Integrated lighting and building management control gateway

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10054919-B2
Application number	US-201615220758-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 27, 2016
Priority date	Jun 21, 2016
Publication date	Aug 21, 2018
Grant date	Aug 21, 2018

Abstract

The examples herein offer an improved, more integrated implementation of lighting control and building management control, e.g. within the same gateway or cloud computing/control element(s), via an integrated software architecture. A visualization platform of the software architecture provides an integrated user interface via network communication of the computing element with a user terminal device. The integrated user interface offers the user an integrated view of status of building automation control (BAC) appliances and luminaires within the premises, as well as integrated access to control operations of the BAC appliances and the luminaires. For example, the overall system of integrated lighting and building management control may offer a ‘single pane of glass’ type user interface for lighting and other managed operations in the premises. Also, the architecture may utilize a broker for publish-and-subscribe communications, for exchange of information between lighting and building management application and with the visualization platform.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A building management and lighting system, comprising;
building automation control (BAC) appliances configured to implement a plurality of controllable operations within a premises and their related status reporting, the BAC appliances including interfaces for network communications;
luminaires including artificial illumination light sources;
processors and interfaces for network communications, in or associated with luminaires, and configured to operate the luminaires to implement controllable general illumination within the premises and related lighting status reporting;
a computing element, including a central processing unit and an interface for network communications with the BAC appliances and with the processors in or associated with the luminaires; and
a software architecture for execution by the central processing unit of the computing element to implement integrated lighting control and building management control, the software architecture comprising:
a building management system (BMS) application, the BMS application being configured to support network communications with BAC appliances within the premises, to monitor and/or control the BAC appliances;
a lighting control application configured to support network communications with the processors in or associated with the luminaires within the premises, to monitor and control the luminaires;
a broker implementing a publish-and-subscribe communication protocol;
a visualization software platform configured to publish and subscribe via the broker;
a first client, associated with the BMS application, configured to support publish-and-subscribe communications of the BMS application with the broker; and
a second client, associated with the lighting control application, configured to support publish-and-subscribe communications of the lighting control application with the broker, wherein:
the BMS application and/or the visualization software platform is configured to publish lighting related override commands via the first client and the broker and to subscribe to lighting related status messages via the first client and the broker;
the lighting control application is configured to publish the lighting related status messages based on the monitoring of the luminaires within the premises via the second client and the broker and to subscribe to the lighting related override commands via second client and the broker; and
the visualization software platform is further configured to provide an integrated user interface via network communication of the computing element with a user terminal device, the integrated user interface offering the user:
1) an integrated view of status of the BAC appliances and the luminaires or other related lighting elements within the premises, and
2) integrated access to control operations of the BAC appliances and the luminaires or other related lighting elements within the premises.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the software architecture configures the computing element as a gateway at the premises.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the software architecture is configured for execution in a cloud configuration.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein the broker, the clients and the visualization software platform are configured to communicate via Message Queue Telemetry Transport (MQTT) protocol.

5. The system of claim 1 , wherein the visualization software platform is a component of the BMS application.

6. The system of claim 1 , wherein:
the software architecture further comprises an application framework configured to execute via an operating system of the computing element;
at least the BMS application is configured to execute via the application framework on the operating system of the computing element; and
the visualization software platform is a component of the application framework.

7. The system of claim 1 , wherein the software architecture further comprises:
a Linux kernel for execution on a processor of the computing element;
an Android runtime environment for execution via the Linux kernel; and
an application framework, wherein:
a) the BMS application is configured to execute via the application framework on the Android runtime environment; and
b) the lighting control application is configured to execute via the Linux kernel.

8. An article of manufacture, comprising:
a software architecture for execution on a computing element to implement integrated lighting control and building management control, the software architecture including:
a building management system (BMS) application, the BMS application being configured to support network communications with building automation control (BAC) appliances within a premises, to monitor and/or control the BAC appliances;
a lighting control application configured to support network communications with processors controlling light sources of luminaires and/or with other lighting related elements within the premises, to monitor and control the luminaires and to monitor the other lighting related elements;
a broker implementing a publish-and-subscribe communication protocol;
a visualization software platform configured to publish and subscribe via the broker;
a first client, associated with the BMS application, configured to support publish-and-subscribe communications of the BMS application with the broker; and
a second client, associated with the lighting control application, configured to support publish-and-subscribe communications of the lighting control application with the broker, wherein:
the BMS application and/or the visualization software platform is configured to publish lighting related override commands via the first client and the broker and to subscribe to lighting related status messages via the first client and the broker; and
the lighting control application is configured to publish the lighting related status messages based on the monitoring of the luminaires and other lighting related elements within the premises via the second client and the broker and to subscribe to the lighting related override commands via the second client and the broker; and
the visualization software platform is further configured provide an integrated user interface via network communication of the computing element with a user terminal device, the integrated user interface offering the user:
1) an integrated view of status of the BAC appliances and the luminaires within the premises, and
2) integrated access to control operations of the BAC appliances and the luminaires within the premises; and

a non-transitory machine readable medium bearing the software architecture.

9. The article of manufacture of claim 8 , wherein the software architecture is configured for execution on a network connected implementation of the computer element acting as a gateway to the BAC appliances as well as to the luminaires within the premises.

10. The article of manufacture of claim 8 , wherein the software architecture is configured for execution in a cloud configuration.

11. The article of manufacture of claim 8 , wherein the broker, the clients and the visualization software platform are configured to communicate via Message Queue Telemetry Transport (MQTT) protocol.

12. The article of manufacture of claim 8 , wherein the visualization software platform is a component of the BMS application.

13. The article of manufacture of claim 8 , wherein:
the software architecture further comprises an application framework configured to execute via an operating system of the computing element;
at least the BMS application is configured to execute via the application framework

Assignees

• Abl Ip Holding Llc

Inventors

• Westrick Jr Richard L
• Herwig Nathaniel Christopher

Classifications

• H05B47/18

  via data-bus transmission · CPC title

• H04L12/283

  Processing of data at an internetworking point of a home automation network · CPC title

• G05B15/02 Primary

  electric · CPC title

• H04L12/2816 Primary

  Controlling appliance services of a home automation network by calling their functionalities (arrangements in telecontrol or telemetry systems for selectively calling a substation from a main station; in which substation desired apparatus is selected for applying a control signal thereto or for obtaining measured values therefrom H04Q9/00) · CPC title

• H05B37/0245

  Electricity · mapped topic