Building management system with searching using aliased points from equipment definitions
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Solution Overview
Problem
Building management systems (BMS) face challenges in efficiently managing and controlling building equipment and spaces due to the complexity of integrating various systems and the need for real-time adaptation to changes in configurations and conditions.
Innovation Solution
A BMS that includes circuits capable of invoking control strategies, querying equipment and points associated with changes, and automatically modifying values or operating equipment to execute these strategies, ensuring seamless integration and adaptive control across different building systems.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If a BMS manually manages and controls building equipment and spaces, then operators can directly adjust equipment settings, but the system lacks real-time adaptability to configuration changes and requires significant manual intervention time
Solution Approach 1:
The BMS automatically detects configuration changes in building equipment and spaces, queries affected equipment and points, and executes control strategies without human intervention. The system serves itself by monitoring its own state changes and autonomously implementing corrective actions, eliminating the need for manual operator intervention while maintaining real-time adaptability.
Solution Approach 2:
The system continuously monitors building equipment configurations and detects changes in real-time. When a configuration change is detected, the BMS queries the affected equipment and points, executes appropriate control strategies, and maintains ongoing monitoring to ensure the system adapts dynamically to changing conditions without manual intervention.
2Adaptability or versatility
If a BMS integrates multiple building systems (HVAC, lighting, security), then comprehensive building management is achieved, but system complexity and integration difficulty increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The BMS employs a universal control architecture that can manage diverse building systems (HVAC, lighting, security, etc.) through a common interface and standardized protocols. The system uses generic point representations and unified control strategies that work across different equipment types, allowing comprehensive multi-system integration without proportionally increasing complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces an intermediary query mechanism that acts as a mediator between configuration changes and control actions. When any building system experiences a configuration change, the intermediary query process identifies affected points and coordinates the appropriate response across integrated systems, simplifying the integration complexity by providing a standardized communication layer.
3Measurement precision
If a BMS uses detailed equipment definitions and aliased points for querying, then search accuracy and control precision improve, but data processing time and computational load increase
Solution Approach 1:
The BMS pre-establishes equipment definitions with aliased points and organizes data structures before queries are needed. By preparing the query framework and equipment point mappings in advance, the system can quickly retrieve and process configuration change information without performing complex data organization during real-time operations, thus maintaining high precision while reducing processing time.
4Productivity
If a BMS automatically executes control strategies in response to configuration changes, then operational effectiveness and energy efficiency improve, but system reliability requirements and complexity increase
Solution Approach 1:
The BMS autonomously detects configuration changes, queries affected equipment, and executes control strategies without human intervention. This self-service capability improves operational effectiveness by eliminating response delays while managing reliability through automated error handling and system monitoring built into the execution framework.
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements continuous monitoring and feedback mechanisms that track configuration changes and verify control strategy execution. This feedback loop ensures that automatic control actions are reliably implemented by detecting changes, executing appropriate responses, and maintaining system state awareness, thereby meeting reliability requirements through automated closed-loop control.
Data Source
AI summary
A building management system includes (i) one or more building systems including equipment configured to serve one or more spaces in a building and (ii) one or more circuits. The one or more circuits are configured to receive an input to invoke a control strategy to modify a condition of the one or more spaces; define an output of the control strategy where the output relates to a modification that impacts at least one of a location, an equipment type, or a point type; perform a query to identify one or more points associated with the output where the one or more points are defined in terms of at least one of the location, the equipment type, or the point type; and automatically modify one or more values of the one or more points to implement the control strategy.