Smart monitoring for elevators in city

AROUND 40,000 elevators in Shanghai have been equipped with remote-monitoring installations connected to the city’s comprehensive operation management platform, enabling automatic monitoring and alarms to improve response to emergencies, it was announced yesterday.

The installations can spot sudden breakdowns and if people are trapped, automatically send the information to the city’s intelligent elevator platform, the Shanghai Administration for Market Regulation said.

The platform will then locate and identify the lift using the city’s elevator database and Geographic Information System and alert maintenance and repair companies.

Workers will be able to check videos showing the inside of the lift and immediately arrange a rescue, it said.

The platform will also send the information to property management companies.

Anyone trapped inside can follow the progress of rescue operations on a screen in the elevator.

In the event of any delay, the platform will alert market watchdogs, property management and neighborhood committees.

“The mechanism relies on technologies such as the Internet of Things, big data and artificial intelligence, and changes the traditional practice of riders’ dialing for help and the manual dispatch of rescue workers,” said Wang Zhigang, deputy director of the administration’s special equipment safety supervision department.

“It significantly cuts rescue time and improves rescue efficiency,” he added.

The installations will also record and evaluate the whole rescue process to regulate procedures and prevent similar incidents in the future.

The city’s newly built elevators will all be equipped with the system while it will gradually cover all 270,000 elevators in the city, the administration said.