Automatic control method of generating sub-systems and sub-system arbitration from the deconstruction of a complex equipment graph
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Current building automation systems face challenges in automatically discovering and understanding the equipment and connections within complex building systems, making it difficult to automate control and optimization of systems like HVAC, energy, and lighting.
Innovation Solution
A method to automatically decompose a graph representing building equipment into sub-systems, enabling semantic labeling and automatic control, prioritization, and classification of sub-systems into synchronous and asynchronous groups, reducing the state space complexity and facilitating efficient system control.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Extent of automation
If automatic discovery methods are used to understand equipment and connections in building systems, then the extent of automation is improved, but the difficulty of detecting and measuring complex system relationships worsens
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the complex building automation system into discrete equipment entities and their relationships, representing them as a graph structure where equipment are nodes and connections are edges. This segmentation transforms the undetectable complex system into analyzable discrete components that can be automatically processed.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces an intermediary graph representation layer between the physical equipment and the control system. This graph serves as a mediator that captures system relationships in a structured format, enabling automatic discovery and understanding without requiring direct complex analysis of equipment interactions.
2Reliability
If the building automation system accounts for all equipment relationships and simultaneous operation constraints, then the reliability of system control is improved, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent performs preliminary action by pre-analyzing equipment relationships and constraints during system setup, storing this information in the graph structure. This preliminary processing captures all relationships upfront, allowing the control system to make reliable decisions without re-analyzing complex relationships during operation.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the representation parameters from detailed equipment specifications to abstract graph elements (nodes, edges, relationships). This parameter transformation simplifies the model while preserving essential control-relevant information, reducing complexity without sacrificing reliability.
3Reliability
If the system searches through all possible control paths in complex equipment graphs, then the completeness of control solutions is improved, but the loss of time increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the control path search problem by maintaining the graph structure throughout analysis, allowing decomposition of the search space into manageable sub-problems based on equipment relationships. This segmentation enables efficient exploration without exhaustive search of all possible paths.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies partial action by searching only through relevant control paths identified through graph analysis, rather than exhaustively searching all possible paths. The graph structure enables identification and pruning of irrelevant paths, achieving sufficient completeness without excessive time consumption.
Data Source
AI summary
Apparatuses, systems, methods, and computer program products are disclosed for organizing automatic control in automation systems from a system description, using deconstruction of complex equipment graphs. A system control scheme is automatically generated from a deconstruction of an equipment graph into controllable sets of prioritized sub-systems. An equipment graph comprises one or more subsystems of equipment. Prioritized sub-systems comprise a unique routing path through an equipment graph. Prioritized sub-systems comprise the ability to be actuated and are divided into groups of sub-system sets. Groups of sub-system sets comprise synchronous and asynchronous sets and are created for conjoined routing paths of parallel sub-systems.