Building management system that determines building utilization

• US 10,298,411 B2
• Filed: 10/24/2016
• Issued: 05/21/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 10/24/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Crestron Electronics Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Crestron Electronics Incorporated
• Inventors: Donlan, Brian, Jackson, Daniel
• Primary Examiner(s): Hershley, Mark E
• Application Number:
  US15/332,241
• Publication Number:
  US 20180113897A1
• Time in Patent Office: 939 Days
• Field of Search: 707722
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2228 Indexing structures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24575 using context
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/248 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/285 Clustering or classification
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2803 Home automation networks

Abstract

A building management system that determines space utilization in a building. The building management system comprises room utilization sensors, such as occupancy sensors, a gateway that gathers raw occupancy data records from the occupancy sensors, and at least one processor. Each raw occupancy data record comprises an occupancy state associated with a timestamp. The processor is configured for normalizing the raw occupancy data records into normalized occupancy data records each comprising a time segment and an occupancy state indicating whether for a given time segment a room is occupied. The processor is further configured for structuring the normalized occupancy data records by associating each normalized occupancy data record with a space node corresponding to a room in the building from where the raw occupancy data record was collected and associating each space node with a set of tags, each tag defining a single state from a plurality of states. The processor may further receive a selection of a tag from a user interface, split the normalized occupancy data records along the selected tag'"'"'s states into sets of normalized occupancy data records, for each split set of occupancy data records, calculate at least one occupancy rate, and display a visualization of space utilization of the building comprising a comparison of the occupancy rates of the selected tag'"'"'s states.

Claims

1. A building management system that determines space utilization in a building comprising:

a plurality of room utilization sensors including occupancy sensors each configured for detecting an occupancy state in a room in a building;

one or more gateways configured for gathering raw occupancy data records from the occupancy sensors and storing the raw occupancy data records on a raw data database, wherein each raw occupancy data record comprises an occupancy state associated with a timestamp;

at least one processor comprising a memory encoding one or more processor executable instructions, which when executed by the at least one processor, cause acts to be performed comprising;

retrieving the raw occupancy data records from the raw data database;

normalizing the raw occupancy data records into normalized occupancy data records, wherein each normalized occupancy data record comprises a time segment and an occupancy state indicating whether for a given time segment a room is occupied;

structuring the normalized occupancy data records by associating each normalized occupancy data record with a space node corresponding to a room in the building from where the raw occupancy data record was collected;

associating each space node with a set of tags, each tag defining a single state from a plurality of states;

receiving a selection of a tag from a user interface;

splitting the normalized occupancy data records along the selected tag'"'"'s states into sets of normalized occupancy data records;

for each split set of occupancy data records, calculating at least one occupancy rate; and

displaying a visualization of space utilization of the building comprising a comparison of the occupancy rates of the selected tag'"'"'s states.

2. The building management system of claim 1, wherein each space node is organized in a tree topology with a building node as the root and individual space nodes as children.

3. The building management system of claim 1, wherein the occupancy rates comprise averages of the split sets of occupancy data records, wherein the visualization of space utilization of the building comprises a bar graph comprising bars that compare the occupancy rates.

4. The building management system of claim 3, wherein the processor is further configured for:

receiving a selection of a first bar from the user interface corresponding to a first set of normalized occupancy data records;

receiving a selection of a second tag from the user interface;

further splitting the first set of normalized occupancy data records along the selected second tag'"'"'s states into subsets of normalized occupancy data records;

for each split subset of occupancy data records, calculating at least one second occupancy rate; and

displaying a second visualization of space utilization of the building comprising a comparison of the second occupancy rates of the selected second tag'"'"'s states.

5. The building management system of claim 1, wherein the occupancy rates comprise changes of averages of the split sets of occupancy data records across time segments, wherein the visualization of space utilization of the building comprises a line graph comprising lines that compare the occupancy rates over time.

6. The building management system of claim 5, wherein the processor is further configured for:

receiving a selection of a first line from the user interface corresponding to a first set of normalized occupancy data records;

receiving a selection of a second tag from the user interface;

further splitting the first set of normalized occupancy data records along the selected second tag'"'"'s states into subsets of normalized occupancy data records;

for each split subset of occupancy data records, calculating at least one second occupancy rate; and

displaying a second visualization of space utilization of the building comprising a comparison of the second occupancy rates of the selected second tag'"'"'s states.

