Data processing apparatus and data processing method

Abstract

To solve the problem that conventional technology does not take into account whether data used to make a determination is sufficient when determining whether energy usage targets can be achieved, which means there is a risk that the energy usage may not always be calculated appropriately.SOLUTION: A system comprises an evaluation criteria creation unit for setting evaluation criteria that specify an evaluation target or an evaluation range in a building, and a coverage evaluation unit for calculating a coverage score as an acquisition rate of environmental data for the evaluation target based on the evaluation criteria.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

Description

[Technical Field]

[0001] The present invention relates to a technology for calculating an index (coverage score) in a system for evaluating the amount of energy consumed in buildings such as multi-floor buildings, which indicates whether the various data required for the evaluation have been obtained sufficiently to calculate the final evaluation value for the assumed building. [Background technology]

[0002] Various efforts are underway toward a carbon-free society, and the revised Energy Conservation Act and environmental ordinances have expanded the scope of regulations to include small and medium-sized businesses and tenants, requiring building-wide energy conservation efforts. Under these circumstances, it is necessary to understand the amount of energy used in a building. An example of this type of invention is described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2011-48779 (Patent Document 1).

[0003] Patent Document 1 describes an equipment operation support system and program that inputs energy consumption reduction targets that meet legal regulations and equipment operation items for reducing energy usage, and creates an equipment operation plan based on the input operation items and the measured energy usage of the equipment. [Prior art documents] [Patent documents]

[0004] [Patent Document 1] Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2011-48779 Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0005] In Patent Document 1, when determining whether the energy usage target can be achieved, the amount of data used to make the determination is not taken into consideration, so there is a risk that the energy usage may not always be calculated appropriately. [Means for solving the problem]

[0006] In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention is characterized by having an evaluation criteria creation unit that sets evaluation criteria that specify the evaluation object or evaluation range within a building, and a coverage evaluation unit that calculates a coverage score as the acquisition rate of environmental data of the evaluation object based on the evaluation criteria. [Effects of the Invention]

[0007] According to the present invention, when determining whether a building's evaluation index can achieve its target, it is possible to take into consideration whether there is sufficient data for making the determination.

[0008] Problems, configurations, and effects other than those described above will become apparent from the following description of the preferred embodiments of the invention. [Brief explanation of the drawings]

[0009] [Figure 1] 1 is a diagram illustrating the overall configuration of a data processing device according to an embodiment of the present invention. [Figure 2] 10 is an example of an evaluation criterion DB according to an embodiment of the present invention. [Figure 3] 1 is an example of a building floor / area data DB according to an embodiment of the present invention. [Figure 4] 2 is an example of a device data DB according to an embodiment of the present invention. [Figure 5] 1 is a flowchart of an overall process in an embodiment of the present invention. [Figure 6] 1 is a flowchart of a method for setting evaluation criteria in an embodiment of the present invention. [Figure 7] 10 is a flowchart of a calculation process of a coverage score in an embodiment of the present invention. [Figure 8] 10 is a flowchart of a data drill-down process according to an embodiment of the present invention. [Figure 9] 10 is a diagram illustrating an example of a screen display according to an embodiment of the present invention. [Figure 10] 10 is a diagram illustrating an example of a screen display according to an embodiment of the present invention. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0010] Hereinafter, embodiments for carrying out the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings as appropriate. The embodiments are illustrative for explaining the present invention, and some omissions and simplifications have been made as appropriate for clarity of explanation. The present invention can also be carried out in various other forms. Unless otherwise specified, each component may be singular or plural.

[0011] In order to facilitate understanding of the invention, the position, size, shape, range, etc. of each component shown in the drawings may not represent the actual position, size, shape, range, etc. Therefore, the present invention is not necessarily limited to the position, size, shape, range, etc. disclosed in the drawings.

[0012] Although various types of information may be described using expressions such as "table" and "list" as examples, the various types of information may also be expressed using data structures other than these. For example, various types of information such as "XX table" and "XX list" may also be expressed as "XX information." When describing identification information, expressions such as "identification information," "identifier," "name," "ID," and "number" are used, but these are interchangeable.

