Field
[0001] The present invention relates to an elevator inspection device that automatically detects failures in an elevator.
Background
[00 02] In elevator operation buttons, plastic parts or terminals can be broken depending on users' operation conditions, thus causing malfunctions. In car door safety devices having a sensor installed at an elevator door edge, a sensor that detects the loading and unloading of a passenger, and the like, which operate using mainly optical reflection, malfunctions can occur due to the adhesion of dirt or the presence of a screening object. Further, in operation buttons and car door safety devices, contact failures can occur in terminals or wiring due to vibration or deterioration over time. Such malfunctions and contact failures have occasionally been left undetected unless there is a periodic inspection by an elevator maintenance worker or a report from a user. However, in recent years, techniques for detecting in advance failures occurring in a button device or a car door safety device have been proposed.
[0003] Patent Literature 1 as an example has an object of "providing an elevator operation panel capable of detecting that a button gradually becomes less responsive due to deterioration over time," and discloses a technique in which "an elevator 1 in an embodiment includes at least one operation button B, an operating unit 41, a storage 42,

and a display 43. The operation button B has electrical contacts Bl and B2, and outputs a signal by a mechanical operation. When outputting the signal, the operating unit 41 calculates a resistance value, based on a current flowing through the contacts Bl and B2 and a voltage applied across the contacts Bl and B2 and outputs it. The storage 42 records the resistance value in association with time for each operation button B. The display 43 displays button information associated with the resistance value of each operation button B recorded in the storage 42." The technique disclosed in Patent Literature 1 stores the latest resistance value at the time when a button device is pressed, and determines a failure from a mean value and a rate of change of a plurality of previous resistance values [0004] Incidentally, failures in a button device or a car door safety device include the following broadly-divided three types of failure modes. The first failure mode is on-failure in which a device continues to be on without being turned off. The on-failure is typically caused by the binding of a button due to faulty engagement of plastic parts of a button device, or the sticking of a screening object to a car door safety device. The second failure mode is off failure in which a device continues to be off without being turned on. The off failure is typically caused by the breaking of wiring passing between a button device or a car door safety device and an elevator controller. The third failure mode is on-off repetition failure due to instability in the operation of a device. This failure is typically caused by a contact failure in a button device terminal or the adhesion of dirt to a car door safety device.
Citation List

[0005] Patent Literature 1: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2014-9074
Summary
Technical Problem
[00 06] However, the above-described conventional technique detects a failure based on a resistance value at contacts of a button device, and thus can detect on failure due to a contact failure of the button device, but cannot detect the off failure and on-off repetition failure. Therefore, it has a problem of being unable to detect all failures that affect the operation of an elevator. [0007] The present invention has been made in view of the above, and has an object of providing an elevator inspection device capable of automatically detecting failures that affect the operation of an elevator.
Solution to Problem
[0008] In order to achieve the object and solve the problem, according to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided an elevator inspection device that detects an abnormality in an elevator whose ascent and descent are controlled by an elevator controller, the device including: a state collector that collects operating state information of an elevator from the elevator controller; and an abnormality report unit that reports information identifying a device of the elevator which has been determined to be abnormal from the operating state information collected by the state collector and abnormality information to be displayed on a landing display device to the landing display device via the elevator controller.

Advantageous Effects of Invention
[0009] An elevator inspection device according to the present invention achieves an effect of being able to > automatically detect failures that affect the operation of an elevator.
Brief Description of Drawings
[0010] FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating the i configuration of an elevator inspection device according to a first embodiment and its surroundings to which the elevator inspection device is connected.
FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating an operation of the elevator inspection device according to the first embodiment.
FIG. 3 is a chart illustrating an example of a travel state management table stored by a state accumulator in the first embodiment.
FIG. 4 is a chart illustrating an example of a loading and unloading state management table stored by the state accumulator in the first embodiment.
FIG. 5 is a chart in which elevator device states in the loading and unloading state management table illustrated in FIG. 4 are indicated by "0" or "1" on a time axis in the first embodiment.
FIG. 6 is a chart illustrating an example of a device management table stored by an abnormality detection condition storage in the first embodiment.
FIG. 7 is a chart illustrating an example of an abnormality detection condition management table stored by the abnormality detection condition storage in the first embodiment.
FIG. 8 is a chart illustrating an example of an

