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EP-4537169-B1 - MAINTENANCE MANAGEMENT OF PEOPLE CONVEYOR SYSTEM

EP4537169B1EP 4537169 B1EP4537169 B1EP 4537169B1EP-4537169-B1

Inventors

  • PEKANDER, OTTO
  • Zakrzewski, Mari

Dates

Publication Date
20260506
Application Date
20220608

Claims (12)

  1. A method for managing a maintenance of a people conveyor system (110), the method, performed by a control system (100), comprises: receiving (310) data indicative of a state of the people conveyor system (110), characterized in that the method further comprises: classifying (320) the state of the people conveyor system (110) to correspond to one maintenance operation among a plurality of maintenance operations , the plurality of maintenance operations at least comprising a number of mobile robot (120) manageable maintenance operations and a number of human manageable maintenance operations, setting (330), in accordance with a classification of the state of the people conveyor system (110), a detection result to express one of the following: (i) a mobile robot (120) is required to perform the maintenance operation, (ii) a human operator is required to perform the maintenance operation.
  2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the data indicative of the state of the people conveyor system (110) is received from at least one of the following: a controller of the people conveyor system (110); at least one sensor arranged to measure at least one parameter descriptive of an operation of the people conveyor system (110); a safety circuit of the people conveyor system (110); a remote service centre of the people conveyor system (110).
  3. The method according to claim 1 or claim 2, wherein the data received comprises a fault code in the data descriptive of the state of the people conveyor system (110).
  4. The method according to any of the preceding claims, wherein the classifying (320) comprises a comparison of a number of parameters descriptive of the state of the people conveyor system (110) to corresponding parameters associated to each maintenance operation among the plurality of the maintenance operations.
  5. The method according to any of the preceding claims, the method further comprises, in response to setting the detection result to express that the mobile robot (120) is required to perform the maintenance operation, steps of: selecting (510) the mobile robot (120) for performing the maintenance operation, generating (520) a control signal to the selected mobile robot (120) to cause performing of the maintenance operation.
  6. The method according to claim 5, wherein the selecting (510) of the mobile robot (120) is performed on a basis of a capability of the mobile robot (120) with respect to the maintenance operation.
  7. The method of claim 6, wherein the capability of the mobile robot (120) is defined based on a technical capability of the mobile robot (120) to perform the maintenance operation.
  8. The method of claim 7, wherein the capability of the mobile robot (120) is further defined based on an availability of the mobile robot (120) to perform the maintenance operation at a predefined instant of time.
  9. The method according to any of the preceding claims 1 to 4, the method further comprises, in response to setting the detection result to express that the human operator is required to perform the maintenance operation, steps of: selecting (610) the human operator for performing the maintenance operation, generating (620) a control signal to a terminal device (140) of the selected human operator to cause performing of the maintenance operation.
  10. The method according to claim 9, wherein the selecting (610) of the human operator is performed on a basis of a capability of the human operator with respect to the maintenance operation.
  11. A control system (100) for managing a maintenance of a people conveyor system (110), the control system (100) is configured to execute the steps of the method according to any of claims 1 to 10.
  12. A computer program comprising computer readable program code configured to cause performing of the method according to any of claims 1 to 10 when the computer readable program code is run on at least on processor of the control system (100) according to claim 11.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD The invention concerns in general the technical field of people conveyor systems. More particularly, the invention concerns a management of maintenance operations. BACKGROUND Different kinds of people conveyor systems are high-tech products consisting of a plurality of sub-systems and devices. Since the people conveyor systems are developed to serve individuals in a safe manner, there is a need to keep the conveyor systems operative at a high level of service. This requires continuous maintenance of the people conveyor systems so as to keep them in condition over the life cycle of the system. The maintenance of the people conveyor systems is usually arranged so that a technician enters the site of the conveyor system under a predefined maintenance schedule and performs necessary operations thereto. Additionally, the conveyor systems are equipped with internal monitoring mechanisms by means of which it is possible to monitor an operation of the respective conveyor system. The internal monitoring mechanism may e.g. comprise sensors and the like to generate data descriptive of the operation of the people conveyor system which data is analyzed and conclusions on the operation of the system may be derived. As a result of the monitoring it is possible to generate notifications indicative of the operation of the system, such as malfunctioning. Such notifications may cause a generation of service requests so that a technician may visit the site to perform necessary maintenance operations. On the other hand, autonomously moving vehicles, i.e. robots, are gaining more and more technical capabilities so as to enable them to execute operations as a service, which, in turn, allows a utilization of the robots in various contexts. An example of an application of robots in a context of repairing industrial assets, like aircraft engines, is provided in a document US 2020/193392 A1. As it is commonly known the maintenance operations vary a lot in nature and sending the technician at the site causes delay in the maintenance but also generates cost especially if the maintenance request is generated by mistake of the monitoring system, and/or the like. Hence, there is room for introducing novel approaches in the maintenance area so as to optimize an execution of the maintenance operation. SUMMARY The following presents a simplified summary in order to provide basic understanding of some aspects of various invention embodiments. The summary is not an extensive overview of the invention. It is neither intended to identify key or critical elements of the invention nor to delineate the scope of the invention. The following summary merely presents some concepts of the invention in a simplified form as a prelude to a more detailed description of exemplifying embodiments of the invention. An object of the invention is to present a method, a control system, and a computer program for managing a maintenance of a people conveyor system. The objects of the invention are reached by a method, a control system, and a computer program as defined by the respective independent claims. According to a first aspect, a method for managing a maintenance of a people conveyor system is provided, the method, performed by a control system, comprises: receiving data indicative of a state of the people conveyor system,classifying the state of the people conveyor system to correspond to one maintenance operation among a plurality of maintenance operations , the plurality of maintenance operations at least comprising a number of mobile robot manageable maintenance operations and a number of human manageable maintenance operations,setting, in accordance with a classification of the state of the people conveyor system, a detection result to express one of the following: (i) a mobile robot is required to perform the maintenance operation, (ii) a human operator is required to perform the maintenance operation. For example, the data indicative of the state of the people conveyor system may be received from at least one of the following: a controller of the people conveyor system; at least one sensor arranged to measure at least one parameter descriptive of an operation of the people conveyor system; a safety circuit of the people conveyor system; a remote service centre of the people conveyor system. The data received may comprise a fault code in the data descriptive of the state of the people conveyor system. Moreover, the classifying may comprise a comparison of a number of parameters descriptive of the state of the people conveyor system to corresponding parameters associated to each maintenance operation among the plurality of the maintenance operations. The method may further comprise, in response to setting the detection result to express that the mobile robot is required to perform the maintenance operation, steps of: selecting the mobile robot for performing the maintenance operation,generating a control signal to the selected mobile robo