INTELLIGENT BUILDING

Nowadays, Improving decision-making to define a group of strategic objectives and associated Performance Indicators (KPIs) are has become one of the critical issues for practices relating to scope management gaining competitive advantages. Approach: This study focus on validate KPI supporting decision-making for sustainability appraisal in projects management for Malaysian Architectural, Engineering and Construction (AEC) enterprises in China. Results: First, it need to identify key issues related to sustainable intelligent buildings (AEC factors) and determines the performance level of their projects in China. Second, test critically decisionmakers perceptions and values of selected KPIs intelligent buildings to supporting decision-making processes. Third to develop a conceptual model for the selection of the appropriate KPIs for measuring the level of sustainability for sustainable intelligent buildings, this provides information as to whether practices could be adopted by Malaysian AEC enterprises in China to achieve objectives. Conclusion: This study established KPIs-SDM practices that are significantly correlated with the projects handled by Malaysian enterprises in China. It investigated and compare 19 KPIs-SDM relational factors for Malaysian AEC project adopted in China.

The adequate evaluation of new technologies in productive systems that perform multiple and simultaneous processes, exploring the intense sharing of resources, demands the updating of supervision and control systems. On the other hand, totally infallible systems are unviable, and for a flexible productive system (FPS) does not to suffer interruptions due to component failure, the concept of AFTCS (active fault-tolerant control system) mechanism must be adopted. In this sense, holonic control system (HCS) is considered a trend for an intelligent automation and the combination of HCS techniques and AFTCS is fundamental to assure efficiency, flexibility and robustness of FPSs. Therefore, this work presents a procedure for the modeling of active holonic fault-tolerant control system (AHFTCS) that considers AFTCS' requirements and interpreted Petri net for the description of the systems' behavior. This method is applied to an intelligent building (IB) as a class of FPS and the results are presented.

Modern approaches to the architecture of living and working environments emphasize the dynamic reconfiguration of space and function to meet the needs, comfort, and preferences of its inhabitants. Although it is possible for a human operator to specify a configuration explicitly, the size, sophistication, and dynamic requirements of modern buildings demands that they have autonomous intelligence that could satisfy the needs of its inhabitants without human intervention. We describe a multiagent framework for such intelligent building control that is deployed in a commercial building equipped with sensors and effectors. Multiple agents control subparts of the environment using fuzzy rules that link sensors and effectors. The agents communicate with one another by asynchronous, interest-based messaging. They implement a novel unsupervised online real-time learning algorithm that constructs a fuzzy rule-base, derived from very sparse data in a nonstationary environment. We have developed methods for evaluating the performance of systems of this kind. Our results demonstrate that the framework and the learning algorithm significantly improve the performance of the building.

Práca oboznamuje čitateľa s problematikou zberu dát zo systému merania a regulácie v inteligentnej budove. Prvá kapitola popisuje jednotlivé úrovne zariadení v systéme, spôsob akým medzi sebou zariadenia komunikujú a databázu, do ktorej sa dáta ukladajú. V rámci kapitoly je predstavený databázový model, ktorý slúži pre ukladanie dát z budovy Technická 12. V druhej časti je predstavený softvér COACH AX, ktorý slúži k tvorbe riadiacich aplikácií pre systémy merania a regulácie. Následne je popísaný postup tvorby simulačného modelu výmenníkovej stanice a podlahových konvektorov inštalovaných v budove Technická 12. Posledná časť popisuje vytvorenú vizualizáciu, ktorá slúži k monitorovaniu a ovládaniu simulácie.The thesis acquaints the reader with the matter of data collection from the measurement and control systems of a smart building. The first chapter describes the individual levels of devices in the system, the way in which the devices communicate with each other, and the database i...

Many higher institutions have started to adopt and implement information and communication technology (ICT) as a source of flexible teaching and learning either in the classroom or outside the classroom. Multimedia University is among the   eight universties in Malaysia that are awarded as Premier Digital Tech University by the Ministry of High er Education (MOHE) and the Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC). In line with its statuses, MMU has implemented Blended Learning in teaching and learning. Therefore, the study is meant to examine the readiness of MMU lecturers towards the implementation of Blended Learning and to explore the current practice of Blended Learning among lecturers.The findings confirmed on the lecturer's readiness on Blended Learning implementation. The findings also revealed a good practice of the lecturers in implementing the Blended learning approach in their classes. The findings provide input on the integration of Blended learning in the process ...

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) provide a convenient way to monitor the physical environment. Exploiting the context-aware capability of WSN to achieve energy conservation in intelligent buildings is an attractive direction. We therefore propose an intelligent and personalized energy-conservation system by wireless sensor networks (iPower). This system consists of some WSNs connected to a control server, some power-line control devices, and some user identification devices. A WSN is deployed in each room to monitor the usage of electric appliances and to help the control server to determine if there are electric appliances that can be turned off to reduce unnecessary energy consumption. The iPower system is quite intelligent and can adapt to personal need by automatically adjusting electric appliances to satisfy users' requirements. The design and implementation details of iPower are reported in this paper.

