Smart Connected Buildings Design Automation: Foundations and Trends

Abstract

Buildings are the result of a complex integration of multi-physics subsystems. Besides the obvious civil engineering infrastructure, thermal, electrical, mechanical, control, communication and computing subsystems must co-exist and be operated so that the overall operation is smooth and efficient. This is particularly important for commercial buildings but is also very relevant for residential buildings especially apartment buildings. Unfortunately, the design and deployment of these subsystems is rarely synchronized: lighting, security, heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems are often designed independently. However, simply putting together a collection of sub-systems, albeit optimized, has led to the inefficient buildings of today. Worldwide, buildings consume 42% of all electrical power - more than any other asset - and it can be proven that much of this can be reduced if a holistic approach to design, deployment, and operation is taken. Government agencies, academic institutions, building contractors and owners have realized the significant impact of buildings on the global environment, the electrical grid, and the mission of their organizations. However, the economic impact for all constituencies is still difficult to assess. Government regulations can play a fundamental role, as it has been the case for the transportation industry where regulations on emission and fuel consumption have been the single most important factor of innovation in automotive design. We are convinced that by leveraging technology and utilizing a system-level approach to buildings, they will provide comfort, safety and functionality while minimizing energy cost, supporting a robust electric grid and mitigating environmental impact. Realizing this vision requires adding intelligence from the beginning of the design phase, to deployment, from commissioning to operation, all the way to the end of the building's life cycle. In this issue, we attempt to provide an as-complete-as-possible overview of the activities in the field of smart connected building design automation that attempts to make the vision a reality. The overarching range of such activities includes developing simulation tools for modeling and the design of buildings, and consequently control algorithms proposed to make buildings smarter and more efficient. Furthermore, we will review real-world and large-scale implementation of such control strategies on physical buildings. We then present a formal co-design methodology to design buildings, taking the view that buildings are prime examples of cyber-physical systems where the virtual and physical worlds meet as more traditional products such as thermostats are able to connect online and perform complicated computational tasks to control building temperature effectively. We complete the presentation describing the growing role of buildings in the operation of the smart grid where buildings are not only consumers of energy, but are themselves also providers of services and energy to the grid. The audiences for this monograph are industry professionals and researchers who work in the area of smart buildings, smart cities, and smart grid, with emphasis on energy efficiency, simulation tools, optimal control, and cyber-physical systems for the emerging power markets.