A simulation tool for vertical transportation systems using python

This paper presents a software development tool which is capable of simulating the vertical transportation systems within buildings using elevators. The simulation tool is composed of a passenger arrival model for a single or group of elevators, their control system, and a graphical user interface (GUI). The developed GUI can display statistical information of the passengers traffic pattern and also the animation of elevator cars with the number of passengers inside. The current version allows both individual and batch Poisson arrival processes which could represent up-peak traffic in the morning and after lunch of office buildings respectively. The motion of elevator cars has been precisely modeled with real parameters of velocity, acceleration, distance, and jerk. However, only the basic nearest car algorithm is implemented for elevator group control systems. We believe, the developed simulator not only has its utility for educational purpose but also can serve as a software platform for future research on more advanced elevator group control systems.