abnormality detection condition management table stored by the abnormality detection condition storage in the first embodiment.
FIG. 9 is a flowchart illustrating the calculation of the numbers of operations in the first embodiment.
FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating an example of information output by an abnormality report unit to a landing display device in the first embodiment.
FIG. 11 is a diagram illustrating an example of information output by the abnormality report unit to a monitoring terminal in the first embodiment.
FIG. 12 is a chart illustrating an example of an abnormality detection condition management table stored by an abnormality detection condition storage in a second embodiment.
FIG. 13 is a flowchart illustrating an operation of an elevator inspection device according to a third embodiment.
FIG. 14 is a chart illustrating an example of an abnormality detection condition management table stored by an abnormality detection condition storage in the third embodiment.
FIG. 15 is a diagram illustrating an example of a hardware configuration realizing the elevator inspection device according to the first to third embodiments.
Description of Embodiments
[0011] Hereinafter, an elevator inspection device according to embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. The embodiments are not intended to limit the invention.
[0012] First Embodiment.
In the first embodiment, a method of detecting failures of a button device will be described. FIG. 1 is a

diagram illustrating the configuration of an elevator inspection device according to the first embodiment of the present invention and its surroundings to which the elevator inspection device is connected. In the description below, the "operating state" of an elevator refers to a state in which elevator equipment is in operation and can respond to a car call of a passenger. The "loading and unloading state" of an elevator refers to a state from when a passenger calls a car at a landing, the car travels to the landing at which the passenger waits, the passenger gets in the car, the car travels to a destination floor, to when the passenger gets out of the car onto a landing at the destination floor. An elevator inspection device 1 illustrated in FIG. 1 includes a state collector 2 that collects information on the operating state of an elevator from an elevator controller 11 and transmits the information. The elevator inspection device 1 further includes an abnormality report unit 7 that reports the number of a device to be monitored and abnormality information to a landing display device 15 via the elevator controller 11 and display them, the number of the device being information for identifying the device of the elevator that has been determined to be abnormal from the operating state information collected by the state collector 2. The elevator inspection device 1 illustrated in FIG. 1 also includes a state recorder 3 that retrieves information on the loading and unloading state of a passenger from the operating state information collected by the state collector 2, so as to write the loading and unloading state information. The elevator inspection device 1 further includes a state accumulator 4 that accumulates the loading and unloading state information transmitted from the state recorder 3. The elevator

inspection device 1 further includes an abnormality determiner 5 that determines whether or not the operating state of a monitored device in accordance with abnormality detection conditions accords with the operating state of devices related to the monitored device, so as to transmit to the abnormality report unit 7. When determining whether or not the operating state of the monitored device in accordance with abnormality detection conditions accords with the operating state of devices related to the monitored device, the abnormality determiner 5 calculates the number of operations of a monitored button device and the numbers of operations of devices related to the operation of the monitored device in accordance with abnormality detection conditions, and compares the numbers of operations of them to determine abnormality. Further, as illustrated in FIG. 1, the elevator inspection device 1 in the first embodiment may include a condition learning unit 8 that creates a new abnormality detection condition from information accumulated by the state accumulator 4 and adds it to an abnormality detection condition storage 6. The abnormality report unit 7 is connected to a monitoring terminal 10 having an abnormality receiver 9. When receiving an abnormality of a device from the abnormality report unit 7, the abnormality receiver 9 of the monitoring terminal 10 displays information on the device in which the abnormality has occurred on the monitoring terminal 10. [0013] When attention is paid to connections, the elevator inspection device 1 illustrated in FIG. 1 includes the state collector 2 connected to the state recorder 3 and the elevator controller 11, the state recorder 3 connected to the state collector 2, the state accumulator 4, and the condition learning unit 8, the state accumulator 4 connected to the state recorder 3, the abnormality

