CRI:II-New: The Living Link Lab: Infrastructure for Enhancing Occupant Experience and Building Operations

最近的研究表明，智能建筑应用在优化建筑效率和居住者舒适度方面具有巨大潜力。然而，这些应用程序通常是以建筑为中心的，并且对居住者和建筑环境之间的交互的正式描述有限。该研究基础设施创建了一个名为“Living Link-Lab”的新传感测试平台，该测试平台将弗吉尼亚大学（UVA）网络物理系统实验室（约17，000平方英尺）转变为人类建筑交互数据收集和实验的测试平台。通过基于居住者的可穿戴设备、交互式移动的机器人和全面的环境传感器，该研究基础设施捕获了人类与建筑物交互中的多个可变性维度，从而实现了以居住者为中心的新建筑控制技术。这些技术在试验台上原型化，然后转化到其他建筑中，以增强居住者的体验。研究基础设施将使长期的居住者行为，认知和互动在一个大的协作环境中的原位研究，它将支持来自不同背景的研究人员（例如，工程学、心理学、建筑学和医学）探索人类建筑技术前沿。这种独特的传感测试平台提供了有关环境变化、居住者行为和能源消耗的完整实时信息。该项目支持研究新技术，用于（i）增强居住者体验，（ii）能源监测，（iii）机器人移动的传感，（iv）隐私保护传感，（v）优化物联网（IoT）网络和传感器，以及（vi）人类自主协作。该测试平台还生成了一个全面的数据集，使来自各种背景的研究人员能够在新的主题上进行合作。应用驱动的成果鼓励学生通过展示研究的现实影响潜力来追求计算研究的职业道路。此外，该测试平台还加强了智能办公空间的教育，并导致正在设计的新课程利用物理测试平台和由此产生的数据流。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Recent studies have demonstrated the great potential of smart building applications to optimize building efficiency and occupant comfort. However, these applications are often building-centric and there are limited formal characterizations of the interactions between occupants and built environments. This research infrastructure creates a new sensing testbed called the "Living Link-Lab" that transforms the University of Virginia (UVA) Cyber-Physical Systems laboratory (approximately 17,000 square feet) into a testbed for human-building interaction data collection and experimentation. With occupant-based wearables, interactive mobile robots, and comprehensive environmental sensors, this research infrastructure captures several dimensions of variability in human-building interactions, enabling new occupant-focused building control techniques. These techniques are prototyped on the testbed and then translated to other buildings to enhance occupant experience. The research infrastructure will enable long-term in-situ studies of occupant behavior, cognition, and interactions in a large collaborative environment, and it will support researchers from various backgrounds (e.g., engineering, psychology, architecture, and medicine) in exploring the human-building technology frontier. This unique sensing testbed provides a complete, real-time information about environmental changes, occupant behavior, and energy consumption. The project enables research on novel techniques for (i) enhancing occupant experience, (ii) energy monitoring, (iii) robotic mobile sensing, (iv) privacy-preserving sensing, (v) optimized Internet of Things (IoT) networks and sensors, and (vi) human-autonomy collaboration. The testbed also generates a comprehensive dataset that enables researchers from a range of backgrounds to collaborate on novel topics. The application-driven outcomes encourage students to pursue a computing research career path by demonstrating the real-world impact potential of the research. Additionally, the testbed enhances education on smart office spaces and leads to new courses being designed that leverage the physical testbeds and resulting data streams.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.