Elevator Simulator

Video Demo: https://youtu.be/UGQnB65TX_8

Description: A modular web elevator simulator

Overview

This project simulates elevators in a building with multiple floors.

Features:

• Simulate multiple elevators.
• Handle a variable number of floors.
• Handle multiple simultaneous floor requests.
• Manage floor button requests and in-elevator button requests.
• Sort requests based on elevator proximity and direction.
• Use a two standby queues (one elevator specific and one global) for overflow requests.

Stack

Frontend

• HTML, CSS, and Vanilla JavaScript (ES6 Modules)
• Rendered using requestAnimationFrame()
• Event-driven based on button onClick

Backend

• Flask (Python): Just to display the page and connect to the backend
• SQLite3: Stores the number of elevators and floors

How It Works

1. Floor Button Request Handling

   • The algorithm first creates an array of elevators closes to the floor, sorted by closest to furthest.
   • Then each elevator is checked in add_to_queue():
     • Is the elevator going towards where the floor is?
     • Is the elevator's destination direction the same as where the floor wants to go?
   • If yes to both above, the floor is queued.
   • Otherwise the floor is sent to the global standby and re-checked for queuing when a lift becomes idle.

2. In-Elevator Request Handling

   • The elevator is checked in add_to_queue():
     • Is the elevator going towards the floor that the elevator button wishes to go to?
   • If yes, the floor is queued.
   • Otherwise the floor is sent to elevator's local standby and re-checked for queuing when a lift becomes idle.

Installation

Dependencies

• Python 3.10+
• Flask
• SQLite3 (comes preinstalled with Python)
• A modern web browser (supports ES6 modules)

Steps

# Install dependencies
pip install flask

# Initialize the database
python init_db.py

# Run the Flask server
python app.py

Then open your browser and go to:

http://127.0.0.1:5000/

To-Do (maybe)

• Add customizable speed setting in the settings.
• Add ability for elevator to move back to floor 1 when idle for more than 1s.
• Add close/open buttons in each elevator panel.