Create software for controlling n elevators working in parallel across m floors.
Be reasonable: There may be semantic hoops that you can jump through to create something that is "technically correct". Do not hesitate to contact us if you feel that something is ambiguous or missing from these requirements.
- Once the light on a hall call button (buttons for calling an elevator to that floor; top 6 buttons on the control panel) is turned on, an elevator should arrive at that floor
- Similarly for a cab call (for telling the elevator what floor you want to exit at; front 4 buttons on the control panel), but only the elevator at that specific workspace should take the order
- Failure states are anything that prevents the elevator from communicating with other elevators or servicing calls
- This includes losing network connection entirely, software that crashes, doors that won't close, and losing power - both to the elevator motor and the machine that controls the elevator
- Network packet loss is not a failure, and can occur at any time
- An elevator entering the network is not a failure
- No calls should be lost in the presence of failures
- For cab calls, handling loss of power or software crash implies that the calls are executed once service to that elevator is restored
- The time used to handle (compensate for) these failures should be reasonable, i.e. on the order of magnitude of seconds (not minutes)
- If the elevator is disconnected from the network, it should still serve all the currently active calls (i.e. whatever lights are showing)
- It should also keep taking new cab calls, so that people can exit the elevator even if it is disconnected from the network
- The elevator software should not require reinitialization (manual restart) after intermittent network or motor power loss
- The hall call buttons on all workspaces should let you summon an elevator
- Under normal circumstances, the lights on the hall buttons should show the same thing on all workspaces
- Normal circumstances mean when there are no active failures and no packet loss
- Under circumstances with packet loss, at least one light must work as expected
- The cab button lights should not be shared between workspaces
- The cab and hall button lights should turn on as soon as is reasonable after the button has been pressed
- Not ever turning on the button lights because "no guarantee is offered" is not a valid solution
- You are allowed to expect the user to press the button again if it does not light up
- The cab and hall button lights should turn off when the corresponding call has been serviced
- The "door open" lamp should be used as a substitute for an actual door
- The door should not be open (light switched on) while the elevator is moving
- The duration for keeping the door open when stopping at a floor should be 3 (three) seconds
- The obstruction switch should substitute the door obstruction sensor inside the elevator
- The door should not close while it is obstructed
- The obstruction can trigger (and un-trigger) at any time
- No stopping at every floor "just to be safe"
- Clearing a hall call button light is assumed to mean that the elevator that arrived at that floor announces "going up" or "going down" to the user (for up and down buttons respectively), and users are assumed to only enter an elevator moving in the direction they have requested
- This means that a single elevator arriving at a floor should not clear both up and down calls simultaneously
- If the elevator has no reason to travel in the direction it has announced (e.g. a both up and down are requested, but the people entering the elevator all want to go down), the elevator should "announce" that it is changing direction by first clearing the call in the opposite direction, then keeping the door open for another 3 seconds
These requirements will only be regarded if the system satisfies the main requirements.
- The calls should be distributed across the elevators in such a way that they are serviced as soon as possible
The following assumptions will always be true during testing:
- There is always at least one elevator that is not in a failure state
- I.e. there is always at least one elevator that can serve calls
- "No failure" includes the door obstruction: At least one elevator will be able to close its doors
- Cab call redundancy with a single elevator is not required
- Given assumption 1, a system containing only one elevator is assumed to be unable to fail
- No network partitioning: There will never be a situation where there are multiple sets of two or more elevators with no connection between them
- Note that this needs 4 or more elevators to become applicable, which we will not test anyway
Some things are left intentionally unspecified. Their implementation will not be tested, and are therefore up to you.
How the elevator behaves when it cannot connect to the network (router) during initialization
- You can either enter a "single-elevator" mode, or refuse to start
How the hall (call up, call down) buttons work when the elevator is disconnected from the network
- You can optionally refuse to take these new calls
What the stop button does
- The stop button functionality (if/when implemented) is up to you
Start with 1 <= n <= 3 elevators, and m == 4 floors. Try to avoid hard-coding these values: You should be able to add a fourth elevator with no extra configuration, or change the number of floors with minimal configuration. You do, however, not need to test for n > 3 and m != 4.
If you need to specify the identifier of an elevator when it starts, we recommend that you implement the command-line switch --id <number>.
Go to the project resources repository to find more resources for doing the project. This information is not required for the project, and is therefore maintained separately.
See Testing from home document on how to test with unreliable networking on a single computer.