Carli Raffaele, Cavone Graziana, Ben Othman Sarah, Dotoli Mariagrazia
Department of Electrical and Information Engineering, Polytechnic of Bari, Via Orabona 4, 70125 Bari, Italy.
CRIStAL Laboratory UML 9189, Ecole-Central of Lille, 59655 Villeneuve d'Ascq, France.
Sensors (Basel). 2020 Jan 31;20(3):781. doi: 10.3390/s20030781.
The efficient management of Heating Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) systems in smart buildings is one of the main applications of the Internet of Things (IoT) paradigm. In this paper we propose an IoT based architecture for the implementation of Model Predictive Control (MPC) of HVAC systems in real environments. The considered MPC algorithm optimizes on line, in a closed-loop control fashion, both the indoor thermal comfort and the related energy consumption for a single zone environment. Thanks to the proposed IoT based architecture, the sensing, control, and actuating subsystems are all connected to the Internet, and a remote interface with the HVAC control system is guaranteed to end-users. In particular, sensors and actuators communicate with a remote database server and a control unit, which provides the control actions to be actuated in the HVAC system; users can set remotely the control mode and related set-points of the system; while comfort and environmental indices are transferred via the Internet and displayed on the end-users' interface. The proposed IoT based control architecture is implemented and tested in a campus building at the Polytechnic of Bari (Italy) in a proof of concept perspective. The effectiveness of the proposed control algorithm is assessed in the real environment evaluating both the thermal comfort results and the energy savings with respect to a classical thermostat regulation approach.
智能建筑中供暖、通风与空调（HVAC）系统的高效管理是物联网（IoT）范式的主要应用之一。在本文中，我们提出了一种基于物联网的架构，用于在实际环境中实现HVAC系统的模型预测控制（MPC）。所考虑的MPC算法以闭环控制方式在线优化单区域环境中的室内热舒适度和相关能耗。得益于所提出的基于物联网的架构，传感、控制和驱动子系统都连接到互联网，并为终端用户保证了与HVAC控制系统的远程接口。具体而言，传感器和执行器与远程数据库服务器和控制单元进行通信，控制单元提供要在HVAC系统中执行的控制动作；用户可以远程设置系统的控制模式和相关设定点；而舒适度和环境指标则通过互联网传输并显示在终端用户界面上。从概念验证的角度出发，在意大利巴里理工大学的一栋校园建筑中实现并测试了所提出的基于物联网的控制架构。在所评估的实际环境中，相对于传统恒温器调节方法，评估了所提出控制算法的有效性，包括热舒适度结果和节能情况。