determiner 5, and the condition learning unit 8, the abnormality determiner 5 connected to the state accumulator 4, the abnormality detection condition storage 6, and the abnormality report unit 7, the abnormality detection condition storage 6 connected to the abnormality determiner 5 and the condition learning unit 8, the abnormality report unit 7 connected to the abnormality determiner 5, the abnormality detection condition storage 6, the abnormality receiver 9, and the elevator controller 11, and the condition learning unit 8 connected to the state recorder 3, the state accumulator 4, and the abnormality detection condition storage 6.
[0014] When an operation of creating and adding a new abnormality detection condition is not performed, the condition learning unit 8 needs not be provided. [0015] The elevator controller 11 is provided in a hoistway 18 of a car 12 in which passengers get, and is connected to the state collector 2, the abnormality report unit 7, a car interior operation panel 13, a car door safety device 14, the landing display device 15, and a landing button 16. The car 12 whose ascent and descent are controlled by the elevator controller 11 includes the car interior operation panel 13, and is connected to the elevator controller 11, the car door safety device 14, and a hoist 17. The car interior operation panel 13 includes a main operation panel and an auxiliary operation panel. The main operation panel and the auxiliary operation panel are each provided with destination floor buttons for specifying a destination floor, a door open button, and a door close button. The car door safety device 14 is a safety device installed at a door edge of the elevator or a car frame, and includes an infrared sensor installed at a car door edge and an infrared sensor installed at a car frame upper

portion. When detecting a passenger entering during door closing, the device switches to a door opening operation to prevent a collision between the passenger and the door. The landing display device 15 is connected to the elevator controller 11, and is a device that displays the current position of the car 12 or displays information necessary for a passenger. The landing button 16 includes an up button and a down button. An operation of the landing button 16 can call the car 12 by a command output by the elevator controller 11. The hoist 17 connected to the elevator controller 11 and the car 12 moves the car 12 up and down according to commands of the elevator controller 11.
[0016] FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating an operation of the elevator inspection device according to the first embodiment of the present invention. Upon starting processing, the elevator inspection device 1 first performs initial settings (SI). Here, the elevator inspection device 1 initializes the state accumulator 4 and the abnormality detection condition storage 6. The state accumulator 4 stores a travel state management table and a loading and unloading state management table. The initial settings by the elevator inspection device 1 cause at least an item of the number of operations in an abnormality detection condition management table illustrated in FIG. 7 stored in the abnormality detection condition storage 6 to be a blank column.
[0017] FIG. 3 is a chart illustrating an example of the travel state management table stored by the state accumulator 4. The travel state management table illustrated in FIG. 3 stores management numbers, travel times, start floors, and arrival floors. The management numbers illustrated in FIG. 3 are serial numbers assigned

for storing information on the loading and unloading states of passengers of the elevator in the travel state management table when the passengers get in and out of the elevator. The travel times illustrated in FIG. 3 are times at which the information on the loading and unloading states of the passengers of the elevator whose management number has been assigned, times at which the passengers got in the elevator. The start floors illustrated in FIG. 3 are the numbers of floors at which the passengers got in the car 12 in the information on the loading and unloading states of the passengers of the elevator whose management number has been assigned. The arrival floors illustrated in FIG. 3 are the numbers of floors at which the passengers got out of the car 12 in the information on the loading and unloading states of the passengers of the elevator whose management number has been assigned.
[0018] FIG. 4 is a chart illustrating an example of the loading and unloading state management table stored by the state accumulator 4. The loading and unloading state management table illustrated in FIG. 4 stores a management number, a car operating state, a car stopping state, a car door opening state, a car door closing state, a weighing device state, a car button state, a landing button state, and a car door safety device state. In FIG. 4, the word "state" is omitted. The car button state includes a destination floor button state, a door open button state, and a door close button state.
[0019] The management number illustrated in FIG. 4 corresponds to the management number in the travel state management table illustrated in FIG. 3. The car operating state is "1" when the car 12 is travelling, and "0" when the car 12 is stopped. The car stopping state is "1" when the car 12 is stopped, and "0" when the car 12 is

