System and method for realizing a building system

• US 9,607,110 B2
• Filed: 03/19/2012
• Issued: 03/28/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 03/17/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Aditazz, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Aditazz, Inc.
• Inventors: Vercruysse, Ward A., Aatresh, Deepak J., Rubel, Zigmund
• Primary Examiner(s): Rivas, Omar Fernandez
• Assistant Examiner(s): MOLL, NITHYA JANAKIRAMAN
• Application Number:
  US13/424,233
• Publication Number:
  US 20120239353A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,835 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2111/02 CAD in a network environment, e.g. collaborative CAD or distributed simulation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2111/20 Configuration CAD, e.g. designing by assembling or positioning modules selected from libraries of predesigned modules
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 30/13 Architectural design, e.g. computer-aided architectural design [CAAD] related to design of buildings, bridges, landscapes, production plants or roads

Abstract

A system and method for realizing a building system is disclosed. In an embodiment, a holistic approach to a complex building system involves using high-productivity high-performance computing resources, such as cloud services, to manage a complex building system from building inception through to building operation. Because high-productivity high-performance computing resources are used, modeling, optimization, simulation, and verification can be performed from a single platform on a scale which heretofore has not been applied to complex building systems. Additionally, the holistic approach to complex building systems involves using a centralized database to manage all of the information related to a building system.

Claims

1. A computer based method for realizing a building system within which healthcare services will be provided to patients, the method comprising:

receiving input related to customer needs for a building system, which includes at least one building within which healthcare services will be provided to patients, the input being received through a user interface at a remote client device and being expressed in a formal description language;

generating multiple different business models from the customer needs input, wherein the business models define, in a functional language, types and volumes of healthcare services that will be provided within the at least one building of the building system to satisfy the customer needs, wherein generating multiple different business models comprises performing a computer based simulation operation that involves comparing people and process workflow patterns within the at least one building with space patterns within the at least one building to determine how the business models would perform in terms of at least one of patient wait times, machine utilization, number of staff required, staff utilization, space utilization, and energy efficiency, wherein the computer based simulation operation is performed utilizing a pre-defined set of physical building components that includes at least the dimensions of a deck component;

generating multiple different spatial arrangements from at least one of the business models, wherein the spatial arrangements define a form and shell of the building system, a block and stack of the building system, and room locations within the building system;

generating multiple different systems integration designs from at least one of the spatial arrangements, wherein the systems integration designs define three dimensional spaces of infrastructure of the building system;

tracking dependencies between the customer needs, the business models, the spatial arrangements, and the systems integration designs, wherein tracking dependencies between the customer needs, the business models, the spatial arrangements, and the systems integration designs comprises storing instance-specific data for the customer needs, for each of the multiple different business models, for each of the different spatial arrangements, and for each of the different system integrations, in a central database and in hierarchical order from the customer needs at the highest level to the business models to the spatial arrangements to the system integrations such that each system integration design tracks back to the customer needs via a corresponding spatial arrangement and a corresponding business model and propagating changes in the customer needs, the business models, and the spatial arrangements in hierarchical order.

2. The computer based method of claim 1 wherein central database is stored in a cloud service.

3. The computer based method of claim 1 further comprising distributing computational tasks of the computer based simulation operation over multiple different processors of a cloud service that includes a large scale processing system.

4. The computer based method of claim 3 wherein the computational tasks are performed by the large scale processing system according to a MapReduce framework.

5. The computer based method of claim 1 wherein the input related to customer needs includes a formal description of customer values.

6. The computer based method of claim 5 wherein the business models are generated from a library of business model design rules.

7. The computer based method of claim 6 further comprising computing behavioral simulations on the different business models using multiple different processors that are accessed in parallel via a cloud service that includes a large scale processing system.

8. The computer based method of claim 1 wherein the business models identify:

at least one of service lines and departments that are to be provided by the building system;

patient load on the building system; and

room and staff needs.

9. The computer based method of claim 8 wherein the business models identify service lines, and wherein the service lines include at least one of emergency care, well care, imaging, and laboratory.

10. The computer based method of claim 1 wherein each instance of the business models and the spatial arrangements is uniquely stored in the central database so that each instance can be independently accessed and modified.

11. A computer based method for realizing a building system within which healthcare services will be provided to patients, the method comprising:

receiving input related to customer needs for a building system, which includes at least one building within which healthcare services will be provided to patients, the input being received through a user interface at a remote client device and being expressed in a formal description language, the input including an indication of a location at which the building system is to be built;

generating at least one business model from the customer needs input, wherein the business model defines, in a functional language, types and volumes of healthcare services that will be provided within the at least one building of the building system;

simulating an aspect of the business model, wherein simulating an aspect of the business model comprises performing a computer based simulation operation that involves comparing people and process workflow patterns within the at least one building with space patterns within the at least one building to determine how the business model would perform in terms of at least one of patient wait times, machine utilization, number of staff required, staff utilization, space utilization, and energy efficiency, wherein the computer based simulation operation is performed utilizing a pre-defined set of physical building components that includes at least the dimensions of a deck component;

optimizing an aspect of the business model;

generating at least one spatial arrangement of the building system from the at least one business model, wherein the spatial arrangement of the building system defines a form and shell of the building system, a block and stack of the building system, and a placement of rooms of the building system; and

simulating an aspect of the spatial arrangement of the building system;

wherein computational tasks of the simulation and optimization operations are distributed over multiple different processors of a large scale processing system;

