Semantic Labeling Analytics for Building Control System Transparency
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current building control systems lack the ability to effectively manage and optimize complex systems due to their model-free approach, which limits their capacity to translate digital models into human-readable formats, making it difficult to understand how computer actions map to human understandable actions.
Innovation Solution
A system that uses semantic labeling analytics, where a controller translates device languages into a common internal language, creates actors based on device characteristics, and uses physics equations to simulate and report on device behavior, allowing for human-readable reports and error resolution tracking.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of manufacture
If a model-free approach is used in building control systems, then implementation is simple, but the system becomes difficult to manage and optimize as complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent creates a digital twin (virtual copy) of the building system that mirrors the physical system's behavior and relationships. This digital model serves as a simplified interface for management and optimization, allowing users to interact with the complex system through an intuitive virtual representation without directly managing the underlying complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The digital twin acts as an intermediary layer between the physical building system and the user. It translates complex system states and relationships into human-understandable visualizations and analytics, mediating between the raw system data and user comprehension while maintaining model-free operation of the physical system.
2Productivity
If a thermodynamic digital system model is developed, then control optimization is enabled, but translation into human-readable format becomes difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The patent adds a visual/spatial dimension to the digital model by creating a graphical user interface that displays the building system in a visual format. This transforms the abstract thermodynamic model into a spatially organized visualization where system components and their relationships are represented graphically, making the data accessible and understandable to human users.
Solution Approach 2:
The system uses color coding and visual indicators in the graphical interface to represent different system states, performance metrics, and anomaly conditions. This visual encoding transforms numerical and abstract thermodynamic data into intuitive color-based representations that are easily comprehended by users.
3Adaptability or versatility
If building systems integrate more applications and use cases, then system capability increases, but complexity management becomes exhausting
Solution Approach 1:
The digital twin framework provides a universal platform that can represent and manage multiple different building systems and applications (HVAC, lighting, security, etc.) through a single unified interface. This multi-functional approach allows diverse systems to be managed consistently without requiring separate management approaches for each application type.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent merges multiple building systems and applications into a single integrated digital twin representation. By combining previously separate system models into one unified digital interface, the system reduces the management burden while maintaining the capability to handle diverse applications and use cases.
Data Source
AI summary
Tools and techniques are described to create an interface that can translate a device language into an internal language, and describe the device to the controller in terms of actors and quanta such that when a device is attached to a controller, the controller can understand what the device does and why it does it. This internal language can then be translated back to a natural language, such as English. This allows the controller to track errors, determine what upstream or downstream device and action of the device caused the error, and to track many different facts of the system that allow for detailed reports.