Elevators
45 points by markerz
45 points by markerz
Another issue with destination dispatch is that it requires each individual in a group to select the floor. Otherwise, the elevator does not know it should schedule room for N people. On the other hand, people may get impatient or may have forgotten which cab they should use and ask for another one, which may schedule an additional cab for the same floor.
At work, we have such a system and they put a lengthy notice to explain people how it should work (without much effect).
I've seen destination dispatch work well in combination with entrance gates. Everyone taps their card to go through the gate, and the gate immediately tells which elevator to use. It worked well enough that even during "rush hour" times in the morning or after lunch, the elevator usually was already there or arrived within a few seconds.
On the other hand, since the system was so heavily optimized for picking people up from the ground floor, waiting multiple minutes for the elevator on the way down wasn't uncommon. There was no "group" problem there though, since the elevator only allowed us to go to the ground floor.
This is really cool! I suspect lifts are probably adjacent to trains in special interest categorisation. I remember playing a lot of SimTower when I was younger, which is in some sense a lift simulator.
More recently I have enjoyed playing Elevator Saga, in which you write programs to control stimulated lifts. This article would presumably help a lot with the game!
I heard a rumour recently that SimTower was built as an elevator simulator specifically but was retooled to be sold as a videogame when they didn't succeed in selling the simulator to engineering firms.
I think it's funny that the complicated kiosk ones don't do as well!
I found that surprising that even in a simulation they are not great. In practice I found them to be quite a challenge when users are not familiar with them or the labeling is bad.
From people getting onto the wrong elevator to missing their elevator I have seen quite a bit.