Fuzzy Comfort and its Use in the Design of an Intelligent Coordinator of Fuzzy Controller-Agents for Environmental Conditions Control in Buildings

The theme of this paper is the design of an intelligent coordinator (IC) of fuzzy controller-agents (FCAs) to control indoor environmental conditions in buildings by using a 3-D fuzzy comfort set. The basic factors that participate in the control of indoor environmental conditions are the controllers and users’ comfort requirements. Harmonization of these factors results in energy saving, and occupants’ comfort, both very significant. Synchronization of the control system is obtained by the design and implementation of an intelligent coordinator, which is a centralized one. It consists of a master agent and a slave agent that are both implemented by fuzzy logic theory. Master agent evaluates the energy efficiency of the building and comfort of occupants. A fuzzy inference mechanism produces signals that activate the slave agent and change the set points of the controllers. The slave agent is a fuzzy negotiation machine (FNM), which synchronizes the interaction of the FCAs and manages to avoid conflicts between them. When some conditions determined by the slave agent are satisfied FCAs are activated, otherwise they stay inactive. The ultimate goal is the harmonization of all factors that contribute for control of ambient intelligent environments. In addition, the hardware architecture that implements the proposed intelligent system for multi zone buildings is presented. Finally, the applicability of the suggested system is demonstrated via TRNSYS-MATLAB computer simulation. © 2008 World Academic Press, UK. All rights reserved