travelling. The car door opening state is "1" when the door of the car 12 is open, and "0" when the door of the car 12 is closed. The car door closing state is "1" when the door of the car 12 is closed, and "0" when the door of the car 12 is open. The weighing device state is "1" when a passenger is in the car 12, and "0" when no passengers are in the car 12. The weighing device is a device that measures the weight of a load on the car 12. The elevator controller 11 determines the presence or absence of a passenger in the car 12 by the result of measurement of a load weight measured by the weighing device. The weighing device is typically provided under the floor of the car 12. The car button state becomes "1" only when a destination floor button, the door open button, or the door close button is pressed in the car 12, and is otherwise "0." The landing button state becomes "1" only between when the landing button 16 is pressed and when the car 12 arrives, and is otherwise "0." The car door safety device state becomes "1" at the point in time when a passenger gets into the car 12 or at the point in time when a passenger gets out of the car 12, and is otherwise 'x0 . " FIG. 5 is a chart indicating the states of the elevator device in the loading and unloading state management table illustrated in FIG. 4 by "0" or "1" on a time axis.
[0020] The abnormality detection condition storage 6 stores a device management table and an abnormality detection condition management table.
[0021] FIG. 6 is a chart illustrating an example of the device management table stored by the abnormality detection condition storage 6. The device management table illustrated in FIG. 6 stores device numbers and device names, information identifying devices. The device numbers illustrated in FIG. 6 are serial numbers assigned to

devices for which the failure detection is performed. The device names illustrated in FIG. 6 are device names of devices for which failure detection is performed and whose device numbers have been assigned.
[0022] FIGS. 7 and 8 are charts illustrating an example of the abnormality detection condition management table stored by the abnormality detection condition storage 6. The abnormality detection condition management table illustrated in FIGS. 7 and 8 stores a device number, elevator states, start floors, arrival floors, and the numbers of operations. The device number, the elevator states, the start floors, and the arrival floors are preset abnormality detection conditions. The device number is the number of a monitored device. The numbers of operations are the numbers of operations of the devices written in an item of the elevator state illustrated in FIG. 7 collected on the abnormality detection conditions. The first row in the abnormality detection condition management table illustrated in FIGS. 7 and 8 refers to a monitored device, and the second and subsequent rows refer to devices related to the operation of the monitored device. In each row, the abnormality determiner 5 calculates the number of operations of the device. In FIG. 8, the first row stores the abnormality detection condition of the main operation panel u5" button of device number "7," the monitored device, and the second and subsequent rows show the elevator states related to the operation of the monitored device and to be detected when the main operation panel "5" button is pressed, the start floors, and the arrival floors, and the numbers of operations calculated by the abnormality determiner 5. Operations related to the pressing of the main operation panel "5" button can be exemplified by the number of times of travel from the main floor, the highest

traffic floor, to the fifth floor and the number of times of travel from the fifth floor to the main floor in the elevator loading and unloading states. Here the first floor is the main floor.
[0023] When the initial settings in Si have been completed, next, returning to the explanation of FIG. 2, the state collector 2 collects information on the elevator operating state every unit time from the elevator controller 11, and outputs the collected information on the elevator operating state and the time of collection to the state recorder 3. The state recorder 3 determines whether a landing button has been pressed or not from information on the elevator operating state fed from the state collector 2 (S2). When no landing buttons are pressed, that is, when branching to No in S2, the state recorder 3 performs the determination until a landing button is pressed. When a landing button is pressed, that is, when branching to Yes in S2, the state recorder 3 stores the time at which the landing button was pressed and its floor number, and further records the elevator operating state fed from the state collector 2 in the state accumulator 4 (S3). By reading the operating state information, the state recorder 3 collects, every unit time, information on the car operating state, information on the car stopping state, information on the car door opening state, information on the car door closing state, information on the weighing device state, information on the car button state, information on the landing button state, and information on the car door safety device state, and determines whether there is door closing or not after a change in the weighing device state (S4). When there is no door closing after the change in the weighing device state, that is, when branching to No in S4, the state recorder 3

