claim 2, wherein the elevator operation management method further comprises at least one of the steps of:

according to the current position and the calling floor in the elevator service information, an elevator car is dispatched to reach the floor where the current position is located, and the elevator car is moved to the calling floor after the elevator visitor is loaded;

notifying the second robot at or closest to the call floor to an elevator doorway at the call floor according to the call floor in the elevator service information to provide service to the elevator visitor after reaching the call floor;

judging whether the second robot needs to be informed of accompanying the elevator visitor to take the elevator according to the identity characteristics in the elevator service information: if so, informing the elevator visitor to go to the elevator door at the current position to accompany the elevator visitor to take the elevator, and not responding to the elevator operation of the elevator visitor before the elevator visitor arrives at the elevator door;

when the elevator visitor takes the elevator, carrying out identity verification on the elevator visitor according to the identity characteristics in the elevator service information; and

and when the elevator visitor changes the calling floor, auditing is carried out according to the identity characteristics in the elevator service information, and the calling registration is updated after the auditing is passed.

4. The elevator operation management method according to claim 3, wherein the elevator operation management method further comprises the steps of:

receiving feedback information of the second robot which is notified or notified; and

notifying at least another one of the second robots of arrival at the elevator doorway when it is determined that the notified or notified second robot cannot arrive at the elevator doorway according to the feedback information.

5. The elevator operation management method according to claim 2, wherein the first robot is disposed in a lobby of a building in which elevators are located, and the second robot is disposed on one or more floors of the building.

6. The elevator operation management method according to claim 1, wherein the preset area includes a target position, and the elevator operation management method further comprises the steps of:

determining whether the robot is currently at the target position: if not, at least one robot is informed of the arrival at the target position.

7. The elevator operation management method according to claim 1, wherein the elevator operation management method further comprises the steps of:

notifying at least one of the robots to perform at least one of: the method comprises the steps of carrying out elevator safety inspection, identifying danger or faults in the preset area, warning the danger or faults in the preset area, and detecting crowd flow in the preset area.

8. The elevator operation management method of claim 7, wherein the robot is caused to perform the operation by providing one or more sensors comprising one or more of an image sensor, a video sensor, an acoustic sensor, an infrared sensor, a depth sensor, a temperature sensor, a smoke sensor, a gunshot sensor.

9. The elevator operation management method according to claim 1, wherein the preset area includes a hall of a building in which the elevator is located, an elevator doorway, and a target position of a preset floor.

10. An elevator operation management device comprising a processor and a memory for storing instructions, characterized in that when the instructions are executed, the processor implements an elevator operation management method according to any one of claims 1-9.

11. An elevator system, comprising:

an elevator; and

elevator operation management apparatus in communicative connection with the elevator and at least one robot movably arranged within a preset area and comprising a processor and a memory for storing instructions, the processor implementing the elevator operation management method of any of claims 1-9 when the instructions are executed.

12. A computer-readable storage medium storing instructions for implementing an elevator operation management method as recited in any one of claims 1-9 when executed.

Background

Due to technological advances and social developments, there have been increasing numbers of types of autonomous intelligent facilities such as intelligent office buildings, large commercial buildings, public transportation hubs, etc., in which transportation of such things as people, materials, etc. is generally implemented using respective elevator facilities, thereby being capable of providing great convenience to people's work, life, travel, etc.

However, as the daily activities of people become frequent and complicated and the demand for personalization increases, the autonomous intelligent facilities will have defects and shortcomings in aspects such as safety, intelligence, convenience, user experience and use cost when using the existing elevator to provide corresponding services for the people.

Disclosure of Invention

In view of the above, the present invention provides an elevator operation management method, an elevator operation management apparatus, an elevator system, and a computer-readable storage medium, thereby solving or at least alleviating one or more of the above-described problems and other problems in the prior art.

