Drone Sensor Deployment for Rapid Building Alarm Verification
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing equipment verification systems in commercial buildings, particularly in HVAC systems, face challenges in rapidly and accurately verifying alarm conditions due to environmental factors such as location, temperature, and the presence of gases, which limits their effectiveness.
Innovation Solution
An unmanned vehicle-based monitoring system that includes an alarm circuit and a vehicle control circuit, which detects failure conditions and generates an equipment verification signal to remotely control the unmanned vehicle to execute tests on building components, enabling quick and accurate verification even in harsh environments.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If manual verification methods are used for building components, then the system is simple to operate, but the verification speed is slow and accuracy is reduced in harsh environments
Solution Approach 1:
The system enables self-service verification by deploying autonomous unmanned vehicles that independently navigate to building components, execute verification tests, and return results without requiring manual intervention. The alarm circuit automatically triggers the deployment, and the vehicle autonomously performs the verification task that would otherwise require human operators to physically access hazardous locations.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces manual mechanical verification methods with an automated unmanned vehicle system. Instead of human operators physically accessing building components to perform verification, an unmanned aerial vehicle is deployed to remotely execute tests on HVAC equipment, sensors, and other building components, substituting mechanical human operation with automated aerial inspection.
2Measurement precision
If verification is performed in remote or hazardous locations, then measurement accuracy improves, but the difficulty of detecting and measuring increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system transitions from ground-based manual verification to aerial verification by deploying unmanned vehicles that operate in the three-dimensional airspace above building components. This dimensional change allows the verification system to access remote rooftop HVAC equipment, elevated sensors, and hazardous locations that are difficult or unsafe to reach from ground level, thereby improving measurement accuracy while reducing access difficulty.
3Reliability
If existing verification systems are used, then the device complexity is low, but the reliability of verification in harsh environments deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The unmanned vehicle acts as an intermediary between the alarm circuit and the building components requiring verification. It receives deployment commands from the alarm circuit, navigates to the target location, executes verification tests, and transmits results back to the control system. This intermediary approach enables reliable verification in harsh environments by isolating human operators from hazardous conditions while maintaining system integration through standardized communication protocols.
Data Source
AI summary
An equipment monitoring system includes an unmanned vehicle, an alarm circuit remote from the unmanned vehicle, and a vehicle control circuit remote from the unmanned vehicle. The unmanned vehicle can include a communications circuit and a flight controller. The alarm circuit detects a failure condition of a building component and outputs an indication of the failure condition. The vehicle control circuit receives the indication of the failure condition from the alarm circuit; generates, based on the indication of the failure condition, an equipment verification signal that includes an identifier of the building component, a position of the building component, and a test of the building component to be executed; and transmits the equipment verification signal to the flight controller of the unmanned vehicle via the communications circuit of the unmanned vehicle to cause the unmanned vehicle to execute the test of the building component.