continues to record information on the operating state. That is, the state recorder 3 records information on the operating state until there is door closing after the change in the weighing device state. In other words, the state recorder 3 records information on the operating state until the car door is in the closed state after the weighing device state changes from "1" to "0" and no passengers are in the car.
[0024] When there is door closing after the change in the weighing device state, that is, when branching to Yes in S4, the state recorder 3 stores the time at which the landing button was pressed, the floor number at which the landing button was pressed, and the arrival floor number fed from the state collector 2, and the collected information on the elevator operating state in the state accumulator 4 as the elevator loading and unloading state (S5). FIG. 5 illustrates a range of collection of information on the elevator loading and unloading state recorded by the state recorder 3. FIG. 5 illustrates, as the collection range, a collection range from a car calling operation with a landing button to when a passenger who has got into the car gets out at an arrival floor and the car door is closed. The operation of the elevator in the collection range is as follows. First, when a passenger presses a landing button, the car travels to the floor of the pressed landing button. Next, the car door is opened, and the passenger gets into the car. Then, the passenger operates the car interior operation panel 13 to select a destination floor and close the car door. Finally, the car travels to the destination floor, and then the car door is opened, and the passenger leaves the car to a landing at the destination floor. [ 0025] To write information on a loading and unloading

state, the state recorder 3 generates a management number, and stores a travel time, the time at which a landing button was pressed, a start floor, the number of the floor at which the landing button was pressed, and an arrival floor, the number of the floor at which the car has arrived, individually, in the travel state management table stored in the state accumulator 4 illustrated in FIG. 3. The state recorder 3 also stores a management number and information on the car operating state, information on the car stopping state, information on the car door opening state, information on the car door closing state, information on the weighing device state, information on the car button state, information on the landing button state, and information on the car door safety device state collected by the state collector 2, individually, in the loading and unloading state management table stored in the state accumulator 4 illustrated in FIG. 4. The information on the car button state includes information on a destination floor button, information on the door open button state, and information on the door close button state .
[0026] Next, the abnormality determiner 5 calculates the numbers of operations (S6). Specifically, from the elevator loading and unloading state information stored in the state accumulator 4, the abnormality determiner 5 calculates the numbers of operations of devices of device numbers 1 to n in the device management table illustrated in FIG. 6. FIG. 9 is a flowchart illustrating the calculation of the numbers of operations. Starting processing from a device of device number 1, first, the abnormality determiner 5 determines whether the current device number is lower than or equal to n or not (S101). When the current device number is not lower than or equal

to n (S101: No), processing is ended. When the current device number is lower than or equal to n (S101: Yes), the abnormality determiner 5 reads the abnormality detection condition management table, and acquires the number of a device on which to detect an abnormality (S102). Next, the abnormality determiner 5 reads the travel state management table, and acquires a start floor and an arrival floor (S103). Next, the abnormality determiner 5 reads the loading and unloading state management table, calculates the total number of changes in each item (S104), and thereafter, returns to S101. As a specific example, a case where abnormality of the "5" button of the main operation panel is determined will be described. The >v5" button of the main operation panel has device number "7" in the device management table illustrated in FIG. 6. Thus, the abnormality determiner 5 calculates the numbers of operations of the elevator states with a device number of "7" in the abnormality detection condition management table illustrated in FIG. 7. According to FIG. 7, items of which to calculate the number of operations are the main operation panel u5" button in travel from the main floor to the fifth floor, the main operation panel "main floor" button in travel from the fifth floor to the main floor, the car operation in travel from the main floor to the fifth floor, the car operation in travel from the fifth floor to the main floor, pressing of the auxiliary operation panel "5" button in travel from the main floor to the fifth floor, pressing of the auxiliary operation panel "main floor" button in travel from the fifth floor to the main floor, pressing of the landing button in travel from the main floor to the fifth floor, and pressing of the landing button in travel from the fifth floor to the main floor. The abnormality determiner 5 collects the start

rioor ana tne arrival rioor rrom tne travel state management table illustrated in FIG. 3, collects each elevator state from the loading and unloading state management table illustrated in FIG. 4 stored in the state accumulator 4, and calculates the sum total of the number of changes from "0" to "1" and the number of changes from "1" to "0" in each item of the elevator states. The abnormality determiner 5 stores the calculated numbers in the item of the number of operations in the abnormality detection condition management table stored in the abnormality detection condition storage 6 illustrated in FIG. 7. Then, the same operation is performed on all device numbers in the device management table illustrated in FIG. 6.
[0027] Next, the abnormality determiner 5 determines whether the ratio between the number of operations of the monitored button device and the numbers of operations of the devices related to the operation of the monitored device in accordance with the abnormality detection conditions is abnormal or not (S7). That is, the abnormality determiner 5 determines the abnormality of a device from the totalized numbers of operations. Here, assume that the number of operations calculated on each device in the elevator loading and unloading state is in accordance with a normal distribution, and when the number of operations of an object device is not in a range of ±3o, it is determined to be abnormal. o is a standard deviation For the calculation of a standard deviation, there is a method of using a result of recording the number of operations of a device every day for a month from the installation of the device, and the number of operations of the device on a date of abnormality determination, as an example. Here 3o is used as a determination criterion

