US 11,919,746 B2
Passenger transport system having central control unit and multiple field devices having an optimized failure detection method
Astrid Sonnenmoser, Hochdorf (CH); Ivo Lustenberger, Buttisholz (CH); Thomas Hartmann, Kleinwangen (CH); Adrian Knecht, Döttingen (CH); and Kurt Heinz, Buchs (CH)
Assigned to INVENTIO AG, Hergiswil NW (CH)
Appl. No. 16/094,498
Filed by Inventio AG, Hergiswil (CH)
PCT Filed May 3, 2017, PCT No. PCT/EP2017/060530
§ 371(c)(1), (2) Date Oct. 18, 2018,
PCT Pub. No. WO2017/191186, PCT Pub. Date Nov. 9, 2017.
Claims priority of application No. 16168217 (EP), filed on May 4, 2016.
Prior Publication US 2019/0119068 A1, Apr. 25, 2019
Int. Cl. B66B 5/00 (2006.01); B66B 1/34 (2006.01); B66B 13/22 (2006.01); G06F 13/42 (2006.01)
CPC B66B 5/0031 (2013.01) [B66B 1/3453 (2013.01); B66B 5/0018 (2013.01); B66B 13/22 (2013.01); G06F 13/4282 (2013.01)] 14 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A passenger transport system comprising:
a central control unit for controlling functions of the passenger transport system;
a plurality of field devices arranged in the passenger transport system in a spatially distributed manner;
a bus system connecting the central control unit and the field devices for transferring data between the central control unit and the field devices;
wherein each of the field devices is configured to output the data to at least one of the central control unit and another of the field devices via the bus system;
wherein the central control unit is configured to output the data to at least one of the field devices via the bus system; and
wherein the passenger transport system is configured to carry out a failure detection method, in which,
the field devices are logically linked in an unbranched chain configuration,
the control unit transmits a test telegram to a first of the field devices in the chain configuration via the bus system at a start of a monitoring cycle,
during the monitoring cycle, in response to receiving the test telegram, each of the field devices forwards the test telegram to a next one of the field devices in the chain configuration via the bus system until the test telegram reaches a final one of the field devices in the chain configuration,
during the monitoring cycle, the control unit monitors communications between the field devices occurring via the bus system to detect when a one of the field devices does not forward the test telegram.