SPACE MANAGEMENT IN SMART ROOM

Mariana FRATU, Aurel FRATU

Transilvania University of Brasov, Romania

Abstract. Seeking to be sensitive to users, smart home researchers have focused on the concept of control. They
attempt to allow occupants to gain control over their lives. Home owners and occupants want more control of their lives.
The study of Intelligent Home is now a common topic worldwide. In current quest for modernization designers need
that the building owner receives the best product possible. Everyday, building designers face exciting new challenges in
incorporating new and innovative technologies in designing an efficient integrated intelligent building in areas of the
building structure and its mechanical and electrical systems. The innovative technologies would need to ensure that the
end users achieve the utilization of its abilities in optimization of there home space. This paper is focused on the various
functions available in Room Automation System (BAS) and the benefits in having such functions.

Keywords: smart room, smart house, intelligent building

1. Introduction behaviours of people, and pervasive computing

People spend more time in their homes than in technologies.
any other space. The home ideally provides a safe, A smart home appears "intelligent" because its
comfortable environment in which to relax, computer systems can monitor so many aspects of
communicate, learn, and be entertained. daily living; with just a single touch the lights dim,
Increasingly, it is where people connect with the shades close, the plasma TV turns on and your
friends and family, conduct business, manage favourite movie begins; to adjust drapes, lights,
resources, learn about the world, and maintain temperature, and audio/video components; total
health and autonomy as they age. People invest control is always at our fingertips.
extraordinary amounts of time, money, and However, smart home technology is real, and
emotional energy to mould their homes into living it's becoming increasingly sophisticated. Coded
spaces that meet their needs. signals are sent through the home's wiring to
Unfortunately, homes today are ill-suited to switches and outlets that are programmed to operate
exploiting the pervasive computing applications appliances and electronic devices in every part of
being developed in laboratories. Most homes do not the house.
easily accommodate even the simplest new One way to reduce resource consumption is to
technologies, let alone embedded sensor design a home environment that controls
infrastructures and ubiquitous display technologies. environmental conditions. The home’s occupant
Moreover, homeowners generally believe that informs the system via some type of user interface
computer devices make life more complex and that he or she wishes to stay comfortable while
frustrating rather than easier and more relaxing. saving as much energy or money as possible. The
They are wary of the aesthetic, financial, and home then uses a set of optimization algorithms to
cognitive challenges of bringing new technologies simultaneously maximize savings and comfort by
into their homes. A smart house is a house that has automatically controlling the systems.
highly advanced automatic systems for lighting, Home automation can be especially useful for
temperature control, multi-media, security, window elderly and disabled persons who wish to live
and door operations, and many other automation independently. In order for smart homes to achieve
functions. Researchers are investigating how the their promise of significantly improving the lives of
home and its related technologies, products, and families through socially appropriate and timely
services should evolve to better meet the assistance, they will need to sense, anticipate and
opportunities and challenges of the future. respond to activities in the home.
Now, new tools are required to study An important goal of smart home research then
technology in the context of home life that will becomes how to appropriately expand system
support qualitative and quantitative studies capabilities to produce more control – both
investigating the relationships between spaces, the perceived and actual.

