The design of controllers for integrated building systems has been traditionally carried out using basic techniques validated frequently by simulation. However, the demands on occupants’ comfort, safety and energy consumption increase speedily as the current controllers used in buildings are not efficient and enough flexible to be adapted to any changes. To investigate such issues, this paper f...

Communication software and distributed applications for control and building performance simulation software must be reliable, efficient, flexible, and reusable. This paper reports on progress of a project, which aims to achieve better integrated building and systems control modeling in building performance simulation by run-time coupling of distributed computer programs. These requirements mot...

Building integrated photovoltaics modules provide a high degree of design possibilities and additional functionalities in combination with the plain electricity generation well known for standard photovoltaic installations. Consequently, specialized know-how to understand building photovoltaics, properly manufacture them requires much more than electrical knowledge developed applied systems. Ex...

This chapter presents what a future environment for building system modeling and simulation may look like. As buildings continue to require increased performance and better comfort, their energy and control systems are becoming more integrated and complex. We therefore focus in this chapter on the modeling, simulation and analysis of building energy and control systems. Such systems can be clas...

Building is a harsh environment for reliable wireless communication and thus special means are needed for wireless sensor networking. This paper presents Kilavi wireless building control platform that provides a unified method to link up different kinds of building control applications. Kilavi platform is intended for low-power and low data rate autonomous communication between sensors and actu...

In the wake of rising energy costs, there is a critical need for sustainable energy management of commercial and residential buildings. Buildings consume approximately 40% of total energy consumed in the US, and current methods to reduce this level of consumption include energy monitoring, smart sensing, and advanced integrated building control. However, the building industry has been slow to r...

We present XBOS, an eXtensible Building Operating System for integrated management of previously isolated building subsystems. The key contribution of XBOS is the development of the Building Profile, a canonical, executable description of a building and its subsystems that changes with a building and evolves the control processes and applications accordingly. We discuss the design and implement...

background hiv/aids and tuberculosis (tb) are major contributors to the burden of disease in sub-saharan africa. the two diseases have been described as a harmful synergy as they are biologically and epidemiologically linked. control of tb/hiv co-infection is an integral and most challenging part of both national tb and national hiv control programmes, especially in contexts of instability wher...