wherein;

simulating an aspect of the business model comprises using a pre-defined set of physical building components that includes at least the dimensions of a deck component;

optimizing an aspect of the business model comprises using the pre-defined set of physical building components that includes at least the dimensions of a deck component;

generating at least one spatial arrangement of the building system comprises using the pre-defined set of physical building components that includes at least the dimensions of a deck component; and

simulating an aspect of the spatial arrangement comprises using the pre-defined set of physical building components that includes at least the dimensions of a deck component;

tracking dependencies between the customer needs, the business model, and the spatial arrangement, wherein tracking dependencies between the customer needs, the business models, and the spatial arrangements comprises storing instance-specific data for the customer needs, for each of the multiple different business models, and for each of the different spatial arrangements in a central database and in hierarchical order from the customer needs at the highest level to the business models to the spatial arrangements such that each spatial arrangement tracks back to the customer needs via a corresponding business model and propagating changes in the customer needs, the business models, and the spatial arrangements in hierarchical order.

12. The computer based method of claim 11 wherein the computational tasks are performed by the large scale processing system according to a MapReduce framework.

13. A system comprising:

a large scale processing system having multiple different instruction processors;

a storage network, in communication with the large scale processing system, which stores computer readable instructions and data, which when processed by the large scale processing system implement a building realization platform;

the building realization platform being configured to;

receive input related to customer needs for a building system, which includes at least one building within which healthcare services will be provided to patients, the input being received through a user interface at a remote client device and being expressed in a formal description language, the input including an indication of a location at which the building system is to be built;

generate at least one business model from the customer needs input, wherein the business model defines, in a functional language, types and volumes of healthcare services that will be provided within the at least one building of the building system;

simulate an aspect of the business model, wherein simulating an aspect of the business model comprises performing a computer based simulation operation that involves comparing people and process workflow patterns within the at least one building with space patterns within the at least one building to determine how the business model would perform in terms of at least one of patient wait times, machine utilization, number of staff required, staff utilization, space utilization, and energy efficiency, wherein the computer based simulation operation is performed utilizing a pre-defined set of physical building components that includes at least the dimensions of a deck component;

optimize an aspect of the business model;

generate at least one spatial arrangement of the building system from the at least one business model, wherein the spatial arrangement of the building system defines a form and shell of the building system, a block and stack of the building system, and a placement of rooms of the building system; and

simulate an aspect of the spatial arrangement of the building system; and

track dependencies between the customer needs, the business model, and the spatial arrangement, wherein tracking dependencies between the customer needs, the business models, and the spatial arrangements comprises storing instance-specific data for the customer needs, for each of the multiple different business models, and for each of the different spatial arrangements in a central database and in hierarchical order from the customer needs at the highest level to the business models to the spatial arrangements such that each spatial arrangement tracks back to the customer needs via a corresponding business model and propagating changes in the customer needs, the business models, and the spatial arrangements in hierarchical order;

wherein computational tasks of the simulation and optimization operations are distributed over multiple different processors of the large scale processing system.

14. The system of claim 13 wherein the large scale processing system and the storage network are elements of a cloud service.

15. The system of claim 14 wherein the building realization platform is further configured to distribute the computational operations of simulation and optimization over multiple different processors of the large scale processing system using a MapReduce framework.

16. A system comprising:

a large scale processing system having multiple different instruction processors;

a storage network, in communication with the large scale processing system, which stores computer readable instructions and data, which when executed by the large scale processing system implement a building realization platform;

the building realization platform comprising;

a customer needs domain configured to store, in a formal description language, an indication of a location at which a building system, which includes at least one building within which healthcare services will be provided to patients, is to be built;

a business model domain configured to store information that specifies types and volumes of healthcare services to be provided within the at least one building of the building system in response to criteria from the customer needs domain, wherein generating multiple different business models comprises performing a computer based simulation operation that involves comparing people and process workflow patterns within the at least one building with space patterns within the at least one building to determine how the business models would perform in terms of at least one of patient wait times, machine utilization, number of staff required, staff utilization, space utilization, and energy efficiency, wherein the computer based simulation operation is performed utilizing a pre-defined set of physical building components that includes at least the dimensions of a deck component;

a spatial arrangement domain configured to generate and store at least one spatial arrangement of the building system in response to criteria from the business model domain, wherein the spatial arrangement of the building system defines a form and shell of the building system, a block and stack of the building system, and a placement of rooms of the building system;

a systems integration domain configured to generate and store at least one systems integration design in response to criteria from the spatial arrangement domain, wherein the systems integration design defines three dimensional spaces of infrastructure of the building;

a fabrication domain that generates a list of building components that are required to build the building system as specified in the systems integration design; and

an operation domain configured to generate and store a virtual model of the building system in response to information from the customer needs domain, the business model domain, the spatial arrangement domain, and the systems integration domain, and further configured to model, simulate, or optimize an operational parameter of a built version of the building system.

17. The system of claim 16 further comprising tracking dependencies between the customer needs, the business model, and the spatial arrangement.

18. The system of claim 17 wherein the business model domain and the spatial arrangement domain are configured to perform at least one of a computer based simulation operation and a computer based optimization operation.

19. The system of claim 18 wherein the computational tasks of the simulation and optimization operations are distributed over multiple different processors of the large scale processing system.

20. The system of claim 19 wherein the computational tasks of the simulation and optimization operations are performed in parallel according to a MapReduce framework.