Many higher institutions have started to adopt and implement information and communication technology (ICT) as a source of flexible teaching and learning either in the classroom or outside the classroom. Multimedia University is among the   eight universties in Malaysia that are awarded as Premier Digital Tech University by the Ministry of High er Education (MOHE) and the Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC). In line with its statuses, MMU has implemented Blended Learning in teaching and learning. Therefore, the study is meant to examine the readiness of MMU lecturers towards the implementation of Blended Learning and to explore the current practice of Blended Learning among lecturers.The findings confirmed on the lecturer's readiness on Blended Learning implementation. The findings also revealed a good practice of the lecturers in implementing the Blended learning approach in their classes. The findings provide input on the integration of Blended learning in the process ...

Our research is introducing a lighting system using dimming lamps to utilize natural sunlight to save electrical energy in campus buildings. It began with designing an LED light-dimming system using AC chopper technology. It was tested in library rooms in campus buildings. Its room is divided into three zones (A, B, C) based on the intensity of natural light reaching the room and the location of the work points. We analyzed the influence of the environment around the research object, including the location of work points, weather conditions, the position of the sun, and electrical energy saving in lighting systems using dimming LED lights in campus buildings. The test results show that implementing the proposed dimming system can reduce room electricity consumption by an average of 50.31% in good weather conditions. The location of the work point in the room dramatically influences the amount of this savings. For work point locations in zone C, these savings can reach 93.707%, while for work points in zone A, the savings are only 12.177%. The results show that the percentage of electricity consumption savings from the lighting system can be increased by increasing the natural light that reaches the room.

The number of academic publications in the building-integrated photovoltaics (BIPV) field has rapidly grown. Most published articles focus on a specific topic, such as mathematical model, solar architecture design, photovoltaic effect, solar cell, grid-connected, efficiency, performance assessment, economic analysis, optimization, and others with broader focus areas. This work focuses on BIPV research with bibliometric analysis through documents, cited references, authors, affiliations, countries, funding sponsors, sources, words, and conceptual structure based on the Scopusindexed database between 1971 and 2022. The result shows that BIPV research constantly grows annually with strong collaboration authorship. China is the most relevant country with the top affiliation and funding sponsor to support the BIPV research. The terms conjugated polymers, photovoltaic properties, and organic polymer are identified as niche themes. On the other hand, the terms of conversion efficiency, perovskite, photovoltaic devices, solar cells, efficiency, and photoelectrochemical cell clusters are emerging themes. In the future, BIPV research will move towards microgrids, energy, performance, energy management systems, and energy efficiency issues. The finding will also provide researchers and organizations with a comprehensive understanding of BIPV research areas and new directions for future research.

To determine the similarities and differences categories of the assessments between the Malaysian green assessment tool for residential building with other countries, six (60 green assessments from six (6)different countries had been chosen; the United State (US) to represent the American region, the United Kingdom (UK)to represent Europe, Japan to represent Asia and Australia. Singapore was chosen as it is very close tot he location of the case study, Malaysia. Each of the countries represents different climate condition except for Singapore and Malaysia which experience the same climate. This paper will show a comparison of each selected green assessment tool under Management/Project Management criterion. The objective is to find out the potential benchmarks which can be applied in developing a cost modal prediction tool for the Malaysian green home.

The paper presents a novel MCDM model aimed at enhancing satisfactory quality-environmental decisions in product development. The model integrates FAHP, FTOPSIS, Pareto–Lorenz and global sensitivity analyses. It enables to study products with respect to quality level, environmental impact throughout its life cycle and simultaneous consideration on quality level and environmental impact. Results of the research on the example of a smartphone demonstrate that the model successfully identified specific criteria for improvement, offering a valuable tool for enhancing customer satisfaction and promoting environmentally friendly product development. The originality of the research lies in the calculation of the average weights of product criteria with triangular fuzzy numbers, based on the principles of fuzzy logic and FAHP. As a compact, ready-to-use solution, our innovative MCDM model can be employed by organizations to enhance the quality and environmental impact of their products.

Growing needs of humanity have forced him to use modern technology in all aspects of his life. Intelligent buildings are one of these modern technologies that have great advantages for people. These buildings include a set of integrated and dynamic systems to manage the allocation of resources and facilitate the residents' lives. In this context and due to high speed, reliability and better respond to environmental changes, we simulate such environment using multi agents with fuzzy approach. To do this, we use Matlab and its fuzzy toolbox. The results shows that parallel processing nature in this kind of multi agents improve the speedup of the system.