First, according to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided an elevator operation management method including the steps of:

establishing a communication connection with at least one robot movably arranged within a preset area;

receiving data information from the robot, the data information including elevator service information generated by the robot from input information relating to elevator visitors; and

controlling the operation of the elevator and/or the operation of at least one other of said robots on the basis of the received data information.

In the elevator operation management method according to the present invention, optionally, the robot includes at least a first robot and a second robot which are respectively disposed at different positions of the preset area, and the input information is acquired from an elevator visitor by the first robot to generate the elevator service information, which includes an identity of the elevator visitor, a current position, and a call floor.

In the elevator operation management method according to the present invention, optionally, the elevator operation management method further includes at least one of the steps of:

according to the current position and the calling floor in the elevator service information, an elevator car is dispatched to reach the floor where the current position is located, and the elevator car is moved to the calling floor after the elevator visitor is loaded;

notifying the second robot at or closest to the call floor to an elevator doorway at the call floor according to the call floor in the elevator service information to provide service to the elevator visitor after reaching the call floor;

judging whether the second robot needs to be informed of accompanying the elevator visitor to take the elevator according to the identity characteristics in the elevator service information: if so, informing the elevator visitor to go to the elevator door at the current position to accompany the elevator visitor to take the elevator, and not responding to the elevator operation of the elevator visitor before the elevator visitor arrives at the elevator door;

when the elevator visitor takes the elevator, carrying out identity verification on the elevator visitor according to the identity characteristics in the elevator service information; and

and when the elevator visitor changes the calling floor, auditing is carried out according to the identity characteristics in the elevator service information, and the calling registration is updated after the auditing is passed.

In the elevator operation management method according to the present invention, optionally, the elevator operation management method further includes the steps of:

receiving feedback information of the second robot which is notified or notified; and

notifying at least another one of the second robots of arrival at the elevator doorway when it is determined that the notified or notified second robot cannot arrive at the elevator doorway according to the feedback information.

In the elevator operation management method according to the present invention, optionally, the first robot is disposed in a lobby of a building in which an elevator is located, and the second robot is disposed on one or more floors of the building.

In the elevator operation management method according to the present invention, optionally, the preset area includes a target position, and the elevator operation management method further includes the steps of:

determining whether the robot is currently at the target position: if not, at least one robot is informed of the arrival at the target position.

In the elevator operation management method according to the present invention, optionally, the elevator operation management method further includes the steps of:

notifying at least one of the robots to perform at least one of: the method comprises the steps of carrying out elevator safety inspection, identifying danger or faults in the preset area, warning the danger or faults in the preset area, and detecting crowd flow in the preset area.

In the elevator operation management method according to the present invention, optionally, the robot is caused to perform the operation by providing one or more sensors including one or more of an image sensor, a video sensor, an acoustic sensor, an infrared sensor, a depth sensor, a temperature sensor, a smoke sensor, and a gunshot sensor.

In the elevator operation management method according to the present invention, optionally, the preset area includes a hall of a building in which the elevator is located, an elevator doorway, and a target position of a preset floor.

Further, according to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided an elevator operation management device comprising a processor and a memory for storing instructions, the processor implementing the elevator operation management method as described in any one of the above when the instructions are executed.

Further, according to a third aspect of the present invention, there is also provided an elevator system comprising:

an elevator having at least one elevator car; and

elevator operation management apparatus in communicative connection with the elevator and at least one robot movably arranged within a preset area and comprising a processor and a memory for storing instructions, the processor implementing an elevator operation management method as defined in any of the above when the instructions are executed.

Further, according to a fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a computer-readable storage medium for storing instructions that when executed implement the elevator operation management method according to any of the above.

The principles, features, characteristics, advantages and the like of various aspects according to the present invention will be clearly understood from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. For example, by applying the robot technology in the technical scheme of the invention, the service level of the existing elevator system can be obviously improved, so that the service requirement of people can be met more safely, reliably, efficiently and intelligently, and the elevator riding comfort experience of people is improved. The invention can make up the deficiency of the prior elevator system in the aspects of meeting higher intellectualization and the like, and can be effectively combined with the elevator system to reduce the use cost, thereby having outstanding practicability.

