2010

University of Jordan
Faculty of Engineering and Technology
Mechatronics Engineering Department

Mechatronics System Design Lab

Experiment no. 4
Control of a four-level elevator system
using a programmable logic controller

Prepared by: Eng. Rasha Noufal

Experiments No. 4 Control of a four-level elevator system

Control of a four-level elevator system using

a programmable logic controller

Objectives:
This Experiments on the design and implementation of a PLC-based controller for a four
level elevator. The PLC used is an Mitsubishi PLC FX3U-32MR with 16 inputs and
outputs. The design incorporates an intelligent controller that services all the requests in
an energy-saving way, rather than on a first-come, first-served basis.

Following are the objectives of the experiment:

- To learn about the elevator hardware.
- To learn how to write a simple PLC program to move the elevator car.
- To learn how to write a sequence of action using ladder logic.
- To understand how control an elevator using a more complicated algorithm.

Introduction:
Elevator provides an advanced application with which students may study the use and
programming of programmable logic controller (PLC). The advanced features of the
elevator also allow complex digital control techniques to be investigated.
The PLC has many advantages over other control systems. It is known for its flexibility,
lower cost, operational speed, reliability, ease of programming, security, and it is easy in
implementing changes and correcting errors.

A. Overview and basic features

The motorized elevator car can be controlled (using an external controller) to move
between four floors in response to request from call pushbuttons located at each
floor and within the elevator car. The car door is motorized so an arrival at floor it
can be opened to allow passengers to enter/leave. Logic sensors are located on
each floor to indicate the presence of the car. These sensors also provide advance
warning of arrival as the car approaches each floor to allow the car to be slowed
prior to arriving at the destination floor.
The internal motor controller unit provides closed loop motor speed and current
and has both logic and analogue interfaces. This allows the elevator to be
controlled by a basic PLC using only digital I/O (a minimum of 16 input and 16
outputs) as a simple digital output can be used to request a fixed car speed. More
sophisticated control may be implemented if analogue I/O is available, as the
elevator interface provides signals for motor speed and current demand, motor
speed feedback and car position feedback.

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Experiments No. 4 Control of a four-level elevator system

B. Drive motor arrangement

The elevator car is raised and lowered by a dc motor via a 200: 1 gearbox which is
coupled to a toothed drive sprocket (see Figure 1). One end of a toothed drive belt
is connected to the car and the other end is connected to a counterbalance weight
which balances the car at about 40% load.

A mechanical brake (driven by a solenoid) operates on the winder motor so that

the car can be held in position. The brake is normally applied when the brake
release input is held low or left floating and also when the unit is unpowered.
Driving the brake release input high releases the brake.

C. Interface with external PLC

The elevator is connected to the external PLC controller via a set of connectors
located on the rear panel, see Figure 2. Stranded insulated cable 7/0.2 or similar is
recommended for these connections.

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Experiments No. 4 Control of a four-level elevator system

Figure 2

D. Interfacing with Mitsubishi FX3U-32MR

The Mitsubishi PLC specified above is a complete unit consisting of 16 Sink or
Source inputs and 16 Relay outputs. This is the recommended minimum digital I/O
required for the Elevator assignments listed in this manual. An equivalent
Mitsubishi PLC may be used that has a transistor source output, but the output
wiring configuration will differ slightly from that given in the following wiring table .

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Experiments No. 4 Control of a four-level elevator system

Table 1: Mitsubishi FX3U-32MR connection table

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Experiments No. 4 Control of a four-level elevator system

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Experiments No. 4 Control of a four-level elevator system

Experiment Instructions:

A. Assignment 1: Familiarization

Objectives
- To learn about the elevator hardware.
- To learn how to connect the PLC to the elevator.
- To learn how to load a sample program into the PLC and start the program.
- To learn how to run the elevator test routine.