The future of the built environment is predictable. Nowadays people are more experienced to use new technologies in their daily life and the technology industry is growing very fast. Developments in IT and new technologies are known as a key influence on the future of buildings. Developments of technology may make changes in space, facilities, user, materials, and construction. When a building is adaptable to the new changes, it delays the urge to build a new building and decrease building demolitions and obsolesce. Moreover, these processes are not sustainable and make environmental risks. There is a lack of literature over discovering adaptable potentials of an existing building that were not designed adaptable, especially when technology developments are changing the functions and spaces. This study aims to analyze the adaptability of residential buildings to find adaptive potentials which are useful for future technological upgrades. The predicted future of the built environment, which is known as smart/intelligent building, is considered as the origin of change. This study reviews recent academic literature related to building adaptability, intelligent and smart buildings. Furthermore, features of smart/intelligent buildings are categorized and recent residential projects in Famagusta, North Cyprus are analyzed according to the features as the case study.

In the power industry, advanced techniques have furthered the development of the smart grid's power system and management. The world's third-largest country is India, which has a producer and consumer of electricity, is struggling with different power-related problems, as well as distribution losses, transmission, environmental concerns, and electricity theft. The energy sector is investigating innovative technologies to enhance grid efficiency, security, and sustainability to address power-related issues. Recently, smart grid technology has ascribed significance to the energy scenario; the term "smart grid" relates to electric electricity. The study aims to thoroughly evaluate how smart grid technologies might improve the reliability and efficiency of India's electrical system. This article examines the impact of smart grid technologies on national grids and makes some proposals to authorities for switching their traditional grid system to a smart grid system. The results indicate the yearly wind profile, comparative analysis of energy consumption, and cost analysis of the system. Smart grid integration is strengthened by the useful insights provided by the annual wind profile study, which reveals the region's renewable energy potential. Analysis of costs and energy consumption patterns show that switching to a smart grid system is financially feasible in the long term, and studies of impacts on utilization of resources show that it is beneficial.

Traditionally, consultants of office building design often do not have sufficient understanding on maintenance issues for the operation of the building. As a result, there is often a lack of effective solutions for service, upgrade and maintenance problems during the life span of the building. For automated and intelligent buildings, with their wide range of technology adaptation and upgrade capacity, this demand and lack of response is more critical. Previous efforts on integrated consideration for building development phases, particularly ...

During the last decade, Wireless Sensor Networks have emerged and matured at such point that they currently support several applications such as environment control, intelligent buildings, target tracking in battlefields. The vast majority of these applications require an optimization to the communication among the sensors so as to serve data in short latency and with minimal energy consumption. Cooperative data caching has been proposed as an effective and efficient technique to achieve these goals concurrently. The essence of these protocols is the selection of the sensor nodes which will take special roles in running the caching and request forwarding decisions. This article introduces two new metrics to aid in the selection of such nodes. Based on these metrics, we propose two new cooperative caching protocols, PCICC and scaPCICC, which are compared against the state-of-the-art competing protocol, namely NICoCa. The proposed solutions are evaluated extensively in an advanced simulation environment and the results confirm that the proposed caching mechanisms prevail over its competitor. The evaluation attests also that the best policy is always scaPCICC, achieving the shortest latency and the least number of transmitted messages.

Light emitting diodes (LEDs) are considered to become the dominant source of illumination in the future, offering long life times, energy efficiency and flexible tunability. The flexibility of adapting LED parameters offers multiple degrees of freedom in designing LED based lighting systems. In this paper, we consider energy-efficient illumination control design of LED based lighting systems in office spaces. Our goal is to determine the optimum dimming levels of the LED sources so as to minimize the power consumption while rendering (i) uniform illumination at a given illumination level in workspace regions that are occupied, and (ii) a minimum illumination level of lower value in unoccupied regions, while taking daylight distribution over the workspace plane into account. In order to determine occupant locations, we present an ultrasound array sensor solution with enhanced presence detection capability. We further propose a method to estimate and disaggregate illumination contributions of daylight and the different LED sources at the workspace plane. The performance of our proposed control solution is evaluated under different occupancy scenarios.

Physical security has received increased attention after 9/11. However, access control to physical units has not been explored much. On the other hand, there is a rich literature on access control to information. These two areas appear converging as seen by recent products and studies. However, use of different notations and implementation details make this convergence harder. We need to try to take this convergence at a more abstract level first. Although introduced about 10 years ago, security patterns have recently become accepted by industry and two books on this topic have appeared recently. Security patterns for information access control have appeared but now we extend this concept to access for physical units. The unification of information and physical access control is just beginning but the strong requirements of infrastructure protection will make this convergence to happen rapidly. Examining existing systems, industry standards and government regulations, we describe, in the form of patterns, the core set of features a physical access control system should have. The paper illustrates the structure and use of these patterns.

Due to the variety of treatment processes, the decision to choose the best treatment process is difficult. This paper describes a fuzzy grey relational analysis (GRA) method for selection of the optimal wastewater treatment process. The rating of all alternatives and the weight of each criterion is described by linguistic variables, which can be expressed in triangular fuzzy numbers. Then, a vertex method is used to calculate the distance between two triangular fuzzy numbers. According to the concept of the GRA, a fuzzy relative relational degree is defined to determine the ranking order of all alternatives by calculating the degree of fuzzy grey relational coefficient to both the fuzzy positive ideal solution (FPIS) and fuzzy negative ideal solution (FNIS) simultaneously. Furthermore, a case study is carried out and solved by both methods (i.e., GRA and fuzzy GRA) to show the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed method. In the case study, five anaerobic wastewater treatmen...