Drawings

The present invention will be described in further detail below with reference to the drawings and examples, but it should be understood that the drawings are designed solely for purposes of illustration and are not necessarily drawn to scale, but rather are intended to conceptually illustrate the structural configurations described herein.

Fig. 1 is a schematic flow diagram of an embodiment of an elevator operation management method according to the present invention.

Fig. 2 is a schematic view of an application scenario of an embodiment of an elevator operation management method according to the present invention.

Fig. 3 is a schematic view of another application scenario of an embodiment of the elevator operation management method according to the present invention.

Detailed Description

First of all, it should be noted that the structural constitutions, steps, features, advantages and the like of the elevator operation management method, the elevator operation management apparatus, the elevator system and the computer readable storage medium according to the present invention will be described below by way of example, however, all the descriptions should not be construed to form any limitation on the present invention. In this context, the technical term "robot" is used broadly to refer to all man-made machine devices capable of automatically performing tasks, which can be used to replace or assist humans in numerous types of transactions, such as providing numerous types of elevator-related elevator services such as zone guidance, accompanying elevator rides, routing inspection, hazard identification and warning, traffic data collection and analysis, etc., to better assist in elevator system operation.

Furthermore, any single feature described or implicit in an embodiment or any single feature shown or implicit in the drawings or shown or implicit in the drawings described herein may still allow any combination or permutation to continue between the features (or their equivalents) without any technical impediment, and thus further embodiments according to the present invention should be considered within the scope of the present disclosure. In addition, for simplicity of the drawings, identical or similar parts and features may be indicated in the same drawing only in one or several places.

The general process flow of an embodiment of the elevator operation management method according to the invention is shown in fig. 1, 2 and 3, respectively, and a specific application scenario using two different embodiments of the method according to the invention, which will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying examples.

Referring to fig. 1, in the embodiment shown in the figure, the elevator operation management method may include the steps of:

first, in step S11, a communication connection may be established between a module, device, or system for managing elevator operation (e.g., an elevator controller, etc.) and the robot for use in communicating data information. Depending on the specific application needs, one or more robots may be flexibly arranged in a predetermined area, for example each movably arranged as required at the entrance of the building in which the elevator is located, at the door of the elevator, at the destination location of a certain floor or floors (as may be related to danger or malfunction alerting, conference guidance, equipment safety, etc.), so that a multitude of possible types of services may be provided at the required location(s) depending on the application needs. The number of the robots, the working models, the sizes, the functional purposes, the power supply modes, the arrangement areas, etc. can be selected, set or adjusted according to the actual requirements, and will be further described with reference to the embodiments shown in fig. 2 and 3.

It should be understood that, in a specific application, the communication connection with the robot described above is allowed to use any feasible manner, for example, a wireless communication manner, a wired communication manner or a combination of the wireless communication manner and the wired communication manner. For example, wireless communication means such as Bluetooth, WiFi, NB-IOT, ZigBee, 4G, 5G, etc. may be used alone or in any combination. Although, in general, the communication connection between the robot and the module, device or system for managing the operation of the elevator will be a two-way interaction (i.e. allowing both send and receive operation), it is also possible in some applications to transmit only one way (i.e. only allow send or receive operation), for example only allowing to receive data information from the robot and not to send data information to it.

In addition, the module, device or system for managing elevator operation can be disposed locally (e.g., in a building at an elevator installation site) and/or in the cloud, which can be set and selected according to actual requirements of different applications and the like.