Practical 1: Elevator Hardware

This practical is to learn about the elevator hardware. Refer to Figure 3, which
shows the main elevator parts.
Identify all components

Figure 3

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Experiments No. 4 Control of a four-level elevator system

Practical 2: Hardware design

The objective of the hardware design is to develop the interface circuit between the
PLC and the elevator system and the elevator control panel, with both external and
internal requests. These requests are produced by push buttons that send
continuous signals to the PLC when activated. Each push button is connected to
an LED to identify the request placed. In addition, the four floors are represented
by four LEDs, one for each level. Furthermore, an alarm switch is installed to
produce a flashing signal whenever activated. This facility was introduced to
simulate the desire for a sudden stoppage of the elevator either for reasons of
safety or for requests for a repair job to be carried out on the elevator.
In order to obtain the desired setup, we needed to find a way to capture the pulse
generated by a depressed push button. We also needed to make sure that the
PLC is recognizing these signals in order for it to correctly perform the required
action.
The block diagram of the system’s layout is shown in Fig. 4, where both the
interface between the PLC and the elevator system with the control panel are
drawn.

Fig. 4 Block diagram of the system layout.

B. Assignment 2: PLC Fundamentals

Objectives
- To learn about the PLC inputs and outputs.
- To learn about the idea of a latch
- To learn how to use time delay to show an indicator.
- To learn how use elevator bell.
- To learn about Master Control Relay function.

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Experiments No. 4 Control of a four-level elevator system

Practical 1: A Simple Program

Write a PLC program to perform the following task:
Make the bell sound when the Floor 1 car pushbutton is pressed.
The bell will ring for as long as the alarm bit is connected to be high.

Practical 2: Latches
Write a ladder diagram given below to your PLC then found the function of a
program.

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Experiments No. 4 Control of a four-level elevator system

C. Assignment 3: Elevator Initialization

Objectives
- To learn about the elevator
initialization procedure.
- To learn about how to detect which
floor the elevator is currently sitting at.

Practical 1: Initialization
When you turn on the PLC controller for
the first time it does not know what state
the elevator hardware is set to.
The elevator could be sitting between
levels and the car door could be open.
Before starting to control the elevator,
the PLC must set the elevator to a known state.
This is achieved through an initialization routine.
Using the detailed information given
below, write a program to perform an
Initialization routine that can be used in
future exercises.

This procedure will form the basis of

a subroutine. It should be executed
before a main program begins.

A recommended initialization routine

is described by the following flowchart:

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Experiments No. 4 Control of a four-level elevator system

In the real world, separate sensors would be used for above, below, and at each
floor. In this trainer, however, to reduce the number of PLC inputs required, a
single sensor for each floor is combined with the three-finger gate mounted to the
car. This change is compensated for in the PLC programs.
It is important to understand how a floor level sensor operates. Figure 5 shows the
design of the car floor level sensor. The car movement gate is fixed to the car and
a light sensor is fixed at each of the four floor levels. As the car reaches a floor the
car movement gate interrupts the light beam to the light sensor. A signal as shown
on the right hand side of the of the diagram is presented to a PLC input, changing
state as the light beam to the sensor is interrupted by the car passing a floor level.

Figure 5

Set the elevator car at the top floor using the Manual switch and look to the left
through the transparent front cover at the horizontal bars running from front to back
at each floor level and you will see the slotted light sensor for each floor. If you look
underneath the elevator car on the left hand side you will see the car movement
gate in the slot of the light sensor.
If the car is at the bottom of the elevator (level 1), no signal is received since the
light source is blocked. If the car is not at the level or is approaching a level, the
level sensor to the PLC input changes state indicating that the car is approaching a
floor.
The first time the initialization procedure is run it is possible that the car is situated
at a level or between levels (as if the car was approaching a level).

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Experiments No. 4 Control of a four-level elevator system

To summaries, the input to the PLC can represent three positions of the car as it
approaches a floor.
- Car approaching floor state (sensor is off)
- Car approaching floor level (sensor is on)
- Car is at level (sensor is off)

If the level 1 sensor is detected the car will travel upwards until the level 2 sensor
is found. At this point the main initialization procedure will be carried out.

This procedure can be also represented as a State Diagram.

As suggested by the flow chart the initialization routine can be divided into a
number of stages:

1. Close the door and release the brake

2. See if car is at level 1
3. Move car to level 2
4. Return car to level 1
5. Turn motor off and apply brake

To disengage the brake, it must be energized. This is an important safety feature: if

there is no power to the elevator, it will be stopped by default.

D. Assignment 4: Visiting Floors using Pushbutton Control

Objectives
- To create a program that implements a simple working elevator that accepts
requests one at a time. Include in the program a door open and close routine
and sound the bell on arrival at the floor.
- To create a simple elevator program where the car can selectively service
floors when An elevator is continually moving.