value, but the present invention is not limited to this. It may be o, 2a, or 4a, or may be greater. As an example, since the number of operations of the main operation panel "5" button is two in FIG. 8, which is out of the range of ±3o compared to the mean value of the devices related to the monitored operation in accordance with the abnormality detection conditions, the abnormality determiner 5 determines that it is abnormal. That is, using the number of operations of a monitored device in accordance with an abnormality detection condition and abnormality detection conditions stored in the abnormality detection condition storage 6, the abnormality determiner 5 calculates and compares the number of operations of the monitored device and the numbers of operations of devices related to the operation of the monitored device to determine the abnormality of the monitored device. Further, when the number of operations of the main operation panel "5" button is below the average of the numbers of operations of the other elevator states, it is turned off when it should be turned on in many cases, so that the abnormality determiner 5 determines that the main operation panel "5" button is in off failure. When the number of operations of the main operation panel "5" button is above the average of the numbers of operations of the other elevator states, it is considered to be repeatedly turned on and off although no on or off operations are performed, so that the abnormality determiner 5 determines that the main operation panel "5" button is in on-off repetition failure. That is, the abnormality determiner 5 may discriminate between off failure and on-off repetition failure of a button device from the states of button devices of the elevator, the state of the car travel of the elevator, and the state of opening and closing of the car door stored in the state

accumulator 4. This allows the elevator inspection device 1 to automatically detect off failure and on-off repetition failure of a button device, and determine which failure mode the device is in. Thereafter, when the ratio is not abnormal, that is, when branching to No in S7, the process returns to the determination of whether a landing button is pressed or not in S2. When the ratio is abnormal, that is, when branching to Yes in S7, the abnormality determiner 5 transmits to the abnormality report unit 7 the device number, the device name, and the number of operations of the device determined to have developed an abnormality, and the mean value of the numbers of operations of the devices related to the device determined to have developed an abnormality. Thus, the abnormality determiner 5 determines whether or not the operating state of the monitored device in accordance with the abnormality detection conditions accords with the operating states of the devices related to the monitored device, for transmission to the abnormality report unit 7.
[0028] Next, the abnormality report unit 7 reports the abnormality (S8). Specifically, the abnormality report unit 7 transmits the device number of the device determined to have developed an abnormality, received from the abnormality determiner 5, and an instruction to flash a destination floor arrow of the landing display device 15 to the landing display device 15 via the elevator controller 11. Further, the abnormality report unit 7 transmits, also to the abnormality receiver 9 of the monitoring terminal 10, the device number, the device name, and the number of operations of the device determined to have developed an abnormality, and the mean value of the numbers of operations of the devices related to the device determined to have developed an abnormality received from the

abnormality determiner 5.
[0029] FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating an example of information output by the abnormality report unit 7 to the landing display device 15. A passenger waiting for the elevator to arrive can notice that a failure has occurred in the elevator by the flashing of the destination floor arrow illustrated in FIG. 10. FIG. 11 is a diagram illustrating an example of information output by the abnormality report unit 7 to the monitoring terminal 10. A user of the monitoring terminal 10, typically a person in charge of the elevator or a watchman, can notice that a failure has occurred in the elevator by the display of the device number, the device name, and the number of operations of the device determined to have developed an abnormality and the mean value of the numbers of operations of the devices related to the device determined to have developed an abnormality as illustrated in FIG. 11. For the numbers of operations of the devices related to the device determined to have developed an abnormality, instead of the display of the mean value, all the numbers of operations in the second and subsequent rows in the abnormality condition management table illustrated in FIG. 8 may be displayed. The abnormality report unit 7 may be configured to report to both the landing display device 15 and the monitoring terminal 10, or may be configured to report to only one of them.
[0030] As described above in the first embodiment, an elevator inspection device capable of automatically detecting failures that affect the operation of an elevator can be provided. [0031] Second Embodiment.
In the second embodiment, a method of detecting failures of a car door safety device will be described. In