With continued reference to fig. 1, in step S12, data information from a robot movably arranged within a preset area may be received by means of the above communication connection. Such data information may include any possible content to provide for use such as a module, device or system for managing elevator operation, depending on the particular application. For example, the data information may include, but is not limited to, elevator service information (e.g., information such as an identity of an elevator visitor, a current location, a call floor, etc.) generated by the robot from which input information relating to the elevator visitor was obtained. With regard to the above-mentioned obtaining of the input information, the present invention allows to be implemented in various ways or ways so as to be able to adequately meet different application demand situations. For example, it may be provided by elevator visitors, field workers, etc. during the interaction with the robot, such as manually operating a human-machine interface provided on the robot, performing voice dialogue communication with the robot, performing data acquisition and analysis processing in the form of images/videos, etc. by the robot on target objects, such as elevator visitors, etc. As another example, a call floor may be provided directly by an elevator visitor, but when the elevator visitor knows only a portion of the information desired to travel to the destination (e.g., only the name of a company can be provided) and does not know the exact floor information, the corresponding call floor may be obtained by the robot hosting it through its own processing (e.g., querying a local or remote database, etc.).

Then, in step S13, the operation of the elevator and/or the further robot or robots can be controlled on the basis of the received data information. In practice this may be implemented by e.g. a module, device or system or the like for managing the operation of the elevator, e.g. corresponding control instructions may be formed after having determined that the above data information has been analyzed and then sent to a specific robot or robots via the above discussed communication connections to respond, thereby providing the required elevator service operation or the like. Two different examples, illustrated in figures 2 and 3, will be described in detail below in order to facilitate a better understanding of the inventive solution.

An application scenario of an embodiment of the elevator operation management method according to the invention is schematically presented in fig. 2.

Specifically, in this embodiment, one robot 1 and several robots 2 are shown, which are respectively arranged at different positions of a preset area, for example, the robot 1 described above may be arranged at a hall a of a building 5, and the robots 2 may be exemplarily arranged at floors F2, F4, and F5 of the building 5 as needed. Of course, the robots 2 may alternatively travel to other floors, such as the floors F1 and F3 shown in fig. 2, where the robots are not directly disposed.

It is noted that the "preset zone" in this context may be any desired target zone inside the building associated with the elevator, but it may also be a peripheral zone of the building, for example the invention allows additional arrangement of one or more robots in the vicinity of the building for providing corresponding services, which is very advantageous in the face of handling e.g. holding various types of exhibitions, parties, major events etc. inside the building and may thus create a large elevator passenger traffic, which in particular enables timely and fast provision of data information to the elevator system, improves the intelligent service level and safety reliability of the system as a whole, and improves the user experience of taking the elevator.

As shown in fig. 2, data information such as elevator service information can be generated by the robot 1 according to the situation of the elevator visitor 3 for the purpose of implementing management and control of the elevator, e.g. by means of a module, device or system (or any other suitable module, device or system) or the like, e.g. for managing the operation of the elevator.

By way of illustration, in an alternative situation, it is possible to dispatch the elevator car 4 directly to the current floor on which the elevator visitor 3 is located, on the basis of the current position and the call floor in the elevator service information received in connection with the elevator visitor 3, and then to move directly to the call floor after loading it into the elevator car 4, so that a fairly intelligent elevator running service can be achieved.

Furthermore, in some embodiments, based on the call floor received in the elevator service information related to the elevator visitor 3, the destination floor that the elevator visitor 3 wishes to go to at this time can be known, so the robot 2 at the call floor can be notified of the arrival at the elevator doorway B at the call floor, so that after the elevator visitor 3 arrives at the call floor, the robot 2 can provide any possible service such as guidance, consultation and the like to the elevator visitor 3. Of course, if it is found that no robot 2 is currently available for service at the call floor (e.g., has not been previously placed there, or has been placed there but is not currently at a position, etc.), then robots 2 located on other floors (e.g., closest to the call floor above) may be notified to travel to elevator doorway B at the call floor to be able to provide service to elevator visitors 3 arriving at that location. As an alternative, it is conceivable to carry out the above notification operations for the other robots 2 directly by the robot 1.

