SMART MOBILITY.

Technology disruptors have been transforming the vertical mobility space where smart solutions leverage IoT, connected sensors and cloud technology to enhance the experience of both end-users and maintenance personnel, improve efficiency, and reduce down-time and crowding. Prajakta Karnik takes a peek into the exciting technology solutions in the vertical mobility space.

India's escalators and elevators market is expected to witness a significant growth largely on the back of the efforts taken by the governments both at the centre and state levels to revive the construction industry. The initiatives like the Smart Cities Mission, Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojna and AMRUT scheme undertaken, as a part of its Housing for All program, is driving vertical development. Additionally, the upcoming metro rail projects, the proposed development of bullet trains as well as the focus on strengthening regional connectivity under the UDAN scheme, wherein the Ministry of Civil Aviation has set a target of operationalizing as many as 100 unserved and underserved airports, are expected to further drive the demand for smart escalators, elevators as well as travelators.

Mobility Gets Smarter

Smart and safer mobility is a key part in the emergence of smart city strategy around the world. The role of technology is expected to increase as ICTs continue to be integrated in cities in novel ways. While digital technology has traditionally focused on optimising the vehicle's internal functions, attention is now turning to developing the vehicle's ability to connect with the outside world and enhance the in-car experience.

“From vertical transportation perspective, it means looking at safer, smarter, technology enabled building solutions. When it comes to vertical people flow movement, there are already several technological innovations taking place. And we anticipate many more to come. There is no limit to the kind of exciting technology led innovations that we can expect in the elevator and escalator segment. Smart digital buildings will help bring people together, be conducive to collaborative working by increasing interaction and save precious resources,” says Amit Gossain, Managing Director, Kone Elevator India.

Says Manish Mehan, CEO & MD, thyssenkrupp Elevator, India, “Today users perceive elevators as more than just a means of travel from one floor to another, people have expressed increasing interest for information, connectivity, speed and convenience in elevator systems. As an industry-leading innovator and trend-setter, TK Elevator has designed elevators that are not only elegant and sophisticated but also smart in technology. TK Elevator stands at the forefront of the industry in leveraging Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) in our elevator products. We have developed a range of smart products that leverage connected sensors and cloud technology to enhance the experience of both end-users and maintenance personnel, improve elevator efficiency, and reduce down-time and crowding.”

According to Albert Dhiraviyam, Country Head Marketing, Johnson Lifts smart and safer mobility is the basic and fundamental need required to be incorporated in any project during the conceptualizing stage. “We at Johnson work along with architects and designers during this stage and take into account the foot print of the project, floor population, key peak areas and number of floors, and feed the data into our 'Traffic Management System', a software that recommends the total number of units, capacity and speed, among others, to be provided for that particular project. This analysis and results help in optimization of smart and safe mobilization,”Dhiraviiyam says.

Pratisha Laskar, Director of Project Delivery - North America FivD noted that there is a thrust towards massive digitization initiatives in smart cities, transportation, logistics, power distribution and healthcare. “This will enable planners and policy-makers to come up with optimal decisions for achieving equitable urban mobility solutions. The role of 5G, AI, IoT and the cloud is stronger than ever. As we assimilate this data, it becomes possible to make informed decisions and propose policies to meet region-specific mobility solutions in a scalable manner. By understanding user behaviour patterns and anticipating challenges, we can address various goals like traffic decongestion, sustainable travel systems, streamlined public transport and safety. Designing smart mobility infrastructure within buildings can revolutionize redundant movement patterns by enabling innovation in vertical and horizontal circulation systems. Smart solutions that integrate data-driven strategies with a high-performance design will help enhance the quality of the built environment and meet sustainable development goals in the long run,” she said.

According to Arun Malhotra, Founder, AM Estate Developers, “Land scarcity and exorbitant land prices, vertical growth remains the only alternative for rapidly growing cities. Sometimes a building even serves multiple purposes - commercial as well as residential. In such cases, different elevator systems must cater to different strata of people in the same premises. An example of an innovative solution to this problem is an intelligent system called Compass Plus by Otis. It constantly monitors human traffic in real-time and uses the data to optimize flow, travel time and minimize stops in busy high rises. Such ingenious solutions that enable smart features to enhance flexibility are exactly what developers are keen to get their hands on - they significantly save time and drastically increase human convenience.”

COVID DRIVES SMART FEATURES

Almost all the vertical and horizontal mobility solutions have become internet-connected. Suppliers of elevators, escalators and travelators have already started installing them in smart buildings. Some of the smart and intelligent features include duple and group operation, remote monitoring system through IoT, destination selection control (DCS), smart card access and contactless operation, among others.

However, with the advent of the Covid pandemic and the need to have contact-less operations, suppliers are introducing innovative and smarter solutions in the mobility space.

“Greater demand for sanitizing, remote operation and automation, and social distancing are the foreseeable effects and aftermath of the pandemic in our view. TK Elevator takes the safety and convenience of users very seriously, we quickly respond to the demands to develop and offer various smart solutions leveraging popular and emerging technologies such as proximity sensor, QR code, Bluetooth and more. In order to make our elevators a healthy and hygienic space, we also brought to market Air Purification, Thermal Camera and Aerosol Disinfectant solutions,” Mehan said.

