According to projections by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, by 2050, two-thirds of the world's population will live in cities. With the rapid advancement of urbanization, people will be able to live in buildings...
Intelligent people sensing technologies (such as artificial intelligence, computer vision, and people flow statistics) are used to help improve people mobility, reduce inefficiencies, and enhance building value. This article will explore how to use intelligent people sensing technologies to shorten the time it takes for elevator systems to reach their destination floors, thereby improving the elevator experience.
As shown in Figure 1, the time to reach the destination floor consists of three different time periods: waiting time, boarding time, and elevator ride time.
Figure 1: Time periods for elevator to reach destination floor
One of the key goals in designing modern elevator systems is to reduce the average time for all passengers to reach their destination floor. For example, in a 16-story commercial office building, the average time to reach the destination floor is about 70 seconds, with an average waiting time of about 25 seconds—but this time can vary depending on the actual situation of the day. During lunchtime, the elevator's arrival time tends to be longer than in the morning due to the two-way flow of people entering and leaving the office building.
Modern elevator systems are designed to reduce passenger travel time to their destination floors and improve the efficiency of movement throughout the building. Intelligent elevator group control algorithms help predict and manage passenger flow during peak hours, such as mornings and lunchtimes. For both passengers and those waiting for elevators, stopping a fully loaded elevator on a floor to pick up more passengers is inefficient. Furthermore, sending elevators to floors where no one is using them (when someone calls for the elevator but walks away) is also inefficient.
Using millimeter-wave sensors for people tracking, people counting, and motion detection
One approach to addressing these issues is to calculate the number of passengers inside the elevator and the number of people waiting outside in real time, enabling efficient and dynamic crowd control algorithms. Additionally, the ability to identify people waiting outside the elevator and those passing by is crucial, providing more accurate data for elevator queues. Intelligent personnel detection functions (people counting and motion detection) allow elevator crowd control systems to schedule elevators more efficiently, improve the riding experience, and save energy and operating costs.
Texas Instruments' industrial millimeter-wave sensors for building automation enable the detection and tracking of people indoors (within a 14m range). They can be used for high-precision occupancy detection, and the detected person's position and speed can be used to trigger elevator systems when a person enters a relevant area or moves in a specific direction. Furthermore, they can optimize elevator door operation (keeping the elevator doors open or closed while boarding). Texas Instruments' millimeter-wave sensors utilize onboard processing power to reduce false detections by ignoring unimportant static objects (such as tables and boxes) and dynamic objects (such as plants and fans). They can operate in extremely challenging environments, such as bright sunlight, nighttime, and low-visibility environments with smoke, fog, and dust. Because there are no cameras or optical lenses, millimeter-wave technology is also suitable for privacy-sensitive applications.
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