In addition, in some embodiments, during the elevator taking by the elevator visitor 3, the elevator visitor 3 may be authenticated according to the identity characteristics in the elevator service information, such as determining and analyzing whether the elevator visitor 3 has the authority to access the requested call floor, and the like, which may be implemented by means of the database information and the like stored locally and/or remotely, for example, by a module, a device or a system for managing elevator operation. If the authentication fails, any suitable follow-up measures may be taken, such as notifying security personnel to go to the field for processing, sending a security alert, and the like.

It should be understood that the "identity feature" herein may comprise any information alone or in combination for identifying the specific identity of the elevator visitor 3 distinctively, such as a certificate number (e.g., identification number, passport number, etc.), facial image, voice sound wave, age, gender, body shape, motion feature, work occupation, etc., which may not only be provided directly by the elevator visitor 3 during interaction with the robot, but may also be obtained by the robot, etc., by means of voice, image capture, etc.

As an alternative exemplary illustration, when an elevator visitor 3 changes the original call floor for various reasons, such as a malfunction, this change operation may be audited according to such identity in the elevator service information, for example by means of a module, device or system or the like that governs the elevator operation, if the call registration is updated by the audit, this change operation may be rejected otherwise, and the elevator visitor 3 may optionally be informed of the rejection structure, for example by a robot or other device located in the building, such as a human machine interaction screen or the like.

In addition, in some application occasions, one or more target positions in a preset area can be monitored by adopting a mode of camera monitoring and the like, and when the target position is judged to have no robot currently, one or more robots are informed to arrive at the target position, so that the required robot can be ensured to be always resident at the target position to provide services. Generally, the above-mentioned target position is often a relatively important or critical position, such as a hall a of a building, an elevator doorway B at some (or all) floors, an area in a situation of maintenance or malfunction of a facility, or the like, an area where a dangerous situation occurs, or the like.

Referring next to fig. 3, an application scenario of an embodiment of the elevator operation management method according to the present invention is schematically shown. Unless otherwise stated, these components and their operation in the embodiment of fig. 3 may be referred to the corresponding description of the embodiment of fig. 2 described above.

As shown in fig. 3, in which two robots 1 are exemplarily shown arranged at the entrance hall a of a building at the same time, by means of which they can be used to interact with elevator visitors 3. For example, when a building has a large space range, the two robots 1 may be arranged in a staggered manner, for example, so that they are relatively close to different entrance and exit of a hall, respectively, so as to better cope with the environmental space characteristics at that time. As mentioned before, the inventive method fully allows for a flexible selection, setting and adjustment of the specific arrangement position, number of settings, etc. of the robot 1 according to the application requirements, e.g. the robot 1 may also be arranged at a certain floor or floors of a building, so that it is convenient for elevator passengers 3 to possibly provide service when traveling at such floor to other buildings 6 communicating with the building 5, which is also schematically shown in fig. 3.

In some embodiments, when it is determined that the robot 2 needs to be arranged to accompany the elevator visitor 3 (e.g., indicating handicap, old and young, sick, etc.) when taking the elevator, for example, according to the identity of the elevator service information or other means (e.g., actively making a request by the elevator visitor, etc.), one or more robots 2 can be informed by the robot 1, or a module, device, or system for managing elevator operation, etc. to go to the elevator doorway B at the current location, to subsequently accompany the elevator visitor 3, and before the robot 2 reaches the elevator doorway B, the elevator does not respond to any elevator operation made by the elevator visitor 3, therefore, the overall safety performance of the system can be enhanced, the special elevator visitors can obtain more intelligent and humanized elevator service, and the satisfaction and comfort of the visitors are improved.

In addition, in an embodiment of the method according to the invention, the robot may be arranged, upon receiving a notification task, e.g. to go somewhere, to first determine whether the task can be performed, and if it is determined that it cannot be performed, to issue a corresponding feedback message to inform e.g. the module, device or system, or other robot, etc. used to manage the elevator operation, and by the latter etc. to inform in time the scheduling of another robot to perform the task.

