Mais Deste Usuário
Related Docuements
Web Design: What every website design team should know.
As business professionals, we have to understand our consumers and understand...
From dmb34warehouse
N
ETWORKED
C
ONTROLS
1
July 2003
D
epending on how you account for time, we are either two years or three yearsinto the 21st century. It may seemstrange to write about anyone or anythingarriving there, but working with buildingsystems is a lot like traveling by plane these days. With all of the extra effort requiredto get to your destination, it feelsgood to be there—no matter how lateyou step off the jetbridge.Given the false starts of the 1980sand the largely unfulfilled promisesof the 1990s, being fashionably tardy for the 2000s is refreshing. It wouldbe far too easy to point fingers atthe institutions and individuals whocaused delay in the implementationof meaningful technology in ourindustry. Instead, we will talk of how things have come together after all—and theresultant benefits to building owners, buildingoccupants, and enterprises that need comfort-able, efficient, and productive environments.
IT’S ALL ABOUT THE INFORMATION
If we compare building systems to someof the forces that have driven business environ-ments over the past 50 years, we can see someinteresting parallels. It could be said that duringthe 1950s, global business was all about manu-facturing. During the 1960s, it was about sell-ing. During the 1970s, it was about marketing.During the 1980s, it was about communica-tions. And during the 1990s, it was all aboutinformation. Today, data streams are every- where, and managers are connected to informa-tion about their employees, their manufacturingprocesses, and their financial condi-tion. It is not enough to have thisinformation in a report or on a desk-top computer, it must be accessiblefrom anywhere at any time usingpersonal digital assistants (PDAs) ordata-enabled wireless telephones.Computerized building automa-tion systems (BAS) have run a paral-lel, if compressed, path. Duringthe early 1970s, we struggled withdeveloping automated electronicalternatives to the electrical andmechanical devices we previously relied onfor comfort and safety. Then we sold these new systems aggressively, but found that many build-ing owners and operators were unaware of thebenefits that could be derived from automation.So marketing became a requirement, withthe focus on saving energy dollars, increasingproductivity, and reducing requirements forfacilities staffs.During the mid-1990s, we began to getserious about providing communication linksbetween systems (“connectivity” and “interoper-
Control Systems
Arrive in the
Better late than never: After years of delay,technologies emerge to make good onthe promise of building-automation systems
By TERRYHOFFMANNGlobal Products Marketing ManagerJohnson Controls Inc.
J
OHNSON
C
ONTROLS
W
HITE
P
APER
21st Century
Terry Hoffmann
N
ETWORKED
C
ONTROLS
2
July 2003
ability” became common terms of desire), usingopen protocols and standard networks and evena little access via the Internet. With a few nota-ble exceptions, though, information on build-ings and conditions within them was deliveredonly to facilities departments. Facilities infor-mation generally was ignored by upper manage-ment because it was of little importance tothe health and welfare of the enterprise. Or so itseemed.
LISTENING TO THE CUSTOMER
Recent customer research by Johnson Con-trols puts that premise into question andexposes a number of interesting opportunitiesfor building systems to take a logical place in theinformation-technology (IT) infrastructure,next to financial, human-resource, and othermanagement information support systems.First, our research found that simply deliver-ing building-systemsdata to management isnot enough. For it tobe meaningful to abusiness manager, thatdata has to be con-densed into smallerpieces and connectedto outcomes. In other words, data has to be translated into conse-quences. So, telling a senior accountant that thevibration sensor on the motor-side bearing of a1,000-ton chiller now reads 0.29 in. per secondat the primary frequency of the device andnearly half that at the first harmonic is liketelling your golden retriever that your feet arecold when what you really want is for the dog toget your slippers. The information providedshould support the decision that funds arenecessary to repair the chiller now, as opposedto ignoring the situation and facing a morecostly and extensive rebuild down the road. Forexample, if a vibration sensor on a large chillerindicates pending failure, you could:• Have the bearing replaced this weekend ornext (unplanned maintenance cost: $3,300;office downtime: none).• Ignore the problem and risk the chillerfailing during productive office hours (chillerrebuild cost: $29,000; office downtime: 8 to 24hr, depending on the time of the failure; result-ant productivity impact: $72,000).The choice of action may not always be thisobvious, but it certainly bears a close resem-blance to, “Get the slippers.”Second, our research found that deliveringinformation to a dedicated workstation is notenough—even if information from all of thebuilding systems can be consolidated there.Information has to be available to managementon an anywhere-anytime basis. At the very least,this means on every computer on every desktopand away from the office via a virtual privatenetwork. Even facilities supervisors are ignoringthe computer systems in their control rooms infavor of having critical alarms forwarded directly to their pager or wireless phone.Third, we found that information must beeasy to access, with a user interface tailored tothe needs of the class or function of the user.Static HTML-style pages for access over the Web are fine for looking up the start time of amovie at the local cineplex, but a richer, moreintelligent user interface must be delivered if third parties are to take advantage of the freeflow of information from building systems.Fourth, we found that the delivery of infor-mation to individuals or groups is not enough. While management decision-making is aided by the quick, easy, and in-tuitive delivery of ap-propriate informationto individual users, thefuture of informationflow is much moredependent on delivery from computer tocomputer. This pro-vides further opportunity for consolidation andanalysis, as well as setting the foundation forintelligent systems applications (which werepromised by a number of manufacturers duringthe marketing phase of our industry referred toearlier).Finally, we learned that whatever the techno-logical platform is, it must be compatible andfully integratable with the IT infrastructure thatexists in the enterprise today and tomorrow. TheIT department is looked upon as a provider of services for the safe and efficient transportationof digital information.