7. The building management system of claim 1, wherein the raw occupancy data records are normalized by determining for each given time segment whether a total amount of time a room was occupied during the given time segment exceeds a predetermined minimum occupancy threshold value.

8. The building management system of claim 1, wherein, for each given time segment and for each given space node, the raw occupancy data records are normalized by:

creating a normalized occupancy data record for the given time segment and given space node;

retrieving raw occupancy data records associated with the given space node with timestamps falling between a start time and an end time of the given time segment;

retrieving a last occupancy data record associated with the given space node from a previous time segment;

determining time intervals during which occupancy states of the retrieved raw occupancy data records indicated that a room associated with the given space node was occupied during the given time segment;

adding the time intervals to determine the total time the room was occupied;

determining whether the total time exceeds a minimum occupancy threshold;

when the total time exceeds the minimum occupancy threshold, setting an occupancy state of the created normalized occupancy data record as occupied; and

when the total time does not exceed the minimum occupancy threshold, setting the occupancy state of the normalized occupancy data record for the given time segment and given space node as vacant.

9. The building management system of claim 1, wherein the set of tags comprise at least of a room name tag, a campus tag, a location tag, a building name tag, a floor tag, a department tag, a team tag, a room capacity tag, a room access level tag, an available resource tag, and a purpose tag.

10. The building management system of claim 1, wherein the set of tags comprise a department tag comprising department states each identifying a department.

11. The building management system of claim 1, wherein the set of tags comprise a capacity tag comprising capacity states each identifying a maximum room capacity.

12. The building management system of claim 1, wherein the set of tags comprise an access level tag comprising access level states each identifying employee access level to a room.

13. The building management system of claim 1, wherein the set of tags comprise a purpose tag comprising purpose states each identifying a type of meeting that can be held in a room.

14. The building management system of claim 13, wherein the purpose states comprise at least one of a presentation room state, an audioconference codec room state, and a videoconference codec room state.

15. The building management system of claim 1, wherein the processor may further display a building overview gauge comprising:

a bar comprising an ideal measurement area, an acceptable measurement area, and an unwanted measurement area;

a meter that shows on the bar an average occupancy rate of the entire building;

a minimum arrow that shows a minimum average occupancy rate of a space node; and

a maximum arrow that shows a maximum average occupancy rate of a space node.

16. The building management system of claim 15, wherein the bar comprises a ring user interface element.

17. The building management system of claim 1, wherein the visualization of space utilization further comprises a break down bar including names of one or more of the set of tags for selection by a user.

18. The building management system of claim 1, wherein the processor comprises an alerts engine configured for issuing alerts when calculated occupancy rates exceed a minimum value or a maximum value.

19. The building management system of claim 1, wherein the room utilization sensors further comprise people count sensors each configured for counting people in a room;

wherein the one or more gateways are further configured for gathering raw people count data records from the plurality of people count sensors and storing the raw people count data records on the raw data database, wherein each raw people count data record comprises a people count associated with a timestamp; and

wherein the at least one processor is further configured for;

retrieving raw people count data records from the raw data database;

normalizing the raw people count data records into normalized people count data records, wherein each normalized people count data record comprises a time segment and a people count indicating the number of people present in a room during a given time segment;

structuring the normalized people count data records by associating each normalized people count data record with a space node corresponding to a room in the building from where the raw people count data record was collected;

receiving a selection of a tag from the user interface;

splitting the normalized people count data records along the selected tag'"'"'s states into sets of normalized people count data records; and

for each split set of normalized people count data records, calculating at least one people count rate.

20. The building management system of claim 19, wherein the raw people count data records are normalized by determining a peak number of people that were present in a room for a predetermined minimum amount of time during a given time segment.

21. The building management system of claim 19, wherein, for each given time segment and for each given space node, the raw people count data records are normalized by:

(a) creating a normalized people count data record for the given time segment and given space node;

(b) retrieving raw people count data records associated with the given space node with timestamps falling between a start time and an end time of the given time segment;

(c) retrieving a last people count data record associated with the given space node from a previous time segment;

(d) comparing people counts of the retrieved raw people count data records and determining a peak people count indicating a peak number of people that were present in the room during the given time segment;

(e) determining a time interval during which the people counts of the retrieved raw people count data records were equal to or exceeding the peak people count;

(f) determining whether the time interval exceeds a minimum count threshold;

(g) when the time interval exceeds the minimum count threshold, setting a people count of the created normalized people count record to the peak people count; and

(h) when the time interval does not exceed the minimum count threshold;

i. decrementing the peak people count by one;

ii. when the decremented peak count is not larger than zero, setting the people count of the created normalized people count record to zero;

iii. when the decremented peak count is larger than zero, repeating steps (e) through (h).