the second embodiment, processing up to an operation in which a state recorder 3 writes information on the loading and unloading state of a passenger (S5) is identical to that in FIG. 2. An abnormality determiner 5 calculates the number of operations of the car door safety device from information on the loading and unloading states of passengers of an elevator stored in a state accumulator 4. [0032] FIG. 12 is a chart illustrating an example of an abnormality detection condition management table stored by an abnormality detection condition storage 6. In the device management table illustrated in FIG. 6, a car door safety device 14 has device number "10." Thus, the numbers of operations of elevator states with a device number of "10" in the abnormality detection condition management table illustrated in FIG. 12 are calculated. According to the abnormality detection condition management table in FIG. 12, items of which to calculate the number of operations are a change from "0" to "1" or from "1" to "0" of a car door safety device state, a change from "0" to "1" or from "1" to "0" of a car door opening state, a change from "0" to "1" or from "1" to "0" of a car door closing state, a change from "0" to "1" or from "1" to "0" of a landing button state, and a change from "0" to "1" or from "1" to "0" of a weighing device state. The calculated numbers of operations are stored in the number of operations in the abnormality detection condition management table as illustrated in FIG. 12. Thereafter, operations in and after S7 in FIG. 2 are identical to those in the first embodiment. As described in the second embodiment, an elevator inspection device capable of automatically detecting failures of a car door safety device that affect the operation of an elevator can be provided. As described in the second embodiment, the abnormality determiner 5 may

discriminate between off failure and on-off repetition failure of a car door safety device, using the state of the car door safety device of the elevator, the opening and closing state of the car door of the elevator, and the state of a weighing device accumulated in the state accumulator 4. [0033] Third Embodiment.
In the third embodiment, an elevator inspection device capable of adding an abnormality detection condition to an abnormality detection condition storage, depending on the contents of a state accumulator, as well as detecting failures as illustrated in the first and second embodiments will be described.
[0034] FIG. 13 is a flowchart illustrating an operation of the elevator inspection device according to the third embodiment of the present invention. in the third embodiment, processing up to an operation in which a state recorder 3 writes information on a loading and unloading state (S5) is identical to that in FIG. 2. After S5, the state recorder 3 determines whether the number of times of writing information on the loading and unloading state has reached a specified number of times of learning or not (S16). When branching to No in S16, that is, when the number of times of writing information on the loading and unloading state has not reached the specified number of times of learning, the abnormality determiner 5 calculates the numbers of operations as in S6 in FIG. 2, and subsequent processing is the same. When branching to Yes in S16, that is, when the number of times of writing information on the loading and unloading state has reached the specified number of times of learning, the condition learning unit 8 learns an abnormality detection condition. [0035] The condition learning unit 8 reads information

on the operating state of the elevator from a state accumulator 4 (S17), calculates the degree of association
(S18), and adds an abnormality detection condition (S19). The degree of association is, for example, the ratio between the number of operations of a button device or a car door safety device monitored, and the numbers of operations of devices related to the operation of the monitored device in accordance with abnormality detection conditions.
[0036] FIG. 14 is a chart illustrating an example of an abnormality detection condition management table in the third embodiment. In a case where, when a main operation panel "5" button is pressed, in practice, an operation of arriving at the fourth floor from the main floor or an operation of arriving at the main floor from the fourth floor is most frequent, a car operation from the main floor to the fourth floor and a car operation from the fourth floor to the main floor are added to the abnormality detection condition management table. For operations after the addition of an abnormality detection condition, the abnormality determiner 5 calculates the numbers of operations as in S6 in FIG. 2, and subsequent operations are the same.
[0037] Thus, the condition learning unit 8 derives the relationship between a floor number specified by a destination floor button and a floor number at which the car has actually arrived from the number of operations. However, condition learning is not limited to this. The condition learning unit 8 may alternatively perform a principal component analysis using as dimensions the numbers of operations of button device states, that is, a destination floor button state, a door open button state, and a door close button state, and elevator states, that is

