PLC Controlled Elevator System

Gurmeet Singh, Anshul Agarwal, Member, IEEE, R.K. Jarial, Member, IEEE, Vineeta Agarwal,
Senior Member, IEEE, and Mithun Mondal

Abstract-- This paper presents the control of elevator system

using Siemens LOGO PLC. The system is programmed to drive a
dc motor for forward and backward motoring mode with sensors
at each floor, emergency STOP switch for maintenance purpose
or to prevent any accident inside the lift & door switch for safety
purpose. The system is also programmed to conserve energy by
automatically switch off lights and fans of cabin when motor is in
rest state for a specified duration of time. The software used in
this elevator system is LOGO! Soft Comfort V7.0. This system
can be used for learning the control strategies involved in
elevator systems for educational purpose.
Index Terms Automation, Energy saving, Elevator, Ladder
logic and Programmable Logic Controller (PLC).

I. INTRODUCTION

N modern time due to rapid population growth in the urban

areas, in multi-stored buildings need for elevators is being
increased. With rising life standards and attention towards
safety measures and with the development in modern
technologic, elevator systems are getting better, fast and more
reliable. In the past, most of the elevator systems were focused
on the mounting of elevators, around 1980s the need for
elevator maintenance and fault staff had started to increase
[1]. For example, splash doors have been replaced by
automatic doors system, cards with relay have been replaced
by microprocessor electronic cards, in multi storage building
single-speed elevators have been replaced by double-speed or
speed-controlled elevators. Such developments improve the
quality of elevator systems, therefore increase the reliability of
elevator system compared to previous years [2]. Elevator
control system [3-4], and its logic analysis [5-6] have been
creating interest to engineers and its context scheduling [7] is
still in research.

The objective of this paper is to create the ladder logic

programming of a PLC controlled elevator system and control
strategies involved in an elevator systems can also be used for
educational purpose. The two floor elevator system ladder
logic is designed using SIEMENS LOGO! Soft Comfort V7.0
software. SIEMENS LOGO! Soft V7.0 software provide
simulation mode for testing of your ladder logic program.
PLC can make a conventional elevator system into an
automatic, energy saving, safe and reliable elevator system by
using various math functions, timers, creating interlocks etc.
into its program. The inputs in form of sensors, push buttons
etc and output in form of motor, light, fan etc are connected to
the PLC input and output terminals.
II. PLC LAYOUT
PLC is an electronic device that is used to design the
control circuits of industrial automation systems. It controls
the system via inputs/outputs and is equipped with
communication interfaces. The advantage of using PLC based
system is to ensure the high reliability, small space
requirements, computing capabilities, reduced costs, ability to
withstand harsh environments, expandability, high power
handling capacity and reduces the human efforts. The layout
of the Siemens LOGO Series PLC is shown in Fig. 1. It has
digital / analog input and digital outputs. It has 4 digital and 4
analog inputs and all digital outputs are shown in Table 1.
These can be used as per the users requirement and also can
be extended using extension cards [8].

Gurmeet Singh is currently pursuing M.Tech.(Electrical Engineering) NIT

Hamirpur, H.P., India. He can be reached at: gsingh.ee@gmail.com
Anshul Agarwal is currently the faculty of Electrical Engineering
Department, NIT Hamirpur, H.P., India. He can be reached at:
agw.anshul@gmail.com.
R.K. Jarial is currently the faculty of Electrical Engineering Department,
NIT Hamirpur, H.P., India. He can be reached at: jarial@nith.ac.in
Vineeta Agarwal is currently the faculty of Electrical Engineering,
MNNIT,
Allahabad,
India.
She
can
be
reached
at:
vineeta_agarwal123@rediffmail.com
Mithun Mondal is currently pursuing M.Tech.(Electrical Engineering)
NIT Hamirpur, H.P., India. He can be reached at: mithun1214@gmail.com

978-1-4673-5630-5//13/$31.00 2013 IEEE

Fig. 1: Siemens Logo PLC.

