Logging and Analysis of Lift Journeys Using an Accelerometer

Data measured with an accelerometer in or on a lift car can be very useful. Using an accelerometer to measure individual trips allows engineers to confirm that a lift is working as specified. Further analysis of extended measurements can also provide an understanding of lift passenger demand, useful in planning new buildings and addressing traffic problems in existing buildings. Accelerometers can also be used as part of lift monitoring systems, collecting data about the lifts without the need for interfacing with lift controllers, which can be expensive due to the use of proprietary protocols. In this paper the authors address the analysis of accelerometer data for a multi trip scenario. With real as opposed to ideal data, the analysis procedure must account for accelerometer drift, noise and other data anomalies. The final analysis software provides an idealised version of the measured data including the distance, velocity, acceleration and jerk for each trip. The distance measurements combined provide a spatial plot of lift position.