WE KNOW THE ‘WHY’; WHAT ABOUTTHE ‘HOW’?
Let’s recap: Users are looking for meaningfulinformation that goes beyond the data providedto facilities departments by current automatedsystems. They want information anywhere atanytime, and they want access to be quick andeasy. They want information to ride on the samedata highway that they currently use for all of their other business purposes. Attacking the problem in reverse order makessense.To facilitate the use of an IT infrastructure,building systems need to communicate overInternet-provider networks, which have becomeubiquitous in our business enterprises. This
To be meaningful to a business manager,building-systems data has to be condensed intosmaller pieces and connected to outcomes.
N
ETWORKED
C
ONTROLS
3
July 2003
means complete compliance with transportprotocols so that all hubs, switches, and routersare compatible, and no special equipmentis necessary. It also means that devices sharingthe network will work best if based on standardoperating systems and hardware platforms. This would include, but be largely limited to, stan-dard operating systems from Microsoft, Apple,and Linux and hardware that matches thecurrent state of the art for PDAs, PCs, andserver-class machines.In the past, several standard protocols weredeveloped with the promise that they woulddeliver system integration and interoperability.Those protocols included LonTalk, BACnet,and N2, the Johnson Controls standard. Eachhas strengths and weaknesses in terms of what itcan do, and they all will continue to delivervalue to building owners and operators far intothe future. But in the end, each one requiressignificant program-ming time and indi-vidually customizedsolutions to deliverthe true interoperabil-ity and information-sharing capabilities itpromises. When it comes tothe transparent sharing of information acrossnetworks with people or other computers, webelieve that a system based on a Web-servicesmodel provides the best future value to ourcustomers. That is because Web services arebuilt on the Internet technology and program-ming already in place throughout the informa-tion systems used by most enterprises daily.The Web gives millions of users immediateaccess to all sorts of information. The Web-services model does the same thing for compu-ter programming: It effects connectionsbetween applications and devices in a way that istransparent to the user. Web services allow two or more applicationsto share information and work cooperatively over the Internet, using a common languagecalled XML. Several companies provide toolsets for creating Web services: IBM with WebSphere, Sun Microsystems with Java (J2EE),and Microsoft with .Net. Johnson Controlschose to work with Microsoft and incorporatethe .Net framework into the Metasys platform..Net provides a tool set to help develop applica-tions that have Web services built into them, soyou do not have to understand all of the detailsof the code or physically write all of the code.It allows someone to come up to speed fairly quickly to develop applications with Web serv-ices built in.The key to delivering information across the Web to a distributed user interface is the ability to leverage a Web-based system as opposed to a Web-enabled system. The difference is in how the systems are constructed. Web-enabled refersto a system to which browser access was added. Web-based means that at its core, in the way thesystem is built, the Web is a central componentof how the system works and communicates. Web access is not an add-on. It is inherent tothe system’s design and operation.In a Web-enabled environment, you are stuck with a certain framework, and you cannot addor delete a lot of views or information. Youbasically view information through an interface,but are not able to take much action. With a Web-based system, you can view that informa-tion within a browser and also take action:respond and acknowledge alarms, commandpoints, and do tasks.This is a fundamen-tal difference betweenthe BAS of today andthe new systems weare developing. New capabilities allow auser to bring up multi-ple screens in a stan-dard browser. Differ-ent pieces of a screen can be detached withina browser framework, providing a better way to arrange information and maximize thescreen’s real estate. A Web-based system canprovide command and control capability forall points connected to the network, while a Web-enabled alternative is limited by the Web-page design and server capabilities. With a Web-based system, you do not have to load abunch of software to get access to your system. At the most, all you need is a plug-in to yourstandard browser, and away you go. With a Web-based system with a truly flexibleand complete distributed user interface, there isno need for dedicated workstations, except inthe most critical systems, where life-safety orvalidation requirements are best served by suchan implementation. In most cases, it is morecost-effective and user-friendly to just hop onthe Web and get the information you needanywhere anytime. When it comes to delivering answers—orsuggesting options, as in the chiller-bearing-replacement example earlier—this new technol-ogy drives facilities information straight to theheart of the enterprise. Perhaps a look at sometypical applications will help.If I run a hospital, does my facility impactmy mission of quality patient care? Yes! It has avisual impact for sure, but it also has an impact
Information must be easy to access,with a user interface tailored to the needsof the class or function of the user.
of 00
Building Digital Control Systems
Building Digital Control Systems
1,403 Reads
Info and Rating
| Category: | Uncategorized. |
| Rating: | |
| Upload Date: | 03/16/2008 |
| Copyright: | Attribution Non-commercial |
| Tags: |
Leave a Comment
Thnx for this admirable upload, We really need this book :)