In addition to providing for a more reliable distribution infrastructure, the smart grid promises to give the end users better pricing and usage information. It is thus interesting for them to be ready to take advantage of features such as dynamic energy pricing and real-time choice of operators. In this work, we propose a system to monitor and control an office environment and to couple it with the smart grid. The idea is to schedule the operation of devices according to policies defined by the users, in order to minimize the cost of operation while leaving unaffected user comfort and productivity. The implementation of the system and its testing in a living lab environment show interesting economic savings of an average of about 35% and in some cases even overall energy savings in the order of 10% for a building equipped with renewable generation plants, and economic and energy savings of 20% and 10%, respectively, for a building without local renewable installations.

A workshop funded by the US National Science Foundation (NSF) was jointly hosted by NSF and the US Department of Energy (DOE)  with participants from academia, national laboratories, and the building industry. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss the utilization of ambient energy (from the sun, sky, air, and ground) to serve building energy demands and to strategize mechanisms to promote awareness, education, research, and market adoption. Because ambient energy is ubiquitous and abundant, it has potential beyond that of energy efficiency to reduce the need for fossil fuel and its associated carbon emissions. This document highlights the findings of the workshop.

Due to the variety of treatment processes, the decision to choose the best treatment process is difficult. This paper describes a fuzzy grey relational analysis (GRA) method for selection of the optimal wastewater treatment process. The rating of all alternatives and the weight of each criterion is described by linguistic variables, which can be expressed in triangular fuzzy numbers. Then, a vertex method is used to calculate the distance between two triangular fuzzy numbers. According to the concept of the GRA, a fuzzy relative relational degree is defined to determine the ranking order of all alternatives by calculating the degree of fuzzy grey relational coefficient to both the fuzzy positive ideal solution (FPIS) and fuzzy negative ideal solution (FNIS) simultaneously. Furthermore, a case study is carried out and solved by both methods (i.e., GRA and fuzzy GRA) to show the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed method. In the case study, five anaerobic wastewater treatmen...

"Intelligence" in buildings usually implies facilities management via building automation systems (BAS). However, present-day commercial BAS adopt a rudimentary approach to data handling, control and fault detection, and there is much scope for improvement. This paper describes a model-based technique for raising the level of sophistication at which BAS currently operate. Using stochastic multivariable identification, models are derived which describe the behaviour of air temperature and relative humidity in a full-scale office zone equipped with a dedicated heating, ventilating and airconditioning (HVAC) plant. The models are of good quality, giving prediction accuracies of + 0.25 "C in 19.2 "C and of f 0.6% rh in 53% rh when forecasting up to 15 minutes ahead. For forecasts up to 3 days ahead, accuracies are f 0.65 "C and f I .25% rh, respectively. The utility of the models for facilities management is investigated. The "temperature model" was employed within a predictive on/off control strategy for the office zone, and was shown to substantially improve temperature regulation and to reduce energy consumption in comparison with conventional on/off control. Comparison of prediction accuracies for two different situations, that is, the office with and without furniture plus carpet, showed that some level of furnishing is essential during the commissioning phase if model-based control of relative humidity is contemplated. The prospects are assessed for wide-scale replication of the model-based technique, and it is shown that deterministic simulation has potential to be used as a means of initialising a model structure and hence of selecting the sensors for a BAS for any building at the design stage. It is concluded that advanced model-based methods offer significant promise for improving BAS performance, and that proving trials in full-scale everyday situations are now needed prior to commercial development and installation. 0 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.

In general We believed that the designer can control the Impact of climate on house comfort. The most important strategy for low energy design of buildings is to design and build according to the climate where the building is located. Geographically, the climatic conditions are diverse and hence the designer is required to describe and interpret climate in ways that are relevant to building design, The function of openings is to provide daylight, ventilation and vision. The ASHRAE 1989 Fundamentals Handbook [1] suggested that the designer must consider the following factors when selecting windows: 1. Architecture 2. Thermal 3. Economic 4. Human need

Buildings have long been large energy consumers, and inadequate control of heating, ventilation, and air conditioning kinds of variable refrigeration flow (HVAC-VRF) and lighting systems. To reduce energy consumption by using a smart building control system (SBCS) in a building was created using occupant control, daylight sensors, weather condition variations, load consumed, and changes in solar power. The model was tested using MATLAB/Simulink, and it was then utilized to investigate the impact of an integrated system on energy usage based on two scenarios. The first scenario was tested in a simulation of building occupant behavior, meteorological variables, daylight sensors, temperature, and load control. This resulted in energy savings for the HVAC system (23% on summer days and 16% on winter days), and lighting system energy savings (22% on summer days and 15% on winter days). In the second scenario, the building was tested to integrate PV system power with load consumption by u...