Says Gossain, “I believe that with the advent of Covid-19, the entire focus of the industry is now on hands-free seamless access through built spaces. The most common surfaces that we touch in our daily life are the door handles and elevator buttons. Probably these are the surfaces that are most susceptible to the spread of viruses. The touchless safety solutions that are currently available, like Kone's health and wellbeing solutions, are trending the most. We have also seen a rising demand for our AI-based 24/7 connected services as this solution provides valuable information on upcoming maintenance needs and identifies any potential issues before they cause problems. It connects the elevators or escalators to our cloud-based service and uses artificial intelligence-based analytics to make smarter proactive maintenance decisions that take people flow to a whole new level.”

According to Dhiraviyam, the techno-commmercial benefits of IoT enabled solutions in smart mobility are immense and includes real time service to get lift performance, breakdown, passenger trap alerts and proactive material replacement alert for wear and tear parts, among others.

According to Deben Moza, Executive Director - Head of Project Management Services, Knight Frank India some of the smart features adopted by suppliers in elevators and escalators these days include:

The Twin System: The advantage of the Twin is that two cabs run independently in a single shaft. The system keeps a safe distance between the two elevators (upper and lower cabins) that are running on top of each other.

Double Deck Elevators: Double Deck elevators are two cabs tall, where one cab serves even-numbered floors and the other serves odd-numbered floors, resulting in reducing the total number of needed elevators.

LED Lighting: LED cab lights within an elevator car and their adjustment to movement detectors are one of the main contributors toward efficient power consumption in a building. LEDs save substantial energy for they require less power than incandescent, halogen, and fluorescent lamps. LED also emits less heat, resulting in less energy needed to cool the cab. LED lighting is currently utilized in many new buildings. Additionally, building owners are replacing traditional elevator lighting systems with LED lighting.

Energy-Efficient Software: New elevator control software allows for the conducting of elevator traffic studies, which inform how an elevator's cycle affects its energy use. By observing and studying the irregular nature of elevator operation, number of floors travelled, periods of peak load, and low-load and empty trips, researchers can create energy consumption models that help to develop efficient control strategies and make recommendations for best management.

Destination Dispatching Systems: In a conventional call system, the users push up and down buttons, and elevators answer the call. This system works fine in buildings that have low “vertical ridership” and do not experience “rush hour” traffic. In heavy traffic, lots of buttons are pushed that will result in lots of elevator stops, increasing travel and wait time. To address this problem, elevator designers have invented the Destination Dispatching System (DDS).

Outlook

The Indian elevator, escalator and moving walkway market is registering a steady growth. According to a report by a global market research firm Technavio, the elevator and escalator market in India is poised to grow by USD 659.2 million during 2020-2024, progressing at a CAGR of over 9% during the period.Increased real estate activity along with rising disposable income, increased migration to urban areas, rise in aged population, and foreign direct investment inflow in construction comprise some of the key factors propelling the mobility solutions market in India.

“We have new cities entering the urban cities segment, and with that, population density of these cities is increasing which leads to taller buildings being developed. With the cities growing and taller residential and commercial structures coming up, we see a general development in the overall infrastructure in the cities. All this brings with it a wider market base to cater to for its horizontal and vertical mobility. Rapid urbanization shall drive the demand for elevators and escalator in the mega cities, regions and corridors. We are also upbeat on the concept of affordable housing as this has the potential to be a game changer. Quite a few projects have been launched and we can see the development happening at the ground level,” Mehan says.

He further notes that with the government focused on building 100 smart cities, including new housing complexes, airports, malls, railway stations, and harbours, we are expecting to see a significant increase in demand for mobility solutions in India and elevators do play an important part in this.

According to Gossain, “With a resurgence expected in the real estate sector, the outlook looks positive for the elevator and escalator industry. The Covid-19 pandemic will redefine certain trends in the realty sector and we expect hygiene and wellness to be key factors in assessing properties in both commercial and residential segments. We will experience elevators a lot more differently now, and Covid-19 will push us to fast-track digital transformation, making elevators more sophisticated and cutting-edge. The focus will be on touchless elevator control solutions to enhance safety, security and convenience. Also, we see Covdi-19 hastening demand for artificial intelligence-based analytics to make smarter proactive maintenance decisions that take people to flow to a whole new level.With new technologies and connectivity, we can provide an opportunity to add value to the customers in new ways that meet their specific needs, while at the same time technological development has changed their expectations on speed, transparency and predictability.”

Shashie Kumar S, Chief Operating Officer - Retail, Brigade Group noted that the primary role of elevators and escalators is not only to ensure seamless movement of people, but also to serve as a part of the attraction of the mall and therefore, they are most often strategically placed so that shoppers get a 360-degree view of the mall tenants.

“In terms of futuristic technology, in elevators, we can expect the introduction of IoT based QR Code scanners for destination control, which would eliminate common touch points. All a user would need to do would be to scan the QR code from his or her own smartphone and access the elevator without actually touching the call buttons. For escalators as well, UV technology could be used for potential real time disinfection of hand or grab rails, against any kind of pathogen. In addition, elevators can be used as a point of communication where major announcements can be made. Also, the current static panels in elevators could be converted into digital media panels for both advertising as well as in-house announcements,” Kumar said.

The enhanced spending on public infrastructure projects like ports, railways, airports, warehousing, gas pipelines, metros and economic corridors will give impetus to employment generation and attract essential investment to lift the economic revival.  Similarly, in the health sector with new AIIMS and multi-specialty hospital chains largely opening up in smart cities will pave way for large orders. Also in education sector the new IIT's, IIM's, IISER and NIT's is being planned in many smart cities are the show stealers where there is major scope for investment. The government focus on urban transportation through metros, modernization of airports, railway stations, and bus terminals in the public infrastructure arena will also open up opportunities for vertical transportation like lifts and escalators,” Dhiraviyam said.

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