Advanced Building Simulation

Self-organizing models for sentient buildings 161
which the building is situated. To be operationally effective, it is updated
fairly autonomously based on pervasive sensor-supported data collection and
algorithms for the interpretation of such data.
4 Model-based executive unit—this constitutes the evaluative and decision-making
agency of the sentient building. Simulation-based control strategies are part of
this unit’s repertoire of tools and methods for decision-making support.
Depending on the specific configuration and the level of sophistication of a sentient
building, occupants may directly manipulate the control devices or they may
request from the executive unit the desired changes in the state of the controlled
entity. Likewise, the executive unit may directly manipulate control devices or suggest
control device manipulations to the users. As such, the division of the control
responsibility between the occupants and the executive unit can be organized in very
different ways. Nonetheless, some general principles may apply. For instance, it
seems appropriate that the occupants should have control over the environmental
conditions in their immediate surroundings. Moreover, they should be given certain
override possibilities, in case the decisions of the automated building control
systems should disregard or otherwise interfere with their preferred indoor environmental
conditions. On the other hand, the executive unit needs to ensure the operational
integrity and efficiency of the environmental systems of the building as
a whole. It could also fulfill a negotiating role in cases where user requirements
(e.g. desired set-points for indoor environmental parameter) would be in conflict with
each other.
Components,
systems
Occupancy
Model-based
executive unit
Sentient building
Selforganizing
building
model
Figure 7.1 Scheme of the constitutive ingredients of a sentient building (continuous lines: control
actions; dashed lines: information flows).