Toward Intelligent Power Consumption Optimization in Long High-Speed Passenger Conveyors

This paper presents an approach that aims to optimize the power consumption in long high-speed passenger conveyors. The approach focuses on the application of distributed drive system and the intelligent control of the drives. The amount of power consumed by a moving walkway depends on the amount of resistances in the system, which varies according to the number of passengers onboard. As a result of passenger travel behavior, the passenger distribution on a moving walkway is usually non-uniform in time and space. We envisage that if the distributed drives in a long moving walkway are controlled to supply power based on the amount of load in the particular section that they support, power consumption can be optimized. This paper focuses to discuss the motivation and theories underlying this approach, and to explain the simulation framework that will be used in the investigation.