Practical 1: Visiting All Floors using Request Push buttons

Write a program that does not allow more than one input to be entered into the
system at a time. The car gets to a floor and then waits for the next input. A more
complicated algorithm will be explored in the project 'A Working Elevator' .
When the car is at the required level, turn off the request lights (both in the car and
on the level).

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Experiments No. 4 Control of a four-level elevator system

The car and the level push buttons have the same effect. On levels 2 and 3 the
request up and down push buttons operate in the same way. A more complicated
scenario is explored in a later assignment.
Include in your program the car direction arrow to indicate which way the car is
travelling.
Use the ideas explored within the previous practical to determine which direction
the car must travel to service a floor. Think about whether this program would work
in practice, listing how it might be improved.

E. Assignment 5: A Working Elevator

Objectives

- To understand how to control an elevator using a more complicated algorithm.

- To understand how to determine the highest and lowest levels selected.
- To understand how to make use of directional floor controls.
- To understand how to make use of both floor controls and car pushbutton
controls.

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Practical 1: Full Control (Simple Floor Requests)

Algorithm fundamental:

If car is moving up, service those calls up before going back down again. The
reason for adopting such an approach is to save energy.
Consider the algorithm used in Practical 1(Visiting All Floors using Request
Pushbuttons) of Assignment 5. Although this is a working program, the passenger
who pushes the pushbutton fastest gets control of the elevator. This is clearly
undesirable.

The elevator will know about the top and bottom levels, and whether the elevator
needs to travel further to service a demand.
One of the biggest differences between this problem and the 'Visiting All Floors
using Request Push buttons' practical lies with the ability to receive car requests at
any time.
A further complexity lies with how to process the Elevator Car pushbuttons. For
this practical, the Elevator Car push buttons are either ignored or they should have
the same action as the floor pushbuttons. The final practical will complete the
algorithm by adding the car push buttons.
Before beginning to design the program it is useful to think of the problem in terms
of requirements:

- The car must visit the requested floor as quickly as possible.

- The elevator should attempt to minimize the amount of energy used.

A description of an algorithm that attempts to satisfy these requirements is as

follows:

Move to the first level that has been requested. If there are requests that are higher
than the current level of the car continue moving the car upwards until every
requested floor has been visited. When there are no more requests higher than the
current car level, change the direction of the car and service requests that are
below the current level (ignoring requests that are higher than the current car
level). When there are no further lower requests (or the bottom of the elevator has
been reached), change direction of the car and service requests higher than the
current floor level.
The procedure should be repeated.

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Experiments No. 4 Control of a four-level elevator system

Design an algorithm to implement the procedure described This algorithm can be

Divided into a number of steps.

Algorithm:
Perform an initialization routine so the elevator is set to level 1. Set direction to up.
Check for elevator requests

Determine Two status bits:

low remaining and high remaining. This indicates that the elevator has other floors
to service. This bit is determined by calculating the difference between the level
where the car was last recorded, and the highest floor that is to be serviced.
To make it easier, it is recommended that initially the car speed is not changed
when the car departs and leaves floor.

Practical 2: Full Control (Directional Floor Requests)

An example:
Following initialization (where the elevator is initialized to sit at level 1), assume the
following requests: Floor 3 Up, Floor 4 Down, Floor 2 Down. The following
sequence will be executed:

1. All up requests are serviced, Le. in this case only 3U will be serviced.
2. Next the elevator reaches the fourth floor to service 4
3. Finally it services the remaining down requests, which in this case is 2D.

Use this example as a way to test your routine. Full Control (All Floor Controls)
In full size elevators remember that the passengers do not usually see which floors
the elevator is about to call at (which level push buttons have been pressed by
passengers).
This practical expands the previous practical by adding logic to ensure that the
passengers in the car do not receive more information than they need.

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Experiments No. 4 Control of a four-level elevator system

F. Project : Advanced Elevator Programming

Objectives

- To work to extend the knowledge gained in completing the previous

assignments.

Exercise 1: Priority for Top Level

If a request from Level 4 is received, providing that the passengers within the car
have not made any requests, the requests from the other levels are ignored.

Exercise 2: Enhanced Elevator Control

Modify the program so the length of time the doors open and close depend on
whether there is a demand for the elevator either from within the car or from other
levels.

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