a car operating state, a car stopping state, a car door opening state, and a weighing device state, and calculates its singular value to derive an unknown relation for addition to the abnormality detection condition management table.
[0038] That is, the elevator inspection device in the third embodiment includes the condition learning unit 8 that adds, of information on loading and unloading states stored in the state accumulator 4, information on a state that has reached a specified number of times of learning to update information on abnormality detection conditions. [0039] The third embodiment not only enables automatic detection of failures that affect the operation of an elevator that have been found when a periodic inspection of the elevator is performed or by a report from a passenger of the elevator, but also enables automatic distinguishing and report of even an unset abnormality detection condition by automatically learning and storing an abnormality detection condition for detecting a failure.
[0040] FIG. 15 is a diagram illustrating an example of a hardware configuration realizing the elevator inspection device according to the first to third embodiments. The state collector 2 is realized by a processor 21 and a receiver 24, the state recorder 3, the state accumulator 4, and the abnormality detection condition storage 6 are realized by memory 22, the abnormality determiner 5 and the condition learning unit 8 are realized by the processor 21, and the abnormality report unit 7 is realized by the processor 21 and a transmitter 23. The processor 21, the memory 22, the transmitter 23, and the receiver 24 are connected by a system bus 25. Each of the devices may have a plurality of processors 21 and a plurality of memories 22 [0041] The configurations illustrated in the above

embodiments are intended to illustrate an example of the subject matter of the present invention, and can be combined with another known art. Part of the configurations can be omitted or changed without departing from the scope of the present invention.
Reference Signs List
[0042] 1 elevator inspection device, 2 state collector, 3 state recorder, 4 state accumulator, 5 abnormality determiner, 6 abnormality detection condition storage, 7 abnormality report unit, 8 condition learning unit, 9 abnormality receiver, 10 monitoring terminal, 11 elevator controller, 12 car, 13 car interior operation panel, 14 car door safety device, 15 landing display device, 16 landing button, 17 hoist, 18 hoistway, 21 processor, 22 memory, 23 transmitter, 24 receiver, 25 system bus.

1. An elevator inspection device that detects an
abnormality in an elevator whose ascent and descent are
controlled by an elevator controller,
the device comprising:
a state collector that collects operating state information of an elevator from the elevator controller; and
an abnormality report unit that reports information identifying a device of the elevator which has been determined to be abnormal from the operating state information collected by the state collector and abnormality information to be displayed on a landing display device to the landing display device via the elevator controller.
2. The elevator inspection device according to claim 1,
comprising:
a state recorder that retrieves a loading and unloading state information of a passenger from the operating state information of the state collector to write the loading and unloading state information;
a state accumulator that accumulates the loading and unloading state information transmitted from the state recorder; and
an abnormality determiner that determines whether or not an operating state of a monitored device in accordance with abnormality detection conditions accords with an operating state of devices related to the monitored device, for transmission to the abnormality report unit.
3. The elevator inspection device according to claim 2,
wherein the abnormality determiner calculates and compares

a number of operations of the monitored device and numbers of operations of the devices related to the monitored device, using the information stored in the state accumulator and the abnormality detection conditions, to determine an abnormality of the monitored device.
4. The elevator inspection device according to claim 2, comprising a condition learning unit that adds, of the loading and unloading state information accumulated in the state accumulator, information on a state that has reached a specified number of times of learning to update information on the abnormality detection conditions.
5. The elevator inspection device according to claim 2, wherein the abnormality determiner discriminates between off-failure and on~off repetition failure of a button device, from states of button devices of the elevator, states of car travel of the elevator, and opening and closing states of a car door which are accumulated in the state accumulator.
6. The elevator inspection device according to claim 2, wherein the abnormality determiner discriminates between off failure and on-off repetition failure of a car door safety device, from a state of the car door safety device of the elevator, opening and closing states of a car door of the elevator, and a state of a weighing device which are accumulated in the state accumulator.
7. The elevator inspection device according to claim 1, wherein the abnormality report unit reports information identifying devices related to a device which has been determined to have developed an abnormality, the

28 information being transmitted from the abnormality determiner, to at least one of the landing display device and a monitoring terminal.
) 8. The elevator inspection device according to claim 1,
wherein the abnormality report unit transmits information
identifying a monitored device determined to be in failure
and a number of operations of the device to a monitoring
terminal. i