Local Automation Rules for Reliable Connected Lighting Control
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Solution Overview
Problem
Connected lighting systems, such as the Philips Hue system, face reliability issues due to slow responses from external clients and Internet outages, which affect the execution of automation rules, leading to undesired behavior and user stress.
Innovation Solution
A control system with a processor that receives input signals, determines events, and transmits control commands to devices, establishing new rules based on relationships between events and commands, and proposes these rules to users for approval, thereby improving reliability by moving automation from cloud environments to local systems and handling conflicts with external rules.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If automation rules are executed via external clients (cloud-based), then adaptability and remote control capability are improved, but reliability and response time deteriorate due to Internet outages and latency
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments automation rule execution into two parts: local event detection and command generation at the control system, and remote rule management and monitoring at external clients. This segmentation allows the critical path (event to command) to be local and reliable, while maintaining cloud-based adaptability for rule configuration and historical analysis.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a local control system as an intermediary between devices and external clients. This intermediary receives events from devices, executes automation rules locally to generate commands, and only communicates with external clients for rule management and status reporting, thereby isolating the automation execution from Internet dependencies.
2Adaptability or versatility
If more events are exported to external clients for automation, then automation versatility is improved, but system complexity and response latency increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the automation rule execution logic from external clients and places it in the local control system. Only essential event subscriptions and command transmissions are maintained with external clients, reducing the complexity of the distributed system while preserving automation versatility through local rule processing.
3Reliability
If automation rules are moved from cloud to local system, then reliability and response time are improved, but adaptability and remote management capability are reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements preliminary action by pre-configuring automation rules locally in the control system before execution is needed. This allows the system to have automation rules ready and available offline, ensuring reliable local execution while maintaining the ability to update rules remotely through the external client interface when connectivity is available.
Data Source
AI summary
A method of controlling one or more devices (13) of a plurality of devices (13,15) associated with a control system comprises a control system (1) receiving input signals from at least one device (15) of the plurality of devices, determining events from the input signals, transmitting the events to a further system (26), receiving control commands destined for the one or more devices from the further system, and transmitting output signals representing the control commands to the one or more devices. The method further comprises determining a relationship between the events and the control commands, establishing a new rule based on the determined relationship, receiving a new input signal from the at least one device, determining a new event from the new input signal, and controlling the one or more devices according to the rule in dependence on the new event.