As an ingenious efficient environment, smart buildings can be considered as essential constituents for energy conservation. That is, in today's energy demands upsurges and energy sources degradation, the idea of the smart home building has a major implication on improving the living environment along with cutting down on energy consumptions. Therefore, this study investigates the energy conservation theme in Amman, Jordan in terms of opportunities and challenges vs. renewable energy technology. This study was based on interviews with the expert (academics, professionals architects, and electrical engineers, in addition to employees in Electrical companies) aiming to identify the problematic gap in designing theoretical analysis of a smart automated building based on collaboration work between Electrical and Architectural Engineering. From an Electrical Engineering point of view, automated control building systems can provide efficient means of comfort, sustainable habitat environment, and energy conservation as a building advantage. Such a scheme can be accomplished through automated control software (LabView), sensors, network infrastructure, logic design, and mechanical actuators. Meanwhile, from an architecture point of view, passive design strategies can reduce energy consumption along with public awareness for building users. This was implemented through simulation for base case building showing the integration between architectural and electrical systems through using a hybrid system. As a result, this new building automation design will help reducing energy consumption by controlling light fixtures, air-condition, water pumps, and many more appliances. The design guidelines, once formulated and enacted, will guarantee energy conservation qualitatively which will serve as a proposed guideline for enhancing buildings' regulation and codes.

Understanding the consumption patterns in a working space is important for evaluating the causes of energy wastage and for developing strategies towards specific energy reduction methods. The intent of metering systems in buildings is to provide adequate data that help improve building systems performance. The results of the analysis offer the potential to improve the energy efficiency of the building and reduce the operation costs. Researchers of Polytechnic University of Madrid and American University of Ras Al Khaimah have developed a metering and control system that processes and analyzes the digitalized signals. This system can collect, analyze and manage the electrical consumption in buildings. It is non-intrusive, can be easily deployed in electric boards and sends data to a central base station located away from the metering device. In this article the system is tested in an educational facility with a wide range of uses. The lighting fixtures, power outlets and HVAC devices...

The article describes a 'climatically adaptive' approach to intelligent building in which a variety of technologies are integrated in the architectural design to provide thermal comfort with a minimal expenditure of energy. This concept is illustrated by the design of the Blaustein International Center for Desert Studies, a multi-use complex completed recently at the Sede-Boker Campus of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. In response to the local climate of this desert region, a number of strategies were developed by the authors to exploit natural energy for heating and cooling: earth berming of major parts of the building, 'selective glazing' for seasonal shading and energy collection, a down-draft 'cool-tower' for evaporative cooling and a hybrid mechanism for hot-air supply are several of the unique systems whose performance and feasibility are analyzed within the context of the overall building design. 0 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.

The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.

Air and Water are the most important resources of the planet that we use daily for sustaining life. Air quality affects all living creatures, from trees and plants to animals and people. Air quality, especially in the trend of more industrialized cities and with a rapid growing population of cars, is degrading. Continuous monitoring allows the national administrations to take measures in order to reduce pollution and toxic compounds in the air and prevent further degrading of the air quality. From drinking and producing electricity in hydroelectric power plants to cooling nuclear reactors, water is one of the most common substances that we must manage. In flood management applications, hydroelectric dams, city water infrastructure, and other environmental monitoring applications the high distance between measurement points determine engineers and scientists to use autonomous low power wireless data acquisition systems that are independent on a permanent power supply. In this paper the authors present a flexible low power extension board designed around NI WSN analog input nodes that allows connection of different output type sensors (even digital sensors) to be monitored with one WSN node.

This paper addresses the problem of the evaluation of people counting systems. The relation between the real people number and the output of the people counting system is used to motivate the computation of the maximum number of people as a scenario and geometry specific quantity which supports the evaluation of the system output. Based on the camera field-of-view we determine the maximum number of detectable people using a basic people model. The maximum number of people is computed for an overhead camera and for an arbitrary oblique camera orientation which is the typical geometry of standard surveillance applications.

Collaborative environments can be understood to be "enabling" environments, which enable individuals and organizations to be creative and productive. Buildings can be seen to operate as enabling environments at different yet interrelated levels: 1) as mediator between outdoor and indoor environments; 2) as provider of appropriate indoor physical settings; 3) as host to information technology for an organization. This paper focuses on the first level, and describes a range of architectural alternatives for improved indoor environments in commercial buildings. The paper uses illustrative examples of high-performance buildings in the U.S. and Europe, contrasting their respective approaches to the integration of enclosure, mechanical, and lighting systems.

