Author: Daniel Cartagena Nunez Date: 5/16/2025
This is a simulation of an elevator system for a building with 5 floors (configurable).
The simulation was built under the following simplified real-world assumptions:
- The elevator processes all current requests in a single logical run.
- It cannot go up and down multiple times per run — it chooses an initial direction (based on the first request), serves all in that direction, then reverses if needed.
- Requests are handled chronologically and based on distance from the current floor.
The system automatically sets min floor = 1 and max floor = 5. But allows to change the max floor on a scale from 2 - 99, for adaptability.
The system allows users to test interactive features:
- You can call the elevator from outside (from any floor).
- You can request a floor from inside the elevator.
- The elevator moves logically, floor by floor, with visual feedback (can be disabled for test runs).
- Configuration options (number of floors, start floor) are available.
Also there's an elevator animation that shows the elevator moving up and down the building.
To run interactively: dotnet run --project ElevatorSimulation
The system uses xUnit for unit testing. Using the project ElevatorSimulation.Tests, you can run the tests with the command:
dotnet test
This will run all the tests in the ElevatorSimulation.Tests project. And allows to add adittionall test in the 'ElevatorTests' file.
Start by setting up the elevator and the controller:
''' var elevator = new Elevator(startFloor: 3, maxFloor: 5); var controller = new ElevatorContoller(elevator, new ElevatorConfig { StartFloor = 3, MaxFloor = 5 }); '''
These are the default values:
StartFloor = 3 -> the elevator begins at floor 3.
MaxFloor = 5 -> the building has 5 floors (you can increase this up to 99).
The minimum floor is always 1, set automatically by the system.
Then add the requests to the elevator: ''' controller.AddRequest(new ElevatorRequest(5, Direction.Down, true, baseTime.AddSeconds(4))); '''
5 The requested floor. Where the user wants to go.
Direction.Down → The direction the user intends to go.
Use Direction.Up if the user wants to go up.
Use Direction.Down if they want to go down.
true → IsExternal. Use:
true when the request comes from outside the elevator (hallway call).
false when the request comes from inside the elevator (selecting a floor).
baseTime.AddSeconds(4) → The time the request was made.
baseTime is set to DateTime.Now.
AddSeconds(4) means this request occurred 4 seconds after the first one.
Finally Tu run the Simulation use ''' controller.RunSimulation(); '''
And deppending on the run mode, you will see a log file created on the base folder of either ElevatorSimulation or ElevatorSimulation.Tests.