Map-Based Active Compensation of Lateral Vibrations in Elevators

Lateral vibration in elevators has an important effect in the comfort levels perceived by the passengers. This phenomenon is highly affected by the geometry of the guide rails and the load distribution of the car. In this connection, irregularities in the former behave as perturbations that excite the oscillation of the vehicle. The effect is more and more important as the speed of the elevators increase, which is the current trend in the industry. In order to improve the performance of medium and high speed elevators, the present paper describes a method for compensating the lateral oscillations appearing in an elevator due to the irregularities of the guide rails. The proposed approach makes use of a mapping algorithm developed by the authors for identifying, learning and efficiently storing the geometrical configuration of the rails as a combination of straight line segments. The system is conceived for active roller guides, whose position can be continuously controlled in order to dampen the oscillations of the vehicle and to compensate the perturbations caused by the geometry of the guide rails. In order to develop the system and validate its performance, a 2D virtual environment in Matlab Simulink © is used. This environment includes the geometry of the guides and the main elements of the elevator affecting the horizontal oscillation: inertial parameters (mass, inertia), stiffness of the roller guides, among others. The present analysis does not take into account the oscillations caused by the traction rope or the movements of the load inside the cabin. The results of the proposed method show the improvement that can be obtained in the ride quality of the elevator by mapping the geometry of the guide rails and properly using this information for compensating the identified irregularities by active roller guides.