Dynamic environmental management

• US 7,676,280 B1
• Filed: 04/30/2007
• Issued: 03/09/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 01/29/2007
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP (Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Company)
• Original Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: Navas, William J., Sotomayor, Maniel, Felix, Carlos J., Bash, Cullen E.
• Primary Examiner(s): VON BUHR, MARIA N
• Application Number:
  US11/796,943
• Time in Patent Office: 1,044 Days
• Field of Search: 700 1- 3, 700/9, 700/17, 700276-278, 700/299, 700/300
• US Class Current: 700/17
• CPC Class Codes: H05K 7/20836 Thermal management, e.g. server temperature control

Abstract

A system is described herein for providing environmental management of a physical location using a sensor network having a plurality of environmental sensors and at least one primary actuator configured to provide an environmental change to the physical location. The system includes a communications module that operates to access the plurality of environmental sensors of the sensor network, and an application module that operates to: a) commission the plurality of environmental sensors of the sensor network; control an operation of the at least one primary actuator to provide environmental management of the physical location based on the commission of the plurality of environmental sensors of the sensor network; and c) provide a graphical layout of an environmental condition of the physical location based on both the commission of the plurality of environmental sensors and the control of the at least one primary actuator.

Claims

1. A computer readable storage medium on which is embedded one or more computer programs, said one or more computer programs being configured as an environmental management architecture for providing environmental management of a physical location using a sensor network having a plurality of environmental sensors and at least one primary actuator configured to provide an environmental change to the physical location, the one or more computer programs comprising:

a communications module that operates to access the plurality of environmental sensors of the sensor network; and

an application module that operates to;

a) commission the plurality of environmental sensors of the sensor network and receive detected conditions from the plurality of environmental sensors;

b) control an operation of the at least one primary actuator to provide environmental management of the physical location based on the commission and detected conditions of the plurality of environmental sensors of the sensor network; and

c) provide a graphical layout of an environmental condition of the physical location based on the commissioning and detected conditions of the plurality of environmental sensors and the control of the at least one primary actuator, wherein the graphical layout graphically depicts a mapping of at least one of the detected conditions and values derived from the detected conditions with respect to objects contained in the physical location;

wherein the environmental management architecture at least one of resides and operates on top of an operating system of a computing device and network services on which the computing device is connected.

2. The computer readable storage medium of claim 1, said one or more computer programs further comprising:

an aggregation module that stores data generated by the sensor network and the application module.

3. The computer readable storage medium of claim 2, wherein the application module includes:

a data logger sub-module that operates to log the data generated by the sensor network and the application module in the aggregation module for storage.

4. The computer readable storage medium of claim 1, said one or more computer programs further comprising:

an aggregation module that operates to provide an interface for data exchange between the communications module and the application module.

5. The computer readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the communications module includes at least one of:

a communication driver that implements an object-linking-and-embedding-for-process-control (OPC) client to gain access to the plurality of sensors of the sensor network;

a communication driver that operates to receive multicasts as transmitted from the plurality of environmental sensors of the sensor network; and

a communication driver that operates to directly communicate with each of the plurality of environment sensors of the sensor network.

6. The computer readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the plurality of environmental sensors of the sensor network are temperature sensors arranged throughout the physical location.

7. The computer readable storage medium of claim 1, said one or more programs further comprising:

a graphical user interface (GUI) module that operates to display the graphical layout of the environmental condition of the physical location.

8. The computer readable storage medium of claim 7, wherein the GUI module includes a capability to display a simplified version of the graphical layout on wireless devices.

9. The computer readable storage medium of claim 1, further comprising:

a graphical user interface (GUI) module that operates to receive a user input of at least one of a parameter for modifying the operational control of the at least one primary actuator, a parameter for the commission of the plurality of environmental sensors of the sensor network, and an equipment layout at the physical location.

10. The computer readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the application module further comprises:

a notification module that operates to monitor one or more conditions of the system and to generate a notification upon the system achieving a predefined condition.

11. The computer readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the at least one primary actuator comprises secondary actuators, the secondary actuators include a device for controlling supply airflow volume and a device for controlling supply airflow temperature.

12. A method for implementing an environmental management architecture for providing environmental management of a physical location using a sensor network having a plurality of environmental sensors and at least one primary actuator configured to provide an environmental change to the physical location, wherein the environmental management architecture at least one of resides and operates on top of an operating system of a computing device and network services on which the computing device is connected, the method comprising steps performed by a processor of the computing device of:

accessing the plurality of environmental sensors of the sensor network with at least one communication driver to receive detected sensor data;

commissioning the plurality of environmental sensors of the sensor network based on the sensor data from the accessing;

controlling an operation of the at least one primary actuator to provide environmental management of the physical location based on the commissioning; and

generating a display of a graphical layout of an environmental condition of the physical location based on the commissioning, the detected sensor data, and the controlling, wherein the graphical layout graphically depicts a mapping of at least one of the detected sensor data and values derived from the detected sensor data with respect to objects contained in the physical location.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

storing data generated by the sensor network and the application module in an aggregation module.

14. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

monitoring one or more conditions of the system and to generate a notification upon the system achieving a predefined condition.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein commissioning the plurality of environmental sensors of the sensor network based on the reading of sensor data comprises:

calculating a correlation index from the read sensor data, wherein the correlation index provides a relationship between one of the plurality of environmental sensors and the at least one primary actuator; and

assigning the one environmental sensor to one of a plurality of actuator families of the at least one primary actuator.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein controlling an operation of the at least one primary actuator comprises:

selecting one of a plurality of control schemes for operating the at least one primary actuator based on the commissioning and one or more predefined criteria;

implementing the selected one of the plurality of control schemes to operate the at least one primary actuator to vary the environmental condition of the physical location.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein generating a display of a graphical layout of the environmental condition of the physical location comprises:

modeling the environmental condition of the physical location based on the sensor data received from the accessing;

extracting environmental condition data of the physical location from the modeling; and

calculating the graphical layout of the environmental condition of the physical location from the environmental condition data.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the at least one primary actuator comprises secondary actuators, the secondary actuators include a device for controlling supply airflow volume and a device for controlling supply airflow temperature, and the plurality of control schemes include a scheme for controlling the secondary actuators.

19. A computer-readable storage medium on which is encoded programming code for an environmental management architecture for providing environmental management of a physical location using a sensor network having a plurality of environmental sensors and at least one primary actuator configured to provide an environmental change to the physical location, wherein the environmental management architecture at least one of resides and operates on top of an operating system of a computing device and network services on which the computing device is connected, said programming code including a set of instructions that when executed by a computer operates to:

access the plurality of environmental sensors of the sensor network with at least one communication driver to receive detected sensor data;

commissioning the plurality of environmental sensors of the sensor network based on the sensor data from the accessing;

control an operation of the at least one primary actuator to provide environmental management of the physical location based on the commissioning; and

generating a display of a graphical layout of an environmental condition of the physical location based on the commissioning, the detected sensor data, and the controlling, wherein the graphical layout graphically depicts a mapping of at least one of the detected sensor data and values derived from the detected sensor data with respect to objects contained in the physical location.

20. The computer-readable medium of claim 19, wherein the encoded programming code when executed by the computer further operates to:

monitor one or more conditions of the system and to generate a notification upon a system achieving a predefined condition.