[0013] When there are multiple components with the same or similar functions, they may be described using the same reference numeral with different subscripts. When there is no need to distinguish between these multiple components, the subscripts may be omitted.

[0014] In the embodiments, processing performed by executing a program may be described. Here, a computer executes the program using a processor (e.g., a CPU or a GPU) and performs processing defined by the program using storage resources (e.g., a memory) and interface devices (e.g., a communication port). Therefore, the entity performing the processing by executing the program may be the processor. Similarly, the entity performing the processing by executing the program may be a controller, device, system, computer, or node having a processor. The entity performing the processing by executing the program may be any computing unit, and may include a dedicated circuit that performs specific processing. Here, the dedicated circuit may be, for example, an FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array), an ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit), or a CPLD (Complex Programmable Logic Device).

[0015] A program may be installed on a computer from a program source. The program source may be, for example, a program distribution server or a computer-readable storage medium. When the program source is a program distribution server, the program distribution server may include a processor and a storage resource for storing the program to be distributed, and the processor of the program distribution server may distribute the program to be distributed to other computers. In addition, in an embodiment, two or more programs may be realized as one program, or one program may be realized as two or more programs. [Example]

[0016] 1 is a diagram showing the overall configuration of a data processing device 100 according to this embodiment. The data processing device 100 calculates, in predetermined units, an environmental assessment index such as the amount of energy used in a building having multiple floors and occupied by multiple tenants, for example. To calculate coverage (for the entire building / multiple floors spanning multiple floors / floor / tenant / specific area on one floor, etc.), a coverage score is calculated, which is the percentage of the required data that can be obtained.

[0017] The data processing device 100 is mainly composed of an arithmetic processing unit 110, a storage device unit 120, and an administrator terminal 130, and the arithmetic processing unit 110 is composed of a coverage detection unit 111 having an evaluation criterion creation unit 112 and a coverage evaluation unit 113, and a coverage score improvement unit 115 having a data drill-down unit 116 and a sensor recommendation unit 117.

[0018] Each of these units in the arithmetic processing unit 110 functions when a central processing unit (CPU) (not shown) in the arithmetic processing unit 110 reads and executes a corresponding program, but each unit may also be configured using dedicated hardware circuits, etc. In the following description, even when the subject of processing is not specified, it is assumed that processing is performed by a CPU (not shown) in the arithmetic processing unit 110 executing a predetermined program.

[0019] The storage device unit 120 is composed of an evaluation criteria database (DB) 121, a building information DB 122 consisting of a building floor / area data DB 123 and a device data DB 124, a drill-down data DB 125, a sensor wiki DB 126, and a search engine 127.

[0020] The administrator terminal 130 is composed of input devices (not shown) such as a keyboard and mouse through which the user operating the data processing device 100 inputs data to make various settings, and an output device (not shown) such as a display device for checking the processing results of the data processing device 100.

[0021] Next, the functions and configurations of the above-mentioned components will be described. The evaluation criteria creation unit 112 of the calculation processing unit 110 sets evaluation criteria that specify the evaluation target for which the data processing device 100 calculates the coverage score, the evaluation range, etc. For example, the evaluation target may be the amount of energy consumption such as electricity, water, gas, etc., or the amount of waste generated, and the evaluation range may be the area (area) of the evaluation target, such as a single floor of a building or a tenant on a floor. The evaluation criteria may be set by reading out and using one that matches the evaluation needs from multiple evaluation criteria stored in the evaluation criteria DB 121, or the user may create the evaluation criteria using the administrator terminal 130 according to a predetermined evaluation criteria template, etc.

[0022] 2 is an example of an evaluation criteria table 200 recorded in the evaluation criteria DB 121. In this example, three types of evaluation criteria are recorded, with ID 201 and name 202 being "ID=1 / WELL," "ID=2 / DADC," and "ID=3 / Customer RFP#1." These evaluation criteria further specify a focus point (e.g., energy consumption) indicated by type 204, an evaluation area indicated by level 205, a required value indicated by coverage 206, and a unit 207. The user can search for and select an appropriate evaluation criteria from these criteria for use.

[0023] The coverage evaluation unit 113 calculates a coverage score based on the created evaluation criteria, using the building floor / area data DB 123 and the device data DB 124 of the building information DB 122.