In the past few years, there have been significant advances made in the design and engineering of "intelligent" workplaces, buildings that not only accommodate major advances in office technology but provide better physical and environmental settings for the occupants. This paper will briefly present recent approaches to the creation of innovative environments for the advanced workplace. The architectural and engineering advances demonstrated in Japan, Germany, North America, the United Kingdom, and France can be summarized in four major system categories: (1) enclosure innovations including approaches to load balancing, natural ventilation, and daylighting; (2) heating, ventilation and airconditioning (HVAC) system innovations including approaches to local control and improved environmental contact; (3) data/voice/power "connectivity" innovations; and (4) interior system innovations, including approaches to workstation and Workgroup design for improved spatial, thermal, acoustic, visual, and air quality. In-depth international field studies of over 20 intelligent office buildings have been carried out by a multidisciplinary expert team of the Advanced Building Systems Integration Consortium (ABSIC) based at Carnegie Mellon University. ABSIC is a university-industry-government partnership focused on the definition and development of the advanced workplace. The ABSIC field team evaluated the component and integrated system innovations for their multidimensional performance qualities, through expert analysis, occupancy assessments, and field diagnostics. Based on the results of the case studies and building on the most recent technological advances, the ABSIC team developed the concepts for the Intelligent Workplace, a 7000 square foot living laboratory of office environments and innovations. This project is now under construction at Carnegie Mellon University and its features are discussed in the second section of this paper.

In this paper we propose and evaluate a wireless sensor network (WSN) system in order to improve an existing patient-monitoring and surveillance system at the cardiologic intensive care unit (CICU) of a large university clinic (Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Hubert Koutoukou Maga-CHU-HKM) in Cotonou city of Benin (a West-African country). We have designed a multi-tier architecture and simulated a heterogeneous, autonomous, and energy efficient wireless sensor network system to overcome issues faced by existing patient monitoring system in CICU such as manual collection and processing of data. The improvement of the patient monitoring system has the objectives of providing affordable and better health care service provision as well as autonomous and automatic collection and processing of patient's bio-signals and environmental data. The proposed Wireless Sensor Network consists of wireless heterogeneous nodes which sense patient biosignals, measure environmental parameters in the hospitalization rooms such as ambient temperature, quality of air and send collected data to a gateway (central node) for processing and storage. The conducted simulation experiments show that the proposed sensor network architecture which uses ZigBee wireless standard and protocol highly improves the patient monitoring and surveillance experience at CICU. It promotes collection and autonomous processing of patient physiological data and room ambient temperature data. Incorporating such system in CICU will be highly beneficial for taking a correct decision during treatment. Beyond the accuracy and quality of the collected medical data, proposed WSN is also designed to reduce the energy consumption within the sensor network system.

The essential part of any shading device is to intercept the solar radiation in such a manner that it allows enough daylight inside the building, while at the same time the indoor thermal comfort is upheld for all the seasons. Earlier studies proved that in comparison with internal shading devices, the external ones minimize the internal heat gain in an effective manner by blocking the radiation, before it reaches the fenestration glazing. However, fixed external shades are incapable of balancing the varying requirements of light and heat for different climatic conditions. Mainly, summer and winter in the composite climate demands adaptive shading solutions as per the changing season. The current study is an attempt to evolve appropriate external adaptive louver shades and recommend louver angles for different months, for a single space of a typical apartment building in Delhi NCR region. The recommended angles allow the occupants to make informed decisions by manually adjusting the...

This research is part of Assistive Automation project, which develops devices and systems assist independent living of elderly and disabled persons. The home automation system prototype is expected to increase the safety, comfort and independence of these people. The main aim of the Thesis is to study and to implement standard communication protocols for the home automation system. Standards are essential in the development and proliferation of these systems. Open Building Information eXchange protocol is an emerging internet technology based communication protocol for building automation. This approach has taken to us to enter collaboration with Computer Science and Engineering department in their oBIX based AVO project This Thesis work develops a Linet network driven for an oBIX based server. The driver uses standard internet XML notation. The Linet interfaces were implemented in an oBIX compliant, Open Facility Management Server (OFMS). The work also includes a communication network study program code development, and Linet network study.

The objective of the paper is to present the results of the application of AHP and ANP to support a strategic decision in the field of railway transportation in Italy. The problem issue involves various actors in the process of choosing the most promising alternative among four different infrastructural projects. At a first stage the problem was analyzed and modeled following the AHP methodology: a hierarchy was constructed and relative priorities were obtained by means of a panel of experts. During the assessment process, some considerations arose about the complexity of the problem and, as a consequence, about the effectiveness of the AHP basic hypotheses. This led to a further stage of the assessment process. The aim of this new phase was to explicitly include within the process interactions between different clusters of the decision model through the ANP approach. The structure of this second model enriched the previous hierarchy by considering the most evident feedback relations, so the ANP data were basically the same as in AHP. Finally, the same study case was modeled as an ANP network with the BOCR scheme. This final stage required a very profound (and time-consuming) comprehension of the matter both by the analysts and by the actors involved in the process. The contribution of this work to the discussion, is to draw a comparison between the AHP and the ANP paradigms for decision aiding and to propose some considerations on their application in a specific problem situation.