TABLE I
SIEMENS LOGO PLC LABELING

Number
1
2
3
4

Description
Rack with 8 inputs (I1 to I8) 4 Digital + 4
Analog
Supply rack (L1 N).
Rack with 4 outputs (Q1 to Q4).
Multi-character display screen

A PLC is divided into parts, as shown in Fig.2 these are the

central processing unit (CPU), the input/output (I/O) modules,
power supply, and programming device. The CPU is the
called as brain of PLC, memory is also required for the
program (EPROM or EEPROM type plus RAM). The I/O
modules form the interface by which field devices are
connected to the controller. To enter the desired program into
the memory of the processor a programming device is used.
The program is done in ladder logic, which is one of the most
popular programming languages. Power supply section also
supplies DC power to the I/O modules. For large PLC
systems, this power supply section does not normally supply
power to the field devices. With larger systems, power to field
devices is provided by external alternating current (AC) or
direct current (DC) sources. For some small micro PLC
systems, the power supply may be used to power field
devices.

The elevators control system is governed by PLC. The

input signals are: car-calls, emergency stop signal, door
open/close signal and leveling signal. PLC program contains
all logical functions of the elevator system, such as call
registration, position judgment of elevator car, choose layer,
priority setting.
IV. I/O MODULES AND ELECTRICAL WIRING
Elevators were used as vertical traction device, which
belong to potential energy load and require frequent start and
stop [9]. Elevators are powered by electric motors (DC or AC)
that can either drive traction cables or a counter weight
systems like a hoist, or pumped hydraulic fluid to raise a
cylindrical piston [10-12]. In addition to all these a braking
system must also be used [13].The input and output modules
of designed elevator system are listed in Table I and Table II.
The input devices consists of three floor limit switches, one
door limit switch for safety purpose, three floor selector push
buttons to select the maximum two floors out of three floors
and one emergency stop button to seize the elevator transition
instantaneously but PLC will remember its last status and as
soon as emergency button is released and the elevator will
continue its transition from the moment at which emergency
button was pressed. These switches do not consume
electricity. These switches are of make break type when its
open then there resistance in nearly infinite and when they are
close then there resistance is around zero. The wiring diagram
of PLC is shown in Fig. 3.
TABLE II
INPUT LISTING

Input ports
I1
I2
I3
I4
I5
I6
I7
I8
Fig. 2: PLC block diagram.

III. ELEVATOR SYSTEM STRUCTURE

The motive of an elevator control system is to control the
movement of an elevator according to the users requests.
It is classified into two parts:
A.

Electric power driving system

It includes the elevator cabin or car, DC motor and brake

mechanism.

Definition
Ground floor call
1st floor call
2nd floor call
Ground floor limit
switch
1st floor limit
switch
2nd floor limit
switch
Door limit switch
Emergency stop

Type
Push button
Push button
Push button
Limit switch
Limit switch
Limit switch
Limit switch
Push button

The output device is a DC motor which can rotate in both

direction i.e. clockwise or anticlockwise direction. In ladder
logic program interlocks is provided so that elevator moves in
one particular direction during transition, otherwise
simultaneous operation of motor in both direction can cause
wear and tear of motor which can lead to fatal accidents. The
other outputs are braking system; fans and lights loads. Fans
and lightning loads are connected in parallel to each other i.e.
both of them are operate simultaneously. Brakes are applied
when motor is switched OFF.
TABLE III

B. Elevator control system

Location
On elevator
On elevator
On elevator
Between ground
floor platform
Between 1st
floor platform
Between 2nd
floor platform
On elevator door
On elevator

OUTPUT LISTING

Output port
Q1
Q2
Q3
Q4

Definition
Upward
motion
Downward
motion
Fan and lights
Braking system

Type
DC motor
DC motor
Loads
Solenoid

Location
On top of elevator
platform
On top of elevator
platform
On elevator
On pulley

The PLC power supply is 24V DC, all the inputs to the PLC
are connected to input ports I1,I2,I3,I4,I5,I6,I7,I8 and all the
outputs to the corresponding output ports Q1,Q2,Q3,Q4. The
inputs and outputs should be used according to their
corresponding addresses while developing ladder logic
program.