[0024] As shown in Fig. 3, the building floor / area data DB 123 has a building name column 123A for the building to be evaluated, a floor column 123B, a section column 123C showing the contents of each section on that floor, and a device column 123D showing information about the devices installed in that section. For example, Fig. 3 shows that the second floor of building X has conference room C, common area D, common area E, and a corridor for moving between them, and that conference room C has installed devices such as air conditioning equipment, lighting equipment, and a personal computer (PC).

[0025] In this example, a section is assumed to be a room, but it is not limited to this and can be an area such as a certain range on a floor, or multiple rooms (an area used by one tenant), and each floor can be not just one floor but multiple floors (multiple floors used by one tenant). Furthermore, a section can be represented using coordinate data.

[0026] Additionally, the building floor / area data DB 123 may store data for a number of different buildings.

[0027] Furthermore, as shown in FIG. 4, the device data DB 124 lists all the equipment installed in the target building (building name column 124A) in an equipment column 124B, and has a description column 124C that lists the equipment's use and specific examples, a data acquisition column 124D that indicates whether or not the equipment can acquire data (environmental data) that serves as an evaluation index ('1': acquireable, '0': not acquireable), and a type column 124E that indicates what type of data the data is.

[0028] Here, data on ventilation, environment, air conditioning, lighting, and congestion level for facility 124B is used to evaluate comfort, etc., and data on ventilation, cameras, PCs, elevators, energy, air conditioning, lighting, etc. can be used to evaluate power consumption (amount of energy). Data on toilets, water supply, etc. can be used to evaluate water usage and access to water, and data on ventilation, environment, garbage, etc. can be used to evaluate sanitation, etc.

[0029] When the coverage score is calculated by the coverage evaluation unit 113, if data on equipment in the target area cannot be acquired (equipment for which "Data Acquisition 124D" in FIG. 4 is "0"), the data drill-down unit 116 of the coverage score improvement unit 115 performs a process (data drill-down) to infer data on the equipment that cannot be acquired using data on other surrounding equipment, and stores the results in the drill-down data DB 125. Note that data drill-down may also be performed if the coverage score falls below a predetermined threshold. This reduces the load of data processing when the coverage score is within an acceptable range.

[0030] The sensor recommendation unit 117 has a function of recommending to the user the addition of a new sensor for acquiring data in order to improve the coverage score for equipment for which data drill-down could not be performed by the data drill-down unit 116, and selects and presents to the user an appropriate sensor with reference to the sensor information stored in the sensor wiki DB 126. Note that the sensor recommendation unit 117 may recommend to the user the addition of a new sensor for acquiring data in order to improve the coverage score, regardless of whether data drill-down is possible or not.

[0031] The sensor wiki DB 126 stores information such as the type, model name, product number, and price of sensors and measuring instruments that should be installed in the target area depending on the data that is desired to be acquired. For example, if you want to measure the amount of electricity in that area, information such as an ammeter to be installed on the power supply line in that area is stored, and if you want to measure the room temperature in that area, information such as a temperature sensor is stored. In addition, information such as the specifications and required numbers of sensors and measuring instruments is also stored depending on the size of the area. At this time, if more detailed information such as the specifications of the sensors is required or if the sensor wiki DB 126 does not contain information on appropriate sensors, it is possible to obtain information from other websites, databases, etc. via an external network (not shown) using a search engine 127.

[0032] Next, the overall processing flow of the data processing device 100 in this embodiment will be described with reference to the overall processing flowchart shown in FIG.

[0033] <Step S501> When the administrator (user) inputs the content to be evaluated using the administrator terminal 130, the evaluation criteria creation unit 112 accesses the evaluation criteria DB 121 and checks whether the corresponding evaluation criteria are stored.

[0034] <Step S502> If an evaluation criterion that matches the content that the user wants to evaluate is stored in the evaluation criterion DB 121 ("YES" in step S501), the user selects it. Selection may be made for each target level (each floor or area that the user wants to evaluate), or the device may automatically select a level that can be evaluated.

[0035] <Step S503> If the evaluation criteria DB 121 does not contain evaluation criteria that match the content that the user wants to evaluate ("NO" in step S501), the user creates evaluation criteria using the administrator terminal 130. Alternatively, the user may select evaluation criteria similar to the content that the user wants to evaluate from the evaluation criteria DB 121 and modify them.