Water resources play multiple urban roles. Available literature shows that the roles are mainly perceived in economic and technological context of fresh water delivery, sewage management and treatment as well as rain water runoff management. Water may play, nevertheless, other roles that are important for sustainable urban development. This is especially true in the case of habitats where both surface water and rain water serve as important component of urban space that brings multi-dimensional merits. Management of water resources influences surrounding environment in a multi-dimensional manner and has a considerable effect on ultimate quality of urban environment. Some proposals for the systemic assessment of water resource management in urban sustainable development context are available in literature. The application of multi-dimensional intangibility-aware analysis is recommended in this regard. However, existing studies lack an indication of concrete tools for supporting such analysis. This is why an AHP/ANP-based implementation of a selected framework for water management influence on urban space quality is discussed in the paper.

Smart city is a general concept for sustainable development of a contemporary city while taking advantage of population creativity and capability for innovations as well as existing institutions, procedures, and infrastructure. It provides foundations for fulfilling requirements of six basic implementation fields that deal with intelligent economy, mobility, environment, people, living, and governance, respectively. Therefore, the fields seem to provide apparent foundation for a comprehensive and sustainability-aware evaluation of actual solutions implementing smart city concept. This is why a general framework for such evaluation is discussed in the paper. Particular framework implementation is also presented. It is based on the use of two decision support techniques, namely DEMATEL and ANP. A sample application is also presented to illustrate merits of the framework.

Çalışma mekânları içinde bulundukları dönemin sosyo-kültürel, ekonomik ve toplumsal yapısı ile şekillenen ortamlardır. Günümüzde, teknolojinin ve sürdürülebilirlik olgusunun yaşam ve iş yapma biçimlerini değiştirmesiyle çalışma mekânları yeniden kurgulanmaktadır. Çalışma mekânlarının değişmesinde en etkili unsurlardan biri esneklik kavramıdır. Esnek çalışma mekânları çalışanların iletişimini kuvvetlendirecek ve yatay hiyerarşiyi destekleyecek şekilde tasarlanmaktadır. Esnek çalışma mekanlarında açık ofis alanları aktivite odaklı alanlarla desteklenmekte ve çalışanların konsantrasyon gerektiren çalışma, toplantı ve ekip çalışması gibi ihtiyaçlarını karşılayacak şekilde planlanmaktadır. Bu durumun bir göstergesi olarak günümüz bilgi ve teknoloji çağında organizasyonlar ofis olarak akıllı binaları ve esnek çalışma mekânlarını tercih etmeye başlamışlardır. Fiziksel çevre tasarımının çalışan memnuniyeti ve verimi üzerine etkileri bilindiğinden, bu yeni tip çalışma mekânları özelinde tasarımın ve çevre kalitesinin çalışan memnuniyeti, verimi ve yapılan işin kalitesine etkileri üzerine araştırmalar dünyada, özellikle Kuzey Amerika ve Avrupa'da hız kazanmıştır. Ancak, Türkiye'deki çalışma mekânları özelinde bu gibi çalışmalar sınırlıdır. Bu çalışmada, bu boşluğu doldurmak amacı ile İstanbul'da yer alan LEED sertifikalı bir binada hizmet veren bir firmanın esnek çalışma mekânı örnek olarak seçilmiştir. Anket, görüşme ve yerinde gözlem yöntemlerine dayanan bir kullanım sonrası değerlendirme çalışması yürütülmüştür. Elde edilen bulgular esnek çalışma düzeni, fiziksel çevre koşulları ve mekânsal tasarım bağlamında çalışan memnuniyetine etkileri açısından değerlendirilmiştir. Anahtar sözcükler: Akıllı bina; çalışan memnuniyeti; esnek çalışma mekânı; kullanım sonrası değerlendirme. Social, cultural, and economical structures shape physical work environments. Today, workplaces are reconstructed according to the effects of sustainability and technology on the form of working. Flexibility is one of the most influential elements affecting the change of workplaces. Flexible workplaces are designed to strengthen the communication and to support the horizontal organizational structure. Open office areas are planned to meet the need for activities such as relaxation, conversation, meeting, concentration, and teamwork. In the era of the knowledge society and technology, organizations increasingly prefer smart buildings and flexible workplaces as their work environments. As a result, there is a growing literature, especially in North America and northern Europe, on the impact of flexible workplace design and indoor quality on employee satisfaction, productivity, and work quality. However, such studies are still limited in Turkey. To fill the gap, this research focuses on a flexible workplace located in a LEED-certified building in Istanbul. A post-occupancy evaluation was conducted in this office. Data collection methods included questionnaires, interviews, and participant observations. The data was analyzed based on the employees' satisfaction from the flexible workplace.

The didactic system developed at Slio Paulo University, the MFG Toolkit, consists of a simulator for control objects and a controller. In both systems it is utilized the same mode ling tool, the MFGIPFS (Mark Flow Graph! Production Flow Schema), derived from Petri Nets. This modeling tool is the keystone of the MFGIPFS Methodology. The case study shown here illustrates the operation sequence for the MFG Toolkit which involves the usage of MFGIPFS Methodology for contriving a model for a given control object and a control algorithm for it.