22. The building management system of claim 1, further comprises:

a plurality of electronic devices installed in the rooms of the building;

a calendar server;

wherein the at least one processor is further configured for;

receiving raw device usage data records from the plurality of electronic devices, wherein each device usage record comprises device usage state associated with a timestamp;

retrieving room scheduling data records from the calendar server;

normalizing the raw device usage data records into normalized device usage data records, wherein each normalized device usage data record comprises a time segment and a device usage state indicating whether an electronic device was used during a time segment falling within a scheduled meeting;

structuring the normalized device usage data records by associating each device usage data record with a space node corresponding to a room in the building from where the raw device usage data was collected;

receiving a selection of a tag from the user interface;

splitting the normalized device usage data records along the selected tag'"'"'s states into sets of normalized device usage data records; and

for each split set of normalized people count data records, calculating at least one device usage rate.

23. The building management system of claim 22, wherein, for each given space node, the raw device usage data is normalized by:

retrieving a scheduled meeting from the calendar server comprising a start time and an end time;

retrieving device usage records with timestamps falling between the start time and end time of the scheduled meeting;

determining whether at least one device usage record has been recorded during the scheduled meeting;

when at least one device usage record has been recorded, for each time segment that falls between the start time and end time of the scheduled meeting, creating a normalized device usage data record and setting its device usage state to indicated that an electronic device has been used; and

when no device usage record has been recorded, for each time segment that falls between the start time and end time of the scheduled meeting, creating a normalized device usage data record and setting its device usage state to indicated that an electronic device has not been used.

24. A building management system that determines space utilization in a building comprising:

a plurality of room utilization sensors including occupancy sensors each configured for detecting an occupancy state in a room in a building;

one or more gateways configured for;

gathering raw occupancy data records from the occupancy sensors, wherein each raw occupancy data record comprises an occupancy state associated with a timestamp;

normalizing the raw occupancy data records into normalized occupancy data records, wherein each normalized occupancy data record comprises a time segment and an occupancy state indicating whether for a given time segment a room is occupied; and

storing the raw occupancy data records on a database;

at least one processor comprising a memory encoding one or more processor executable instructions, which when executed by the at least one processor, cause acts to be performed comprising;

retrieving the normalized occupancy data records from the database;

structuring the normalized occupancy data records by associating each normalized occupancy data record with a space node corresponding to a room in the building from where the raw occupancy data record was collected;

associating each space node with a set of tags, each tag defining a single state from a plurality of states;

receiving a selection of a tag from a user interface;

splitting the normalized occupancy data records along the selected tag'"'"'s states into sets of normalized occupancy data records;

for each split set of occupancy data records, calculating at least one occupancy rate; and

displaying a visualization of space utilization of the building comprising a comparison of the occupancy rates of the selected tag'"'"'s states.

25. A building management system that determines space utilization in a building comprising:

a plurality of room utilization sensors including people count sensors each configured for counting people in a room in a building;

one or more gateways configured for gathering raw people count data records from the plurality of people count sensors and storing the raw people count data records on the raw data database, wherein each raw people count data record comprises a people count associated with a timestamp,

at least one processor comprising a memory encoding one or more processor executable instructions, which when executed by the at least one processor, cause acts to be performed comprising;

retrieving raw people count data records from the raw data database;

normalizing the raw people count data records into normalized people count data records, wherein each normalized people count data record comprises a time segment and a people count indicating the number of people present in a room during a given time segment;

structuring the normalized people count data records by associating each normalized people count data record with a space node corresponding to a room in the building from where the raw people count data record was collected;

associating each space node with a set of tags, each tag defining a single state from a plurality of states;

receiving a selection of a tag from a user interface;

splitting the normalized people count data records along the selected tag'"'"'s states into sets of normalized people count data records;

for each split set of normalized people count data records, calculating at least one people count rate; and

displaying a visualization of space utilization of the building comprising a comparison of the people count rates of the selected tag'"'"'s states.