Evaluating the Next Generation of Building Automation – IoT SmartBuildings

Abstract: Abstract Building automation systems typically use proprietary hardware and included softwarefor their automation which can make the systems vendor-locked. Establishedprogramming standards limits the freedom of companies to improve their automationsystems with the growth of the IT era. The purpose of the thesis is to investigateand evaluate IoT solutions and implement one of these methods as proof ofconcept and to elicit new aspects for analysis and discussion. With the literature study three different methods was discovered followed bya comparative study. These methods include: Porting the existing software andmoving the automation process. Replacing the hardware with smaller computers.Adding a server as translator between the building and the cloud. The methods have different use cases with the objective of integrating a cloudservice to create smarter building automation system to reduce energy consumptionin buildings. One of the methods was proven to be most suitable for implementationbased on requirements set by experts in the field. The method chosenwas porting a smaller portion of an existing BAS to a new programming language. The final prototype was completed with a ported program, from IEC 61131-3 standard to Java and the automation was moved from a programmable logiccontroller to an edge unit. The discussion focuses on different ways of optimizingthe system, one of the optimization is to move the automation process to cloudcomputing. Energy managements are considered by collecting data and metadatain the cloud to create energy profiles for reduced energy consumption. Keywords: internet of things, building management system, buildingautomation system, programmable logic controller, porting, legacy, energymanagement, cloud services