In recent years, refurbishment of existing buildings as well as reuse of abandoned areas has become the central issue of strategies and funding programs. The focus of this research is Poveglia, Italy: an abandoned island in the lagoon of Venice. The underpinning idea is to refurbish Poveglia as a zero energy Cognitive University Campus, connected to other educational institutions in the lagoon. It aims at the reuse of abandoned islands by combining architecture with digital networks. The goal is to demonstrate the potential of new technologies for the transformation of existing structures into adequate and innovative locations for learning activities. Poveglia case study, exemplifies the implementation of suitable systems and tools. The island works as part of the 'smart city, smart campus network'. In such scenario, Poveglia is understood as part of a bigger context, which requires both strategies for historical preservation as well as for energy efficiency.

An intelligent building supports the needs of its occupants by data analytics. Nowadays, buildings are evolving from being products to become effective service providers for end-users: thus, occupancy topics become crucial. The paper focuses on building operations, pointing out how advantages in supporting the needs of users could be derived through the implementation of Building Management Systems (BMS) into a Building Information Modeling (BIM) environment, connecting real-time information collected by sensors to a BIM database. The connection and the integration of information between BIM and BMS have been established based on the Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) neutral data format; moreover, web-interfaces and apps have been tested for enhancing information to be visualized by different end-users. The ongoing research has a twofold scope: 1) to point-out how buildings should evolve, managing knowledge coming from sensors in order to anticipate the needs of users, and 2) to analyze whether and how the centrality of users should change the building process. The proposed workflow has been tested on the Brescia Smart Campus Demonstrator, a building equipped with 94 off-the-shelf sensors.

With the inexorability of globalization and open trade system, there has been extension of large business with an increase in the outsourcing of parts and services especially in the apparel sector. Increasing in number, the apparel industries confront dormant competition and need to emphasize on some technical key points to be fortitude. Purchasing and its associated functions are the eminent fields playing important role in this connection as it is most decisive and most of the production cost and time are spent regard to those. As for trading, apparel sector products normally categorize into two-push and pull while pull products are executed in anticipation of the customer order and push products are initiated according to customer order. It engenders dealings with risk and cause more investment which may incur a loss to the industries because of any faltering decision. Appropriate supplier and supply quantity selection triggers the probably of success as other parameters evolve by these and hence they are most important and can reduce risk if it can be handled combined for several products. Using fuzzy-TOPSIS and MCGP, the paper determines the joint (push and pull) amount to take from each supplier based on their performance ranking on selected criteria considering budget, delivery, demand and supply constraints. The result generated solving a LP model formed on the basis of opportunity and threats. The model is solved by LINDO system. The strength of presenting approach is its practical applicability and ability to provide solution under partial or lack of quantitative information and in joint order handling.

Wireless sensor networks provide a new way of working for applications such as indoor monitoring, security or robotics. The Ecosense project aims to monitor all devices consuming energy in an intelligent building. We are developing this project in steps. Firstly, we have deployed a network equipped only with sensors (for temperature, humidity, luminosity, and electrical consumption, as well as presence detectors). Secondly, we will add an upper layer of manager agents (actors) to communicate and negotiate services. Afterwards, we will obtain conclusions about the sensed data and we will then extend a full wireless sensor network to cover the whole building. The network prototype will also be used to test power-and-time efficient protocols developed by us.

PurposeThe drive for intelligent buildings continues unabated. An intelligent building (IB) is one that provides a responsive and supportive environment within which an organisation can attain a range of objectives, i.e. a building within which the building fabric, space, services and information systems can respond efficiently to the initial and changing demands of the owner, the occupier and the broader environment. This responsiveness requires the ability to collect data and initiate processes which effect changes. Application of radio frequency identification devices (RFID) to the components and processes undertaken within the building allows enhanced data management and process manipulation. The purpose of this paper is to outline how buildings and their management are being changed by the adoption of RFID.Design/methodology/approachThis paper discusses the characteristics of RFIDs and their application in one specific function: the evacuation of a building during a fire. The p...

The simplicity of design and construction following the researcher's or company's notion is the most typical description of solar panels. There will be a set of sensors in every design to derive information about the environment's shifting seasons and days. Two chambers of 1 m 2 and 2 m 2 in height were constructed for this study. A solar panel made from a unique exchangeable material has been installed instead of one of the walls, allowing a space between them for experimental reasons. Several temperature sensors were mounted inside and outside the chamber, as well as on the surface of the solar panel and within the air openings, in this work to record the temperature readings in various places. The used controller, an Arduino, is in charge of several operations, including controlling the solar panel's cooling device, reading and recording sensor data and storing it in RAM, controlling the orientation of the solar panel, controlling the vacuums, and regulating the on-off time of the motors. The findings show that by using sensor data, the system can keep the temperature constant when it is turned on. Additionally, the battery life will be preserved to the greatest extent feasible thanks to the well-balanced regulation of the loads.