Wireless Occupancy Detection to Improve Building Energy Efficiency

1336824 (Fu)。在美国，建筑是最大的能源消耗者，因此，建造绿色建筑对国家有很大的帮助。我们迫切需要提高能源效率和可持续性。该项目的目的是检测和估计建筑物中的居住者数量，以控制建筑能耗系统，从而提高能源效率。传统的占用传感器检测占用者的存在，其中一个人被视为一群人。对于照明等建筑控制，这些基于存在的方法就足够了。然而，控制措施，如通风、供暖和制冷，可能会根据房间内居住者的人数而有很大的波动。与传统传感器通过运动或体温来探测居住者的实际存在不同，研究人员建议通过感应现有的手机通信来探测居住者的存在。最近发表的一项研究报告称，99%的人携带手机，甚至闲置的手机也经常与手机信号塔通信。通过感应建筑物内的手机信号，调查人员提出，可以准确地确定手机（及其携带者）的数量和位置。然后，占用数据将提供给楼宇自动化系统，通过相应地调整不同的楼宇系统（通风、供暖/制冷等）来提高能源效率。本研究包括三个目标：基于蜂窝通信的乘员跟踪、基于节能控制策略的随机乘员分析和预测，以及在真实建筑中的原型测试。在第一个目标中，调查人员将使用多个移动电话控制通道交通传感器来识别每个乘客的位置。该项目的第二个目标侧重于蜂窝信号数据的数据融合和分析。调查人员将开发算法，根据频谱传感网络确定乘员人数和位置。有了入住率跟踪数据，研究人员将开发测试建筑入住率的随机模型。这些模型将用于预测该项目下一阶段的入住率。在最后一个目标中，研究人员旨在实施新的控制策略，利用综合占用数据来提高建筑控制系统的效率。与大学大楼管理部门合作，将在十座校园大楼进行实验，以实施所提出的方法。该系统的成功将提高建筑的可持续性，并有可能通过提供实时占用数据来改变建筑设计和运营领域。此外，拟议的非侵入式占用检测系统可能会在安全、救援工作（寻找受害者）和老年人护理（在养老院跟踪居民）等领域得到应用。这些项目将把不同方面的研究成果纳入香港大学的电气/计算机和土木工程课程（无线通信系统和绿色建筑设计），以及可持续发展双专业。来自不同背景的学生将作为一个团队工作，并接触到不同的跨学科研究课题。

1336824 (Fu). Buildings are the largest consumers of energy in the United States and, therefore, creating green buildings can significantly aid the country?s pressing need to enhance energy efficiency and sustainability. The objective of this project is to detect and estimate the number of occupants in buildings to control building energy-consuming systems and thereby increase energy efficiency. Conventional occupancy sensors detect the presence of occupants, where a single person is treated equally as a group of people. For building controls such as lighting, these presence-based methods are sufficient. However, controls, such as ventilation, heating and cooling, may fluctuate considerably depending on the number of occupants in a room. Instead of detecting the physical presence of occupants from movements or body heat as in conventional sensors, the investigators propose to detect occupancy by sensing existing cellphone communications. A recently published study reported that 99% of individuals carry cellphones and even idle cellphones communicate routinely with cell towers. By sensing cellphone signals inside buildings, the investigators propose that the number and locations of cellphones (and their human carriers) can be accurately determined. The occupancy data will then be provided to building automation systems to improve energy efficiency by adjusting different building systems (ventilation, heating/cooling, etc.) accordingly. This research includes three objectives: cellular communication-based occupant tracking, analysis and prediction of stochastic occupancy for energy efficient control strategies, and prototype testing in real buildings. In the first objective, the investigators will use multiple cellular phone control-channel traffic sensors to identify the position of each occupant. The second objective of the project focuses on data fusion and analysis of the cellular signal data. The investigators will develop algorithms that determine the number of occupants and position based upon the spectrum-sensing network. With occupancy tracking data, the investigators will develop stochastic models of occupancy in test buildings. Such models will be used to predicate occupancy levels for the following phase of this project. In the last objective, the investigators aim to implement new control strategies that leverage the comprehensive occupancy data to improve efficiency in building control systems. Experiments will be conducted in ten campus buildings to implement the proposed methods in collaboration with university building management. The success of the proposed system will improve building sustainability and potentially change the fields of building design and operations by providing real-time occupancy data. Moreover, the proposed non-intrusive occupancy detection system may find use in areas such as security, rescue efforts (locating victims) and elderly care (resident tracking in nursing homes). The PIs will incorporate different aspects of the research into Electrical/Computer and Civil Engineering courses (Wireless Communication System and Green Building Design) as well as the Dual Major in Sustainability at UNH. Students from different backgrounds will work as a team and be exposed to diverse, interdisciplinary research topics.