Stefan Runde

Software Support for Building Automation Requirements Engineering—An Application of Semantic Web Technologies in Automation

Modern building automation systems consist of up to several thousands of components (e.g., sensors, controllers, actuators) with numerous attributes and dependencies. Additionally, different crafts of the building automation domain, e.g., heating, ventilation, lighting, access control, are involved in the design and implementation of such a building automation system. In addition, various engineering standards have to be considered within the requirements engineering phase. Although the modeling of the requirements for decentralized building automation systems requires a huge effort, there is little software support available for this task today. This offers optimization potential not only for the requirements engineering, but also for subsequent phases of the engineering process in building automation. Within this paper, the authors describe a knowledge-based requirements engineering approach and a supporting software, which is based on Semantic Web technology.

Knowledge-based Requirement-Engineering of building automation systems by means of Semantic Web technologies

Modern building automation systems consist of up to 30,000 components (e.g. sensors, actuators, and controllers). Additionally, different assembly sections of the automation system, e.g. heating, ventilation, and lighting, are integrated in such a building automation system. Besides this complexity, engineering standards and aspects of energy efficiency are to be considered within the Requirement-Elicitation phase. Therefore, modelling of the requirements for decentralized building automation systems, which are to be planned, requires a huge effort. The software support is on a low level within todays Requirement-Engineering phase. This allows to optimize the engineering process in building automation. The whole engineering process can benefit from an “intelligent” software-based Requirement-Engineering. Within this paper, the authors propose a solution for a knowledge-based Requirement-Engineering software by means of Semantic Web technologies.

Integrated automated design approach for building automation systems

The planning and design of building automation systems is a time consuming, error prone and nowadays more and more expensive task, consisting of a lot of repeated manual design steps done by specialized engineers. To reduce the engineering costs for such systems, the authors present a new automated top-down design approach within this paper. A knowledge-based system supports the planner at the requirement analysis by means of a guided dialog. Subsequently, the complete automation system is automatically designed in two steps. The abstract design proceeds a design based on platform- and manufacturer-independent function blocks via generative programming. The detailed design replaces the function blocks by platform- and manufacturer-specific profiles by means of evolutionary techniques.

A data exchange format for the engineering of building automation systems

In building automation, various engineering tools for the different sub-domains of the automation system, e.g. heating, ventilation, and lighting, are used by different planners. Data exchange between these tools is at a low degree, which causes a lot of work to be done manually. This bears optimization potential for the engineering process in building automation. The whole planning process can benefit from a data exchange format that covers the different sub-domains and is independent of vendor specific tools. Such a format offers the chance of data exchange at a high degree of interchangeability. Within this paper, the authors propose a solution for a vendor-independent data exchange format for an improved engineering process of building automation systems, which provides the basis for the automated design of building automation systems.

Engineering of building automation systems — State-of-the-art, deficits, approaches

Growing flexibility along with conversion, growing employee productivity and improvements in security are increasingly become the focus of interest in state-of-the-art buildings. Energy efficiency is a further essential aspect, which is associated with factors such as lower utilization costs. A modern and integrated building automation system is necessary to fulfill these demands. The engineering process provides the basis for developing such systems. However, todays engineering process exhibits a number of shortcomings in the demands for implementing such systems. This paper focuses on the topic, describes todays engineering process of building automation systems and identifies its deficits. It also reports on two approaches designed to largely eliminate the deficits. These approaches have been proved and tested in a reference project, which is also outlined.

A semantic Requirement Ontology for the engineering of building automation systems by means of OWL

The increasing complexity of modern building automation systems (BAS) results in higher initial investment costs for BAS compared to the costs for conventional building installation. This fact scares many potential customers off the application of BAS, although these systems offer significant energy cost saving potential. To reduce investment costs for BAS, automated design processes offer significant optimization potential. For such an automated design process, consistent requirements for the individual BAS are mandatory. Within this paper, the authors propose a solution for a Requirement Ontology which is based on the knowledge representation language OWL (Web Ontology Language) for the automated design process of BAS.

Risk minimization in modernization projects of plant automation — A knowledge-based approach by means of semantic web technologies

In high-wage countries the number of Greenfield projects for plant automation is decreasing. In contrast to this, plant modernization becomes more and more important. The estimation of the costs for a re-engineering of the existing plant automation is an error-prone task which has to be done in the bidding phase of a modernization project. This article describes a knowledge-based approach to reduce the risk potential in the bidding phase of plant modernization projects. Based on a concept for rough plant modeling in CAEX and technologies of the semantic web a concept for a software assistance system is presented.

Integration requirements of package units — A description approach with FDI

Package units are used to supply production plants with components and auxiliary materials or to assemble final products. They usually come with an automation system that has predefined functions and behavior. The integration of package units in a SCADA or DCS involves considerable manual effort. Various aspects of automation - such as faceplates, states of sequencers, or interlocks - are reproduced manually in the control system for the visualization and management of the package unit. We present potentials and limitations of current and prospective technologies (for example, FDI technology [4]) for the simplified integration of package units in a process control system. This paper also proposes and discusses a concept for simplified integration of package units in control systems.

Wissensbasierte Systeme im Engineering der Automatisierungstechnik

Zusammenfassung Wissensbasierte Systeme (WBS) haben im Kontext des Engineerings (automatisierungs-)technischer Systeme gezeigt, dass sie dem gestiegenen Engineeringaufwand entgegenwirken. Der vorliegende Beitrag gibt die Ergebnisse einer Untersuchung hinsichtlich der in der Praxis eingesetzten WBS wieder. Neben den Grundlagen und Potenzialen dieser Systeme fokussiert der Beitrag auf eine ausführliche Darstellung WBS und die Darstellung der Defizite. Ausgehend von diesen Defiziten sind abschließend die zukünftigen Herausforderungen dargestellt. Abstract The complexity of technical systems in general and automation systems in particular rises constantly, and so does the complexity of the respective planning processes. Knowledge-Based Systems (KBS) have shown to counteract this trend. The authors describe in this paper the study results of KBS used in practice. Apart of the basics and potentials of these systems, the paper focusses on today´s applications and their deficits. Last but not least, the future challenges of Knowledge-Based Systems with regard to the deficits are proposed.

EDDL and semantic web — From field device integration (FDI) to Future Device Management (FDM)

Device management comprises the integration of modern devices in both factory and process automation. Thanks to device management, functions and information from the devices can be made available in a Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system or Distributed Control System (DCS). Integration of devices is still a challenge to todays device management. FDI is a promising approach for tackling this challenge. On the one hand, this paper addresses improvements in todays device management. On the other hand, an incremental approach from an industrial point of view is shown that allows integrated Future Device Management (FDM) with consideration of vertical and horizontal integration of an automation system.