Optimization of Group Elevator Scheduling With Advance Information

Abstract

Abstract-Group elevator scheduling has received considerable attention due to its importance to transportation efficiency for mid-rise and high-rise buildings. One important trend to improve elevator systems is to collect advance traffic information. Nevertheless, it remains a challenge to develop new scheduling methods which can effectively utilize such information. This paper is to solve the group elevator scheduling problem with advance traffic information. This problem is difficult due to various traffic patterns, complicated car dynamics, and combinatorial explosion of the search space. A two-level formulation is developed with passenger-to-car assignment at the high-level and single car dispatching that is innovatively formulated as passenger-to-trip assignment at the low-level. Detailed car dynamics are embedded in simulation models for performance evaluation. Taking advantage of advance information, a new door action control method is suggested to increase the flexibility of elevators. In view of the hierarchical problem structure, a two-level optimization framework is established. Key problem characteristics are exploited to develop an effective trip-based heuristic for single car dispatching, and a hybrid nested partitions and genetic algorithm method for passenger-to-car assignment which can be extended to solve a generic class of sequential decision problems. Numerical results demonstrate solution quality, computational efficiency, benefit of advance information and the new door action control method, and values of new features in our hybrid method. Q. Note to Practitioners-This

A Real-Time Matrix Iterative Optimization Algorithm of Booking Elevator Group and Numerical Simulation Formed by Multi-Sensor Combination

“…In this paper, we mainly study the optimization algorithm for group control elevator with reservation function. In terms of data collection, reservations can get accurate data in advance [46]. The difference from traditional elevators is that the reservation elevator's data is more accurate and complete, such as the number of reservations on each floor, the remaining space of the elevator, and the arrival time; these variables are also key factors in the optimization problem.…”

Vertical Transportation Lift Capacity and Operating Policy Planning for Low-Rise Buildings with Circulatory Passengers

“…Debnath and Serpen (2015) developed a real-time scheduling algorithm based on nested partitions and genetic algorithms for multi-story fully automated parking with a group of lifts where the demand on each floors are simulated. Sun et al (2010) came up with a two level formulation for group lift scheduling with advance traffic information where passenger-to-car assignment is done at the higher level while passenger-to-trip assignment is done at the lower level. A genetic algorithm is used to solve the optimization problem.…”

Proposal and Progress of a Road-map to Bridge Theoretical and Practical Approaches for Elevator Operation Problems

“…One of the authors have tackled to the EOP from 2002, and have published a survey paper in Japanese at 2012 [10]. There are some academic studies [11,12,13,14] which have treated the EOP as optimization problems. Especially, the optimal operation rule for the up-peak traffic pattern was displayed in [14], whereas that rule requires such unavailable information as the arrival rate of passengers.…”

“…Especially, the optimal operation rule for the up-peak traffic pattern was displayed in [14], whereas that rule requires such unavailable information as the arrival rate of passengers. Other studies have no guarantee to yield optimal solutions, due to the incomplete formulation [12], the utilization of the receding horizon approach [11], and the utilization of the genetic algorithm [13]. One of the authors made it possible to yield optimal solutions for the deterministic and stochastic EOPs by deploying the integer linear programming [4,16] and the dynamic programming [15], respectively.…”

“…There must be a proper formulation that deploys this reverse-run constraint to shrink the search space of the EOP. This perspective has been realized by introducing the notion of trip [13,4], which denotes in this paper a one-directional movement of a car and comprises a car trajectory. A sketch of trips is illustrated in Figure 1, in where one car forms a trajectory which is comprised of 2 trips and conveys 3 passengers.…”