Systems and methods for detecting and using equipment location in a building management system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9571986-B2
Application number	US-201414272150-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 7, 2014
Priority date	May 7, 2014
Publication date	Feb 14, 2017
Grant date	Feb 14, 2017

Abstract

Systems and methods for detecting and using equipment location in a building management system are provided. Location information is measured by one or more measurement devices at a physical location of building equipment. The measured location information is used to automatically determine the physical location of the building equipment in or around a building. The location of the building equipment is integrated with an architectural model of a building served by the building equipment and a graphical visualization of the integrated model is generated. The location of the building equipment can be used to automatically associate the building equipment with other building equipment or with a building zone, to automatically generate control parameters and control algorithms, and/or to generate an augmented reality display of the building equipment in the building.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for detecting and using equipment location in a building management system for a building, the method comprising:
receiving measured location information at a processing circuit, wherein the measured location information is obtained by one or more measurement devices at one or more physical locations of building equipment in a building management system, the building equipment comprising a first BMS device and one or more other BMS devices;
automatically determining, by the processing circuit, the physical locations of the building equipment in the building management system using the measured location information;
ranking each of the other BMS devices based on a physical distance between the first BMS device and the other BMS devices, wherein each physical distance is a function of the physical location of the first BMS device and one of the physical locations of the other BMS devices;
generating an association between the first BMS device and one of the other BMS devices based on a result of the ranking; and
controlling a building zone by operating the one of the other BMS devices to affect an environmental condition of the building zone.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
predicting at least one of a heat exchange and an air exchange between first and second zones of the building based on a spatial relationship between the first and second zones;
using the predicted heat exchange or air exchange to generate an expanded control loop and a control algorithm for the expanded control loop; and
controlling the first and second zones of the building using the expanded control loop.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein generating a control algorithm for the expanded control loop comprises:
determining whether building equipment associated with the first zone can be used to reduce an amount of energy consumption required to achieve target conditions within the second zone; and
generating at least one of a control algorithm and a control parameter that uses the building equipment associated with the first zone to achieve target conditions within the second zone in response to determination that the building equipment associated with the first zone can be used to reduce the amount of energy consumption required to achieve target conditions within the second zone.

4. The method of claim 2 , wherein controlling the first and second zones of the building using the expanded control loop comprises causing an airflow between the first and second zones by establishing a pressure gradient between the first and second zones.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving a device identifier in conjunction with the measured location information, the device identifier indicating a particular building equipment device; and
storing an association between the device identifier and a physical location of the particular building equipment device.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
generating, by the processing circuit, a graphical visualization of the building equipment integrated with an architectural model of the building, wherein the building equipment is displayed in the graphical visualization at the locations determined by the processing circuit.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the graphical visualization of the building equipment comprises at least one of equipment-specific attributes for the building equipment and a current status of the building equipment.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the physical locations of the building equipment are three-dimensional physical locations.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more measurement devices comprise at least one of a GPS device and an altimeter; and
wherein the measured location information comprise at least one of GPS coordinates and an altitude measurement.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more measurement devices are components of the building equipment.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more measurement devices are components of a mobile device separate from the building equipment.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein the measured location information comprise GPS coordinates measured by the mobile device at an entrance of the building and distance differential data indicating a distance between the entrance of the building and the building equipment;
wherein automatically determining the physical locations of the building equipment comprises calculating the physical locations of the building equipment using the GPS coordinates and the distance differential data.

13. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
using the physical locations of the building equipment to generate an association between the building equipment and other building equipment of the building management system.

14. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
using the physical locations of the building equipment to automatically address the building equipment.

15. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
generating an augmented reality display of the building equipment, the augmented reality display comprising a view of a graphical visualization of the building equipment from a perspective of a mobile device superimposed over a camera-derived view of the building from the perspective of the mobile device.

16. A method for assigning relationships between building management system (BMS) devices, the method comprising:
automatically determining, by a processing circuit, a physical location of a first BMS device and a physical location of a plurality of other BMS devices using location information measured at the physical locations;
identifying a type of the first BMS device and the plurality of other BMS devices;
identifying one or more of the other BMS devices as potentially related to the first BMS device based on the type of the first BMS device, wherein the first BMS device is a sensor configured to measure an environmental condition within a building zone and one or more of the identified BMS devices are configured to affect the environmental condition measured by the first BMS device;
ranking each identified BMS device based on a physical distance between the first BMS device and the identified BMS device, wherein the physical distance is a function of the physical location of the first BMS device and the physical location of the identified BMS device;
generating an association between the first BMS device and one of the other BMS devices based on a result of the ranking; and
controlling the building zone by operating the one of the other BMS devices to affect the environmental condition measured by the first BMS device.

17. The method of claim 16 , wherein the association between the first BMS device and one of the other BMS devices is a recommended association, the method further comprising:
presenting the recommended association via a user interface device; and
prompting a user to confirm or reject the recommended association.

18. A system for detecting and using equipment location in a building management system, the system comprising:
a processing circuit configured to receive measured location information, wherein the measured location information is obtained by one or more measurement devices at a physical location of building equipment in a building management system, wherein the one or more measurement devices are components of the building equipment;
wherein the processing circuit is configured to automatically determine the physical location of the building equipment in the building manage

Assignees

• Johnson Controls Tech Co

Inventors

• Gottschalk Donald A
• Goldschmidt Troy A
• Brophy Christopher

Classifications

• H04W4/33

  for indoor environments, e.g. buildings · CPC title

• G05B2219/25065

  Configure attributes of parameters · CPC title

• G05B2219/32014

  Augmented reality assists operator in maintenance, repair, programming, assembly, use of head mounted display with 2-D 3-D display and voice feedback, voice and gesture command · CPC title

• G05B2219/25062

  Detect physical location of field device · CPC title

• H04W4/80

  Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication · CPC title