1000 Floor Elevator

This assignment was to create a model for a single elevator (not a system of elevators) that would serve a 1000 floor building.

Current Elevator Model:

1. Elevator makes all requested stops in one direction at a time, then reverses and makes all the stops in the other direction.

2. The UP and DOWN buttons on each floor stops the elevator on that floor when it is traveling in the corresponding direction.

3. Floor buttons inside the car select stops at each floor, typically the next time the car passes that floor.

4. Floors that are not selected are skipped.

5. All selections are irreversible.

6. Elevators issue an alert as they arrive at each requested floor.

7. Car displays current floor.

Given a building that’s two miles high, with only one elevator and 1000 individual floors, the current model would clearly create a system that would immediately overload. All floors would be requested at all times, and the 20 second trip (estimated from single sample research) from one floor means that a single round trip would take slightly over 11 hours. The only possible model for such a system would be an airline model, using a hub and spoke system The elevator would take all passengers to the ground floor (or a sky lobby) floor on a scheduled basis. Then when that floor was loaded, all passengers would be redistributed to their destinations. Without mathematical modeling it is impossible to predict the best schedule, but here we assume that the elevator would serve 25 floors at a time, in order.

1000 Floor Elevator Model

1. Elevator makes scheduled stops only.

2. Each floor displays a schedule of service for that floor, typically two per day.

3. Outside of emergency controls, there would be no floor selection system inside the car, which would make only scheduled stops, like a train.

4. Elevators issue an alert well before they arrive at each floor, and again at arrival, similar to platform announcements in a train station.

5. Car displays upcoming and current floor

I’ve sketched the interior view of the 1000 floor elevator car.