Cybernetic Building Systems

Objective:

To develop, test, integrate, and demonstrate open Cybernetic Building Systems for improved productivity, life cycle cost savings, energy conservation, improved occupant satisfaction, and market leadership. This work will be carried out in close cooperation with the U.S. building industry, industrial partners, building owners/operators, and newly developing service companies.

Problem:

Over the last twenty years the building controls industry in the United States has undergone a radical change from one with a vertical structure to one with a horizontal structure. As a result of this transformation, building control companies, equipment and system manufacturers, energy providers, utilities, and design engineers are under increasing pressure to improve performance and reduce costs by developing cybernetic building systems that integrate more and more building services, including energy management, fire and security, transportation, fault detection and diagnostics, optimal control, the real time purchase of electricity, and the aggregation of building stock. How these systems communicate, interact, share information, make decisions, and perform in a “synergistic” and reliable manner needs to be addressed on an industry wide basis if cybernetic building systems are to be successful and if the U.S. is to obtain a significant share of the developing world wide market for such systems. NIST is at the right place and at the right time to take the leadership role in this coming “revolution” to assure that the true beneficiary is the general public and the American economy.

Approach:

The word “cybernetics” comes from the Greek work “steersman” and is defined as the science of control and communication of complex systems. Unlike the field of artificial intelligence (AI), which tends to focus on how information is stored and manipulated, cybernetics takes the “constructivist” point of view that information (and intelligence) is the attribute of system interactions (communications) and is not a commodity that is stored in a computer. In the field of cybernetics, “intelligence” is determined by the “observed conversations” (i.e., interactions) among the various components making up the (cybernetic) system. In other words, if a complex system “looks, acts, and is observed communicating intelligent information” it is “intelligent”, regardless of how the information is stored and manipulated internally.

A Cybernetic Building System involves energy management, fire detection, security and transport systems, energy providers, one or more utilities, an aggregator, numerous service providers, information handling, and complex control at many different levels.

BFRL is currently working with industry, building professionals, ASHRAE and Trade Organizations, university researchers, and other government agencies to develop and demonstrate Cybernetic Building Systems (CBS). The work involves the following tasks:

1. Continue the develop of standard communication protocols which facilitate the open, secure, and reliable exchange of information among energy providers, utilities, EMCS, fire detection and smoke control systems, security systems, elevator controls, building operators, building occupants, and (newly developing) service provider companies.
2. Develop enabling technologies, such as automated commissioning, fault detection and diagnostic (FDD) methods, and the application of real-time fire modeling to a cybernetic building's response to fires.
3. Develop performance evaluation tools for protocol compliance testing, real time monitoring, and the evaluation and documentation of interactions among cybernetic building systems.
4. Develop a standards based information infrastructure supporting the design, commissioning, operation, and maintenance or heating, ventilation, air-conditioning, and refrigeration systems.
5. Construct a Virtual Cybernetic Building System in the laboratory to facilitate the development and evaluation of new products and systems by manufacturers and external service providers.
6. Explore the use of Artificial Intelligence and Intelligent Agents for HVAC control and performance optimization.
7. Conduct basic research on the dynamic interactions of a fire, HVAC/distribution, and the zones of a commercial building through utilization of existing and new simulation models and validate this new simulation program through both laboratory and field studies.
8. Develop consortia consisting of manufacturers and service providers interested in producing, testing, demonstrating, and selling cybernetic building systems and subsystems.
9. Test and evaluate different security concepts and supervisory security systems for the critical infrastructure protection of integrated building systems and services using laboratory testbeds and field studies in real buildings.
10. Continued participation in a full-scale demonstration of a Cybernetic Building System in a government owned office building complex consisting of up to eleven buildings in the southwest region of the country. This will involve the integration of energy management, fire detection, smoke control, smart fire panels, multi-functional sensors, building transport, fault detection and diagnosis, aggregation of multiple building loads, and real time communication with energy providers, the utility, an aggregator, and numerous service providers.

Recent Results:

• BACnet testing standard approved as EN ISO 16484-6
• Establishment of an ISO Maintenance Agency to fast track changes to BACnet and its companion testing standard in the CEN and ISO standards process
• Completion of seven proposed addenda to BACnet 2004 for public review and comment. The BACnet enhancements represented by these addenda include:
o Web services
o Network security features
o Electrical load shedding control
o Features for lighting control systems
o Features for building access control systems
• ASHRAE Journal publication describing the new BACnet Network Security specification
• First generation BACnet Firewall Router (BFR) source code released for open (public) development
• Publication of report on implementation and attack testing of the BACnet Firewall Router.
• Completed Planning Phase of Annex 47 and developed a detailed work program for the Annex
• Identified collaborative partners, developed industrial contacts
• Disseminated state of the art review on commissioning, including cost benefit, persistence, automated commissioning tools, and needs for zero-energy buildings (ZEB)
• Commissioning and diagnostics R&D meta-plan
• Developed draft commissioning procedures for advanced systems in ZEB
• Developed standard cost-benefit methodology for the development of an international, on-line database
• Completed FDD technology demonstration at eight field test sites
• Developed tabulated set of robust FDD parameters, eliminating the need for site-specific configuration or training data
• HVAC&R Research publication describing system-level FDD tool
• Energy & Buildings publication describing air handling unit FDD tool
• Development of a building emergency scenario and demonstration of proof of concept tools for providing timely information to emergency responders
• Completion of a new ZFM-HVAC model that more effectively combines the capability to simulate HVAC systems and fires of various sizes
• Added the capability to model sprinkler systems to the VCBT
• Development of a new simplified approach to dynamically changing the size and characteristics of the emulated building, increased the utility of the VCBT and reduced the time needed to set up emulations
• Updated some of the real building controllers to reflect the current product offerings of contributing manufacturers
• Completed preliminary testing of a BACnet firewall router implementation
• A sprinkler model was added to ZFM in order to simulate sprinkler interactions in the VCBT.
• The differential equation set in ZFM was replaced to correct an issue uncovered with the interaction with HVAC flows. The new formulation is more robust and allows the upper layer to vanish without causing numerical difficulties.
• A USER interface package was ported to the VCBT. This package allows the user to visually interact with the development of a problem in both 2-D and 3-D and includes the necessary inputs to set up the HVAC system.
• The independent application of ZFM/SDFM was used to develop the scenarios used in the Wilson N. C. demonstration.
• A User’s Guide has been completed for ZFM and SDFM (projected for 8/06).
• A complete revision and successful reballoting of the ASTM Life-Cycle Cost standard; development and inclusion of Homeland Defense case applications in both the Life-Cycle Cost standard and the Summary Guide standard; a revision and balloting of E 1557, the UNIFORMAT II ASTM standard format; and a white paper on macroeconomic construction data for BFRL management use.

Related Projects

- Expansion, Certification, and Demonstration of BACnet

- Commissioning, Fault Detection/Diagnostics, and Hierarchical Control

- Virtual Cybernetic Building Testbed

- Intelligent Building Agents

- Intelligent Building Response to Fire

- Economic Support for BFRL

- Building Networks and Public Safety Communications

- Personal Identity Verification and Access Control for Buildings

- Advancing the UN/CEFACT Programs to Support the Requirements of U.S. Organizations