Modern Building Services

MODERN BUILDING SERVICES MARCH 2021 35 FEATURE SMART BUILDINGS SMART BUILDINGS F rom serving as a physical space to work or live in to providing a building experience for tenants to thrive, the definition and functions of a modern building have evolved over the last couple decades. Innovative technology and accelerated digital transformations, partially due to COVID-19, have played a key role in creating the capabilities that make- up a smart building today. These innovative technologies include AI-enabled edge computing, or edge AI, which has played a critical part in augmenting existing building management systems (BMSs) through cost-effective and efficient approach. As the adoption and capabilities of internet of things (IoT) devices and sensors continue to increase within smart buildings, so does the amount of information collected, that operators can leverage to improve overall efficiency and increase bottom line savings. However, sending these ever- increasing amounts of IoT data to the cloud for processing to produce actionable insights comes at a cost and introduces latency, which inhibits an organization’s ability to act on insights powered by real-time processing. Edge AI allows data to be processed on site, near the source of the data, eliminating the need for cloud processing and therefore providing real-time actionable insights for both cost-savings and increased operational efficiency to improve smart building functions. This results in increased accuracy and faster production of valuable insights. This rapid processing and insight production can be applied on top of existing BMSs to enhance amyriad of building functions -- including energymanagement, predictivemaintenance of assets, and health and safetymonitoring. Energy Management Currently, BMSs are solely used for observational purposes, rather than applying actions to resolve the challenges that surface from such observations. To enhance their current BMS, buildingmanagers can leverage edge AI platforms to performmachine learning (ML) and AI at the edge tomake optimal adjustments in real-time in order to adapt to ever-changing environmental factors, such as the atmospheric temperature or occupancy of a building. Building managers are then able to obtain relevant insights fromdata streams and address issues more effectively, while factoring in occupancy safety and comfort for matters that could potentially impact the tenant experience -- such as scheduling maintenance. Buildingmanagers can prevent any unplanned downtime fromarising with the ability to predict power and utility outages, or surges, through the use of edge AI energymanagement solutions. Chris Penrose , COO, FogHorn explains more the benefits of AI-enabled edge computing Dissecting the Role of Edge AI within a Smart Building