Selected floor is reached, passenger out of lift and

door is closed.
When none of the floor call switches are pressed up
to 40 seconds time duration, then elevators cabin fan
and light will automatically be switched OFF which
will save electricity.
The whole elevator system is halted by emergency
stop button in case of emergency or for maintenance
purpose. During this process the elevators cabin fan
and lights will be ON.
If there is a power failure during elevator transition,
PLC will remember the sequence last status. When
power is restored elevator will operate automatically
as per there past status.

Fig.4 Floor calls with emergency stop button.

Fig. 3 Siemens LOGO PLC wiring diagram.

Pulley

V. OPERATIONAL SEQUENCE
The Fig. 4 and Fig. 5 shows the elevator structure
developed with I1, I2 and I3 are ground floor, 1st floor and 2nd
floor call switches; I8 is an emergency switch; I4, I5 and I6
are limit switches used to detect current lift position. The
sequence operation for elevator system is shown in flowchart
of Fig.6 and is describe as follow:
When the person enters in the elevator, light and fan
switched ON automatically.
Desired floors selected by person.
Then the door is closed, motor is switched ON and
brakes released.
The direction of rotation of motor depends upon floor
selected; current elevator position and when the
directions are different then the floor selected first
will get the higher priority.
When the selected floor is reached then the limit
switch of selected floor gets activated and switch
OFF the motor.
Brakes get activated.

Elevator
Cabin
or Car

I6

2nd Floor

I5

1st Floor

Counter
Weight
I4

Fig.5 Elevator structure

Ground Floor

VII. IMPLEMENTATION
The PLC and motor control panel is shown in Fig.7 and its
inner view of the control panel is shown in Fig.8. Ladder logic
program is tested for various floor levels, automatic cabin fans
and lights are OFF when no one is inside the lift, braking
applied when motor is OFF, if there is a power cut when lift is
in transition then lift will resume transition when power is
restored. Fig. 9 displayed the front view of the lift.
When there is a call for 1st and 2nd floor, but the elevator is in
ground floor then under this condition the LOGO! Soft
comfort view is depicted in Fig. 10. With LOGO! Soft
comfort provide online mode in which we can easily get the
status of elevator on personnel computer (PC). This system
helps us to easily monitor the condition and status of elevator
system.

Fig. 6 Flowchart for elevator system

VI. MECHANICAL DESIGN

An elevator model is developed which uses a DC motor to
pull up the elevator cabin. The dimensions of cabin or car are
as follows:
Height = 73 mm.
Length= 55 mm.
Width= 31 mm.
Material for cabin construction: Aluminum.
Density of Aluminum= 2710 kg/meter3.
Weight of cabin= 550 grams (approx.)
Weight of counterweight= 500 grams.
Radius of pulley = 5 cm
Torque required to pull the elevator cabin (Tc)
= force perpendicular distance.
= (0.5509.8) (0.05) = 0.2695 N-m.
Torque provided by counterweight (Tw)
= force perpendicular distance.
.
= (0.5009.8) (0.05) = 0.245 N-m.
Net torque required (T) = Tc Tw
= 0.2695-0.245 = 0.0245 N-m.
Therefore, the net torque required (T) is supplied by traction
motor of specification 0.0300 N-m (0.3 Kg-cm).

Fig. 7 PLC and Motor control panel

Fig. 8 Inner view of control panel

Fig. 9 Lift front view

X. REFERENCES
Fig. 10 Designed view of LOGO! Soft comfort when lift is operated upward.

[1]

VIII. CONCLUSION

[2]
[3]

A novel elevator system has been proposed on LOGO! Soft

Comfort V7.0 software and implemented on PLC. The PLC
controlled elevator system is found to be working effectively
and it is the need of modern world, where everything is
becoming automatic. The overall system developed can be
used in industry, hospital, buildings or can also be used for
education purpose. The PLC based elevator system is an
efficient tool to conserve electricity when elevator is not in
use. The overall system ensures high reliability. Tests have
been carried out to show the effectiveness and flexibility of
the proposed method.
IX. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The authors are thankful to the Technology Information
Forecasting and Assessment Council and Centres of
Relevance and Excellence (TIFAC-CORE) at NIT Hamirpur
for providing the necessary facilities to perform the research
work.

[4]

[5]

[6]
[7]

[8]
[9]
[10]
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