Optimal dispatching control for elevator systems during uppeak traffic

We develop an optimal dispatching controller for elevator systems during uppeak traffic. Uppeak traffic arises when the passengers are moving from the first floor up into a building, e.g., the start of the day. We show that the structure of the policy minimizing the average passenger waiting time is a threshold-based policy. The analysis uses a Markov decision problem formulation with a batch service queueing model consisting of a single queue served by multiple finite-capacity bulk servers. Dynamic programming is used to obtain the structure of the optimal policy and to derive some of its properties