[0036] <Step S504> Based on the created (set) evaluation criteria, the coverage evaluation unit 113 calculates a coverage score for each target level in the building. The coverage score may be calculated for both each individual target level and for the entire building based on the sum of the scores.

[0037] <Step S505> Based on the calculated coverage score for each target level, the data drill-down unit 116 (or another processing unit (not shown) of the coverage score improvement unit 115) identifies data required to further improve the calculated coverage score. For example, if power consumption data for a certain device on a certain floor can be obtained, the data is identified in a case where the coverage score can be improved.

[0038] <Step S506> Next, it is determined whether drill-down is possible for the identified data. Specifically, the scope of coverage score calculation is expanded, related data necessary for drill-down is collected, and it is determined whether drill-down is possible.

[0039] <Step S507> If the data necessary for drill-down has been collected ("YES" in step S506), the data drill-down unit 116 performs drill-down using the collected related data, improves the coverage score of the target level, and stores the improved data in the drill-down data DB 125.

[0040] <Step S508> If the data required for drill-down cannot be collected ("NO" in step S506), the sensor recommendation unit 117 refers to the sensor wiki DB 126 and proposes the installation of data collection devices such as sensors that can be used as data collection points, including the number and locations of the devices to be installed. Also, assuming that the proposed sensors are installed in the building, an improved coverage score is calculated.

[0041] <Step S509> The data processing device 100 displays the coverage score obtained by the coverage evaluation unit 113 described above, the coverage score when drilling down, and the coverage score when adding a sensor or the like on a screen on a display device or the like of the administrator terminal 130. If there are multiple combinations when adding a sensor or the like, a score may be calculated and displayed for each combination.

[0042] Next, the method for setting the evaluation criteria will be described in detail using the flowchart shown in Fig. 6. Note that this processing corresponds to the processing of steps S501, S502, and S503 in the flowchart of Fig. 5, but does not necessarily correspond one-to-one to each of the individual processing, and the same processing is performed overall.

[0043] <Step S601> The administrator terminal 130 accepts input of evaluation requirements from the user. That is, the evaluation items (electricity amount, water amount, CO2 emissions, etc.) and evaluation targets (floor, area, etc.) are input.

[0044] <Step S602> The data processing device 100 identifies and organizes the input evaluation requirements from the following perspectives: the type of evaluation item (electricity consumption, water consumption, CO2 emissions, etc.), the level of the evaluation target in the building (floor, area, etc.), and other information (restrictions, etc.).

[0045] <Step S603> The data processing device 100 checks whether the evaluation criteria DB 121 contains evaluation criteria that correspond to the identified evaluation requirement.

[0046] <Steps S604 and S605> If there is no evaluation criterion corresponding to the identified evaluation requirement in the evaluation criterion DB121 ("NO" in step S603), the evaluation criterion is created by the user via text input or the like from the administrator terminal 130, and the created evaluation criterion is stored in the evaluation criterion DB121.

[0047] <Step S606> If an evaluation criterion corresponding to the identified evaluation requirement exists in the evaluation criterion DB121 ("YES" in step S603), it is used as a base and the evaluation criterion is created / updated as a new / updated version based on the evaluation requirements etc. identified in step S602.

[0048] <Step S607> The processes from step S602 onwards are repeated until the above processes are executed for all evaluation target points, and when completed (YES), the flow of FIG. 6 ends.

[0049] Next, the details of the calculation process of the coverage score will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG.

[0050] <Step S701> To calculate the coverage score, the user selects the evaluation index (related to the standard / needs) and the target building level on the screen of the administrator terminal 130.

[0051] <Step S702> The coverage range for a 100% coverage score is defined based on the target level of coverage assessment. For example, when assessing the energy consumption of the first to sixth floors of a building, if you want to assess the coverage of each floor at 100%, and all energy consumption data for all floors can be obtained, then it will be 100%. Also, if the first and sixth floors are assessed at 100%, but floors two to five are sufficient with a 90% assessment (for example, floors two to five are server rooms, etc., where high-precision assessment is not necessary), floors two to five will be calculated as 100% even if their coverage is 90%.