It is noted that the robot in the method of the invention can also be applied to any possible kind of transactions, e.g. in connection with elevator service.

By way of example only, the one or more robots may be informed to perform such operations as, but not limited to, performing elevator safety checks, identifying hazards (e.g., public hazard behaviors) or faults within the preset area, alerting hazards (e.g., assaults, gunshots, gas leaks, biochemical attacks, etc.) or faults (e.g., causing the robots to travel to or near current trouble shooting locations) within the preset area, detecting crowd flow within the preset area, etc., so as to assist in performing safe operation management of the elevator, reduce or even eliminate undesired safety risks and possible personal, equipment, or property damage thereto, and thereby effectively improve the overall safety of the elevator system.

In practice, one or more sensors may be used to cause the robot to perform the above or other operations. For example, such sensors may employ one or more of, for example, an image sensor, a video sensor, an acoustic sensor, an infrared sensor, a depth sensor, a temperature sensor, a smoke sensor, a gunshot sensor, and the arrangement position, the arrangement number, the arrangement type, and the like thereof may be flexibly set in a specific application. For example, the invention allows one or more sensors to be mounted directly on the robot, either alone or in combination, at the hallway, floor, top of the elevator car 4, side wall or any other suitable location of the building, so as to be able to better detect the desired data information.

In addition, as an aspect which is obviously superior to the prior art, the invention also provides an elevator operation management device which can comprise a processor and a memory which stores instructions, when the instructions are executed, the processor in the elevator operation management device realizes the elevator operation management method designed and provided according to the invention, thereby being capable of exerting the obvious technical advantages compared with the prior art.

As an alternative, the elevator operation management device according to the invention can be implemented, for example, as an elevator controller for controlling the operation of elevators, which can be integrated, for example, into the elevator controllers of existing elevators, so that the level of intelligence of these existing elevators can be increased effectively.

As an example, in some applications, the elevator operation management device may be implemented in any suitable form, such as a control device externally installed separately from the control system of the elevator itself (e.g., an elevator controller), an application APP installed on a terminal (e.g., a smart phone, a handheld tablet computer, etc.), and the like, so as to perform communication interaction between the robot and the control system of the elevator itself through the application APP, thereby implementing the elevator operation management method according to the present invention as described above.

Further, it is understood that the processor and the memory in the elevator operation management device according to the present invention may be implemented by any suitable components, chips, modules, etc., and for example, the memory may be used to store program instructions, and the processor may be operated to implement the corresponding steps included in the above program instructions.

According to the idea of the present invention, it is also provided an elevator system, which may comprise an elevator and an elevator operation management apparatus designed according to the present invention, by which a communication connection with the elevator and one or more robots movably disposed in a preset area is made possible to implement the elevator operation management method according to the present invention, thereby enabling to raise the level of intelligence of the elevator system, which may employ any elevator having a lifting function, such as existing numerous types of elevator products. By adopting the elevator system, the intelligent level of the elevator system can be improved by applying advanced robot technology at lower cost, thereby effectively solving the defects and the shortcomings in the prior art.

Furthermore, the present invention also provides a computer-readable storage medium for storing instructions that, when executed, can implement an elevator operation management method according to the present invention. The computer-readable storage medium may be any type of component, module or device capable of storing instructions, which may include, but is not limited to, for example, Read Only Memory (ROM), Random Access Memory (RAM), Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory (EPROM), and the like.

The elevator operation management method, the elevator operation management apparatus, the elevator system, and the computer-readable storage medium according to the present invention have been explained in detail above by way of examples only, and these examples are only for illustrating the principles of the present invention and the embodiments thereof, not for limiting the present invention, and those skilled in the art can make various modifications and improvements without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention. Accordingly, all equivalents are intended to be included within the scope of this invention and defined in the claims which follow.