Unified BMS Hierarchy for Cross-Subsystem Navigation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional building management systems (BMS) require users to navigate through separate hierarchies for different subsystems, which can be time-consuming and costly due to the need for custom software development to account for disparate protocols and subsystems, lacking a unified interface that transparently manages various building devices and systems.
Innovation Solution
The implementation of software-defined building objects that group disparate devices into unified objects, allowing for a common interface and abstraction layer, enabling developers to write applications that work across different subsystems without modification, and using causal relationship models to link and describe building objects, providing a unified and flexible control environment.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If conventional BMS use separate hierarchies for different subsystems, then each subsystem can be managed independently, but users experience time-consuming navigation and require costly custom software development
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges multiple separate subsystem hierarchies into a single unified hierarchical structure. Instead of maintaining independent navigation paths for HVAC, lighting, security, and other building subsystems, the invention creates one integrated hierarchy that encompasses all subsystems under common parent nodes (building, floor, zone levels), allowing users to navigate and manage all subsystems through a single interface without switching between separate hierarchies.
Solution Approach 2:
The unified hierarchical interface serves multiple functions simultaneously: it provides navigation, device discovery, parameter monitoring, and control capabilities across all building subsystems through a single structure. This universal interface eliminates the need for subsystem-specific navigation paths while maintaining the ability to independently manage each subsystem through the same hierarchical framework.
2Reliability
If conventional BMS require custom software development for disparate protocols, then specific subsystems can be precisely controlled, but development time and cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
The unified hierarchical interface acts as an intermediary layer between the user and disparate building subsystems with different protocols. This intermediate structure provides a standardized access point that handles protocol translation and communication abstraction, allowing precise control of specific subsystems through a common interface without requiring custom software development for each protocol.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent segments the complex protocol translation task into manageable hierarchical layers. Each level of the hierarchy (building, floor, zone, device) handles specific communication and control functions, allowing standardized interface patterns to be reused across different subsystems while maintaining precise control capabilities through the segmented structural organization.
3Device complexity
If BMS lack a unified interface, then subsystem-specific management is simplified, but overall system transparency and efficiency decrease
Solution Approach 1:
The unified interface is organized as a nested hierarchical structure where buildings contain floors, floors contain zones, and zones contain devices from various subsystems. This nesting pattern provides system transparency by showing the hierarchical relationships and containment structures, allowing users to understand the overall system organization while accessing specific subsystem details at appropriate hierarchical levels.
Data Source
AI summary
A computing system for displaying hierarchical set of building management system information is shown and described. The computing system includes a processing circuit configured to render a shape for each software defined building object and to render the shapes for lower level software defined building objects as nested within the shapes for the higher level software defined building objects.