CPS: Synergy: Plug-and-Play Cyber-Physical Systems to Enable Intelligent Buildings

Abstract: 

Despite their importance within the energy sector, buildings have not kept pace with technological improvements and particularly  the evolution of intelligent features. A primary obstacle  in enabling intelligent buildings is their highly distributed and diverse nature. To address this challenge, we propose a modular approach to building design, construction, and operation that could potentially transform the building industry so that high performance features become commodities rather than engineering projects and individuals have the flexibility to configure buildings to meet their own needs. Buildings would be assembled from a set of pre-engineered intelligent modules and commissioned on site in a “plug-and-play” manner much like a “LEGO” set but with the added capability of (a) allowing for easy configuration and re-configuration that can be integrated to provide delivery of thermal and visual comfort, ventilation; (b) providing optimized controls in terms of overall occupant satisfaction  and energy efficiency and performance monitoring. This proposal will develop a unified approach that advances the engineering of cyber-physical systems (CPS) for buildings by contributing to the following fields: (a) modeling and identification of building subsystems and integrated systems; (b) multi-agent system networks that enable distributed intelligent monitoring and control of multi-zone buildings; (c) optimal control algorithms for stochastic hybrid systems that can optimize the operation of buildings with mode changes under uncertainty. These contributions will be integrated in simulation and experimental platforms for multi-agent  building system networks to validate the developed algorithms and to provide a new CPS-based technological solution to the control and optimization of modular buildings. We will provide initial knowledge/technology base for scalable, adaptive, robust, and efficient engineering solutions for cyber- enabled building systems that will transform the current building operation practice, enabling the next generation of smart buildings with optimized comfort delivery and energy use.