Thrust 3: High Confidence Building Operating System

The mission of this thrust is to develop foundations and methodologies to design and demonstrate a multi-scale, embedded, intelligent, distributed system that consists of wireless and wired network sensors, actuators, and controllers. It executes a hierarchical control plan in real-time and in cooperation with building energy distribution grids and the external utility grid. Also, the system adapts to system evaluations and local variations, controlling and optimizing resources.

A key objective is to design and demonstrate building operating systems (conceptually shown above) that:

  • Enable a fundamental change from oblivious consumption and isolated production to aware, agile, optimized, and adaptive energy consumption and generation in the building, particularly in the form of electrical power;
  • Provide a high degree of cooperation between the building and the smart power grid by incorporating intelligence into various points of energy consumption and generation within the building;
  • Provide critical functionality at all times, despite damages caused by accidental faults, errors, and degradations or malicious intrusions.

Effort in Thrust Three is organized into two main work packages (WPs):

  1. Intelligent Building-to-grid integration and interaction
  2. Natural and Artificial Lighting for Buildings