IoT Digital Twin Graph Modeling for BACnet Building Integration
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current building automation systems face challenges in accurately modeling many-to-many relationships between physical entities in commercial buildings, data bottlenecks, and complexity in managing dynamic rules across devices, leading to inefficient data collection and analytics.
Innovation Solution
A contextually-aware digital twin system utilizing a graph database representation to decouple devices and controllers, enabling accurate modeling of relationships and data integration, with an IoT Gateway for data normalization and edge-based analytics to enhance real-time control and reduce network load.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If traditional building automation systems use centralized data collection methods, then data integration is achieved, but data bottlenecks and network load increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the centralized building automation system into distributed digital twins for each physical entity (devices, controllers, assets). Each digital twin independently processes and stores data locally in a graph database, eliminating the need for continuous centralized data collection and reducing network bandwidth consumption while maintaining data integration accuracy.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a new dimensional approach by creating virtual digital twin entities that mirror physical entities. This adds a virtual layer where data can be processed and analyzed without increasing physical network load, allowing comprehensive data integration through virtual relationships rather than physical data transmission.
2Measurement precision
If detailed relationships between all physical entities are modeled, then analytics precision is improved, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent creates digital twin copies of physical entities that capture detailed relationships and attributes. These digital twins serve as simplified virtual representations that maintain analytical precision while reducing the complexity of managing actual physical entity relationships. The graph database stores these digital twin relationships in a structured manner that is easier to query and analyze.
3Speed
If real-time data processing is implemented across all devices, then control responsiveness is improved, but processing power requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces digital twins as intermediary entities between physical devices and control systems. These digital twins perform local data processing and filtering, providing real-time control responsiveness by processing data at the edge rather than requiring all data to be processed centrally. This distributed processing approach reduces overall processing power requirements while maintaining responsiveness.
Data Source
AI summary
IoT devices within a commercial real-estate or residential building environment may be connected through networks, such as a Building Automation and Control network (BACnet). Systems and methods according to this disclosure provide automatic discovery of IoT devices and relationships in commercial real-estate and residential buildings and integration of the BACnet devices into the digital twin of the building. In some implementations, an IoT gateway is configured to translate the communication received from the BACnet to an IoT cloud platform and configured to normalize the data across the different security platforms into a consistent format which enables integration and interoperability of the different building system platforms that may otherwise be operating in isolation from each other. Systems and methods according to the present disclosure provide edge based analytics and control of IoT BACnet devices based on defining conditions and rules, and provide integration of multiple building systems in the context of commercial real-estate and residential buildings.