Connecting lifts to an IoT system

The Internet of Things (IoT) is transforming the lift industry by enabling the collection and transmission of data from lifts to cloud-based systems. This provides a better experience for all stakeholders involved.

By Michael Vogt

The first use of the IoT in the lift industry dates to the 1980s, when status messages were transmitted through mandatory tele-alarm phone lines to indicate whether a lift was in operation or not. Today, advances in cloud services, 4G/5G communication technologies and sensing technologies have enabled the collection of more comprehensive data from any lift.

Thanks to the use of IoT in the lift industry today, passengers benefit from greater lift uptime and can easily book lifts using apps on their phones; building owners have increased transparency over the status of their units; and service technicians are supported with data for more effective site visits. Lastly, IoT enabled maintenance can reduce the amount of unnecessary technician site visits and hence reduce carbon emissions.

An IoT setup for lift maintenance has three components:

Graphic 1 Photo: © Schindler

• A control or sensing system which collects data on the lift, transmitted through an internet gateway to a cloud platform. The transmitted information includes failure information, usage statistics, sensor data, and many more.

• An intelligent system in the cloud that analyses the transmitted data 24/7, can determine the health of the lifts and generates maintenance action recommendations, if required.

• A technician supported by digital tools to read and execute the actions on the lift or interact with the lift by setting parameters or extract additional information. If required, technicians are also supported remotely by experts in technical operation centers, providing additional hints and root cause information.

This IoT setup enables the maintenance provider through the following use cases.

Connecting Multi-Brand lifts

While Schindler has a long history of connecting its own elevators, many of its customers with non-Schindler (so called Multi-Brand) lifts can also be served with IoT. Generally, there are two ways to connect Multi-Brand lifts to the IoT: either by directly accessing data through a native controller interface or by adding external sensors that determine the status and health of the lift independently from the controller.

Connecting a lift through its controller interface is usually less complex as no additional hardware is required. Schindler lifts, for example, can directly connect to a wide variety of Multi-Brand controllers allowing the mentioned benefits, such as to remotely detect whether a lift is out of service.

External sensors are typically used when controllers do not have data interfaces at all. They require additional hardware and installation. However, in many cases the benefits clearly outweigh the costs.

Diverse range of lift and controller types

Photo: © Schindler

For example, with a sensor-based monitoring tool, it's possible to remotely fulfil the regular, code-mandated lift guardian visits in Germany and Austria on any brand of lift maintained. The solution can replace up to 12 physical visits in Germany and up to 52 visits in Austria per lift per year with remote and digital inspections.

One challenge in connecting Multi-Brand lifts is the diverse range of lift and controller types, each with their own unique data and behavior. Using a common data model can help standardize the data from different lift brands. This data-centric approach – underpinned by close collaboration between research and development, service operations, and Multi-Brand experts – allows any controller or lift type to be integrated into the IoT system.

The author is Lead – Sensing & Diagnostics at the Schindler Group.

More information: schindler.com