A system of systems view on integrating control for energy efficient building assessment

The ability to simulate combined control and building performance applications in a distributed manner is increasingly becoming an invaluable tool in the assessment of automated buildings (ABs) for better design and operation. To make such assessments without the need for costly and time consuming experiments, distributed simulations can be used so as to simultaneously fulfil the occupants' needs while minimising energy use and potentially reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Therefore, distributed simulations are necessary to assess the impact of control systems on building performance applications (i.e., building indoor environments) over a network. This paper describes the development and implementation of a unified framework based on a system of systems (SoS) concept for distributed control and building performance simulations involving two or more different software tools via a network. The main objective of this framework is to couple one or multiple building performance simulation tool(s) with a control systems modelling environment by run-time over a network in order to similarly represent building automation and control systems (BACS) architecture in a simulation. Finally, the paper ends with some conclusions and perspectives for future work.