[0052] <Step S703> For each selected evaluation metric, the system searches for related information on the building platform, including (1) building information such as floor number, area, and zone information that can be obtained from the building floor / area data DB 123, and (2) device / sensor information such as device function specifications, installation location, and metadata that can be obtained from the device data DB 124.

[0053] <Step S704> Based on the retrieved related information (1) and (2), these are collated to determine whether or not equipment data related to the selected evaluation index can be acquired.

[0054] <Step S705> If there is a matching data point / value, we assign a score of "1" or "0", where "1" means data is available and "0" means data is not available. This is done for all selected metrics at all target levels.

[0055] <Step S706> A coverage score is calculated for each building level. For example, when calculating the coverage score for electricity for "Conference Room A" in Figure 3, the equipment that consumes electricity is "air conditioning" and "lighting." Referring to Figure 4, data can be obtained for "lighting" (=1), but data cannot be obtained for "air conditioning" (=0). Therefore, the coverage score is calculated as (1+0) / (1+1)*100=50(%). Similarly, "Conference Room B" is calculated as 50%, "toilets" as 100%, and "corridors" as 67%.

[0056] Next, the details of the data drill-down process will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG.

[0057] <Step S801> When calculating the coverage score, obtain the evaluation indicators that have a score of "0".

[0058] <Step S802> For each evaluation index with a score of "0", it is checked whether related device information can be acquired from the building floor / area data DB 123 and the device data DB 124. For example, if the power consumption of a certain area on a certain floor is used as an evaluation index and that data cannot be acquired (=0), it is checked whether the power consumption of the entire floor or data that can be inferred from that data, or power consumption data for other areas, can be acquired.

[0059] <Step S803> If related device information cannot be acquired ("NO" in step S802), data drill-down is not possible, and therefore the user is suggested to install sensors and devices necessary for data acquisition.

[0060] <Step S804> If related device information can be acquired ("YES" in step S802), the evaluation indices are grouped based on the similarity of the indices (rooms with the same type of device, rooms on the same floor, etc.). Grouping can reduce calculation processing because the indices are processed together, but grouping is not necessary.

[0061] <Step S805> Whether data drill-down is possible is determined based on the scenario. Examples of scenarios include when multiple pieces of equipment are managed by the same management system, inferring the power consumption of other pieces of equipment from the power consumption of one piece of equipment, or when device specification data and on / off data are available, multiplying these to infer power consumption. If data drill-down based on the scenario is not possible ("NO" in step S805), data drill-down is also not possible, and the system suggests to the user that they install the sensors and devices necessary to acquire data (step S803).

[0062] <Step S806> If data drill-down based on the scenario is possible ("YES" in step S805), data drill-down is performed. An example of data drill-down would be, for example, in a three-story building, dividing the power consumption of the entire building by three to determine the power consumption of each floor, or multiplying this by a weighting factor (the weighting factor could be, for example, the ratio of the number of people on that floor to the number of people in the entire building, or a ratio assigned to each tenant (a weighting given to tenants in industries that are expected to use more power, such as those with a lot of office equipment or long working hours)).

[0063] Then, the results of the data drill-down are stored in the drill-down data DB 125. Note that storing the results in the drill-down data DB 125 may be omitted, but by storing the results, it is possible to avoid recalculating the results the next time the same evaluation target is drilled down.

[0064] <Step S807> An improved coverage score is calculated using the drilled-down data in addition to the acquired data. Note that the storage of the drilled-down data in the database in step S806 may be performed after the calculation of the coverage score in step S807.

[0065] <Step S808> Check whether there are any other levels or groups (evaluation targets) with a score of "0", and if there are ("YES"), return to step S801 and repeat the following process, and if there are no more ("NO"), end.

[0066] Next, an example of the screen display in step S509 (Fig. 5) is shown in Fig. 9. This is an example of the display of the calculation results of the coverage score for the entire building or for a specific floor area, and displays the original calculation result 901, the calculation result after data drill-down 902, and the calculation result when sensors are added 903. Also displayed below that are suggestions to the user 904, including the set target coverage score value and information about the cost of adding sensors.

