Abstract— This paper presents the distributed control system for elevators (DECS). Based on the characteristics of the today installed elevator systems, the electric traction elevator has been chosen for this paper. Conventional elevator control systems (ECS) have several disadvantages compared to modern control systems (large number of cables, safety issues, etc.). An alternative to conventional ECS is the DECS. A DECS based on the CAN (Controller Area Network) protocol is presented in this paper. The presented ECS consists of three modules: CU Elevator (CU – Control Unit), CU Cabin, CU Floor. The mentioned modules, control principles and implementation methods based on the PIC 18F458 microcontroller are presented in detail. A description of the CAN protocol design with message scheduling on the bus is given. Messages with an 11 bit identifier without a data field have been used for the distributed control system synthesis. The time analysis of bus availability/traffic demonstrates the adequacy of the distributed control system Based on the defined messages and 5 presented modes of operation, an algorithm of operation has been formed for every control system module. Finally experimental results are presented that have been obtained from a developed CAN based elevator control system. The conducted tests have confirmed the functionality of the elevator control system. I. INTRODUCTION HE first electrical controls were realized by relay techniques. In the 1970's the principles of relay equipment were applied to electronic controls [1]. The first completely microprocessor-based control system was developed in the beginning of the 1980's [2]. We have improved electrical control system of a relay-controlled elevator in a residential building by using PLC [3]. The distributed elevator control system is replaced the centralized control system on the based microprocessor and/or PLC, and become the dominant equipment of electronic system automatization in last 10 years. Distributed elevator control system is created from several Manuscript received January 31, 2010. S. Huseinbegovic is with the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Department of Automatic Control and Electronics, University of Sarajevo, 71000 Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina (e-mail: s.huseinbegovic@etf.unsa.ba). S. Kreso is with the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Department of Automatic Control and Electronics, University of Sarajevo, 71000 Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina (e-mail: sarfo@bih.net.ba). O. Tanovic is with the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Department of Automatic Control and Electronics, University of Sarajevo, 71000 Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina (e-mail: omer.tanovic@etf.unsa.ba). independent intelligent control units/modules/stations. Control units is possible to realized with single microcontroller/microprocessor units, PLC, embedded computer or PC [4]-[7]. Today trend in industry control elevator system is designed the distributed elevator control system on the based microcontroller/microprocessor or FPGA. This paper is divided into six sections. The second section introduces the architecture of our DECS, and some detailed features of the elevator systems. The third and fourth sections present the hardware structure of module DECS based on microcontroller PIC 18F458 and CAN bus and software flow chart. Some experimental results are provided in the section five. The conclusion is made in the section six. II. DECS ARCHITECTURE The technical characteristic of an elevator system are: The elevator system consists of a single/double cabin with 64 floors. On each floor there is a request one or two button, a control light and a display for the direction of travel indication and the current position of the elevator cabin. The sensors for the current position and the acceleration/deceleration of the elevator cabin are located on each floor. The cabin has a single/double door, which can be opened/closed manually, ½ automatically or automatically. During the cabin movement doors have to be closed. Two sensors inform the control system about the door position. An optical sensor can detect objects while the door is closing. In the elevator cabin there is a panel with request button, control light and a display for the direction of travel indication and the current position of the cabin. The elevator cabin engine moves the cabin up and down. Limitation of cabin movement is realized using two limit switches for top and bottom elevator positions (safety switches). Fig.1. shows the architecture of distributed elevator control system (DECS), proposed by the authors. The basic components of the elevator control system are: CU Elevator (CUE), CU Cabin (CUC) and CU Floor (CUF) (CU stands for Control Unit). All above mentioned modules are microcontroller based structures. For the realization of DECs Microchip PIC 18F458 microcontroller was used. Development of a Distributed Elevator Control System Based on the Microcontroller PIC 18F458 S.Huseinbegovic, GSM, IEEE, S.Kreso, Member, IEEE, and O.Tanovic, GSM, IEEE T 978-1-4244-7623-7/10/$26.00 ©2010 IEEE 858 IEEE Region 8 SIBIRCON-2010, Irkutsk Listvyanka, Russia, July 11 — 15, 2010