Context-Enriched Building Events for Scalable Holistic Control
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current building management systems lack dynamic, scalable, and adjustable solutions for holistic management of building operations, as discrete predefined systems operate independently without knowledge of the building's overall state.
Innovation Solution
A cloud-based building system that enriches events with contextual data, generates enriched events, and communicates them to consuming applications, utilizing schema matching, graph projections, and change feeds to provide holistic management and control.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If discrete predefined controlling systems operate each subsystem individually, then each subsystem can be controlled independently, but holistic management of the building is not achieved and systems lack knowledge of the overall building state
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges discrete subsystems into a unified event-driven architecture where all building subsystems (HVAC, lighting, security, etc.) are integrated through a central event bus. This allows holistic management while maintaining individual subsystem independence through event-based communication rather than tight coupling.
Solution Approach 2:
The event bus serves as a universal communication infrastructure that handles multiple functions: event routing, data distribution, contextual information sharing, and coordination between different subsystems. This single universal mechanism replaces multiple dedicated communication channels.
2Adaptability or versatility
If predefined controlling systems are used, then implementation is straightforward, but dynamic and scalable solutions cannot be provided
Solution Approach 1:
The system transitions from static predefined control to dynamic event-driven control where subsystems can be added, removed, or modified at runtime. Event sources and consuming applications can dynamically subscribe to or publish events without system reconfiguration, enabling flexible adaptation to changing building requirements.
Solution Approach 2:
The building management system is segmented into independent event sources, event bus, and consuming applications. Each component operates autonomously and communicates through standardized events, allowing individual components to be developed, deployed, and scaled independently while maintaining ease of implementation through modular architecture.
3Loss of information
If subsystems operate independently without contextual information, then system operation is simple, but contextual awareness and coordinated control are lost
Solution Approach 1:
The event bus acts as an intermediary that collects, standardizes, and distributes contextual information from all subsystems. Instead of subsystems directly exchanging complex information, they publish events to the bus which handles routing and distribution, reducing information processing complexity while improving contextual awareness.
Solution Approach 2:
The event-driven architecture establishes feedback loops where subsystems publish state changes as events, consuming applications process these events and generate control actions, which are published back as events to actuate subsystems. This continuous feedback enables contextual awareness and coordinated control while maintaining simple subsystem operation.
Data Source
AI summary
A building system including one or more memory devices having instructions thereon, that, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to receive an event from an event source, the event indicating a data value associated with the event source occurring at a particular time. The instructions cause the one or more processors to identify contextual data of a database that provides a contextual description of the event, generate an enriched event by enriching the event with the contextual data, the enriched event including the data value, the particular time, and the contextual data, and provide the enriched event to a consuming application configured to operate based on the enriched event.