[0067] Fig. 10 shows another example of a screen display, which displays the coverage score calculation results for each coverage evaluation target level (building / floor, etc.) and evaluation item (power, temperature, etc.). The content shown in Fig. 9 and the content shown in Fig. 10 may be displayed simultaneously.

[0068] As described above, according to this embodiment, when determining whether or not the energy consumption target can be achieved, it is possible to consider whether there is sufficient data for the determination, and if the data is insufficient, it is possible to identify improvement measures. Furthermore, the present invention can be extended to other indicators, such as water and sewerage consumption and waste generation, in addition to energy consumption. Furthermore, the present invention is useful when comparing and recommending the installation and installation locations of various sensors for data acquisition. [Explanation of symbols]

[0069] 100: Data processing device 110: Processing unit 111: Coverage detection unit 112: Evaluation Criteria Creation Department 113: Coverage evaluation section 115: Coverage Score Improvement Department 116: Data Drill-down Section 117: Sensor recommendation unit 120: Storage unit 121: Evaluation criteria DB 122: Building information DB 123: Building floor / area data DB 124: Device data DB 125: Drill-down data DB 126:SensorWiki DB 127: Search Engine

Claims

1. an evaluation criteria creation unit that sets evaluation criteria that define evaluation targets or evaluation ranges within the building; a coverage evaluation unit that calculates a coverage score as an acquisition ratio of the environmental data of the evaluation target based on the evaluation criteria; A data processing device comprising:

2. 2. The data processing device according to claim 1, A data processing device characterized by having a data drill-down unit that, when environmental data of the evaluation target cannot be obtained, performs data drill-down to infer the environmental data of the evaluation target that cannot be obtained by using environmental data of other equipment in the vicinity.

3. 3. A data processing device according to claim 2, The data processing device, wherein the data drill-down unit performs the data drill-down when the coverage score falls below a predetermined threshold.

4. 4. A data processing device according to claim 3, A data processing device characterized by comprising a sensor recommendation unit that recommends to a user the addition of a sensor for acquiring environmental data to improve the coverage score for the evaluation object for which the data drill-down unit was unable to perform the data drill-down.

5. 5. A data processing device according to claim 4, an evaluation criteria database that defines viewpoints to be focused on when calculating the coverage score, areas to be evaluated, and required values; The data processing device, wherein the evaluation criteria creation unit sets the evaluation criteria using the evaluation criteria database.

6. 6. A data processing device according to claim 5, a building information database including a building floor / area database and a device data database; The building floor / area database includes the name of the building to be evaluated, the contents of each section of the building floor, and information about devices installed in each section; The device data database includes information on equipment installed in the building to be evaluated, a description of the equipment including its intended use and specific examples, data acquisition availability information indicating whether the equipment can acquire the environmental data, and type information indicating the type of data the environmental data is; The data processing device, wherein the coverage evaluation unit calculates the coverage score using the building information database.

7. 7. A data processing device according to claim 6, a sensor wiki database that stores information such as the type, model name, product number, and price of sensors and measuring instruments that should be additionally installed in accordance with the data that should be acquired in the equipment to be evaluated; The data processing device, wherein the sensor recommendation unit refers to the sensor wiki database, selects an appropriate sensor, and presents the selected sensor to the user.

8. 8. A data processing device according to claim 7, A data processing device comprising an output unit that outputs the calculated coverage score.

9. 9. A data processing device according to claim 8, A data processing device characterized in that the output of the output unit includes calculation results before and after the data drill-down is performed, calculation results when the sensor presented by the sensor recommendation unit is added, and suggestions to the user.

10. 9. A data processing device according to claim 8, A data processing device, characterized in that the output of the output unit includes a target level of the coverage evaluation of the building and a calculation result of the coverage score for each evaluation item.

11. A data processing method for calculating a coverage score as an acquisition ratio of environmental data for calculating an environmental assessment index for a building, comprising: an evaluation criteria creation process for setting evaluation criteria that define evaluation targets and evaluation ranges within the building for calculating the coverage score; a coverage evaluation process for calculating the coverage score from the acquisition ratio of the environmental data of the equipment to be evaluated based on the evaluation criteria; A data processing method comprising:

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