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The definitions of an intelligent building can be services as they might see fit [5], even inventing
systemically classified by the information and new services [6].
control services that serve the needs and
expectations of the occupants. The specially 3. Intelligent Building
designed controlling software and actual electronic An intelligent building must performs three
hardware and devices installed within the structure conditions. They are:
that manipulate the telecommunications and The building should have advanced automatic
building automation functions are necessary to control system to monitor various facilities,
create such a facility. Thus, the study of Intelligent including air-conditioning, temperature, lighting,
Building is now a common topic worldwide. security, fire etc. to provide a comfortable
In our current quest for modernization in this working environment for the tenants.
particular scope, there are two areas which deserve The building should have good networking
added attention, both from the research and infrastructure to enable data flow between floors
professional communities. Designers need to ensure The building should provide adequate
that the building owner receives the best product telecommunication facilities.
possible. Hence, everyday, building designers face An intelligent building must be smart enough to
exciting new challenges in incorporating new and vary the environment and also to provide various
innovative technologies in designing an efficient means of communication or network regardless of
integrated intelligent building in areas of the whether it is internal or external.
building structure and its mechanical and electrical Room intelligence starts with monitoring and
systems. controlling information services known as Room
The innovative technologies would need to Automation System (RAS). RAS is able to optimize
ensure that the end users achieve the utilization of environmental and safety aspects in an economical
its abilities in the home space optimization. way. This can be achieved by using computers,
together with function distribution control
2. Related works techniques, to optimize the usage of various pieces
In [1] paper is evaluated the intelligence of the of equipment within the building such as the
home according to the level of systems integration. electrical facilities, the air-conditioning systems,
In this paper, a home (building} is considered an fire-prevention equipments and security devices.
intelligent one only when it is able to provide an Intelligent building, with the use of automated
environment and the means to optimal utilization of control system such as BAS, enables both building
the building according to its designation. In order to owners and occupants enjoy the benefits of
achieve an intelligent building, various building financial gain and enhanced accommodation
systems, example lighting system, air-conditioning /management quality.
system, communication system and others, are
required to equip in the building. 4. Room Automation System (RAS)
These systems must able to integrate among the A room is the entity into which buildings are
systems and between the systems and building structured and used. Buildings are regarded as a
structures in order to function well in the building. collection of rooms. All analysis on smart house is
Therefore all these systems’ integration has to be done in the context of a particular room. The overall
properly planned from the initial design stage of the goal of the RAS is to satisfy the inhabitants of the
building. building. This is achieved with changing certain
One approach views the problem of smart aspects of the room accessible volume, before a
home control in terms of end-user programming. human inhabitant needs to manually instruct the
These end-user programming systems explore building to do so.
various interfaces to provide end-users control of Traditionally every room in a building serves a
home devices, including natural language [2], visual certain purpose and is thus dealt with differently by
programming [3], programming by demonstration the occupants using it. To reflect this in this paper
[8] etc. the main logical concept on which the architecture
The end-user programming approach has of Room Automation System (RAS) is based, is a
several benefits. It provides users control over an room (Figure 1). The authors are designing and
unpredictable amalgamation of interoperating building virtual prototypes, demonstrating how to
devices [4], and allows users to customize create environments that need people.

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Data Acquisition (SCADA) software along with
the necessary drivers to interface to the
controllers for monitoring and control.

4.1. Intelligent Feature

When occupants in the room increase, the RAS
(Figure 1) will sense the increase in the room
volume. RAS will then open the trapper to allow to
the bed disappears. More volume is accessible in
the room, thus this will cause a good space manage
(Figure 2).

Fig. 1. Smart room - Configuration hall

All sensory input values are regarded as being

related to one single room. This is also valid for
decisions taken by the system.
Room Automation System (RAS) comprises of
electronic equipment that automatically performs
specific facility functions. The commonly accepted
definition of a RAS includes the comprehensive
automatic control of one or more major building
system functions required in a facility, such as
heating, ventilating, and air conditioning system,
lighting, power, lifts, security and more. In short,
RAS is to integrate the traditionally separate
functions under one common operation. Fig. 2. Smart room -Configuration bedroom
RAS includes a collection of sensors that
determine the condition or status of parameters to In order to maintain the static state of the bed,
be controlled, such as temperature, relative the RAS activates in the sense to fix them to the
humidity, and pressure. Similarly, output devices desire position. Daytime the bed is trapped in the
impart electronic signals or physical action to background of the room.
control the devices. Examples include electric During this operation outside trappers are
relays or damper and valve actuators. opened but the bed is closed and key ’the bed’’ will
Building Automation Network (RAS LAN) be command to “on” position. This operation is
provides the lowest level network structure normally scheduled after occupant sleep hour.
interconnecting various LAN Controllers for
electrical system. All LAN controllers are 4.2. Control and operation
connected directly on to the RAS LAN. Once Every room is provided with selector switch for
configured, controllers operate autonomously with selecting either Manual or RAS operating mode.
no interaction required from other system. All the Under RAS mode, the selector switch will operate
control application modules (power failure, auto according to the time schedule. Under Manual
restart time schedules, optimal start stop, etc) are mode, RAS controls are disabled but monitoring
resident in LAN controller memory for individual functions will be retained.
operation. When manual mode is selected, key ’the bed’’
The Room Automation System (RAS) is an will show “pushed”. When RAS mode is selected,
important part of the overall Intelligent Room key ’The bed’’ will show “not pushed”. In order to
Management System (IRMS) [7]. It not only shows control the AHU from the control panel, the switch
the energy consumed in the building, it also mode of the equipment must be at RAS. Figure 3
provides monitoring and controlling functions of all shows the manual switch mode indication.
the building services within the building. The RAS The user can also manually control, any
Workstation is loaded with Supervisory Control and furniture piece in the room by the selecting of the

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corresponding key (Figure 3). This will allow user The authors aim to create design strategies for
manual control by activating the selector switch to more flexible environments that better meet
do the task that the user wants. Normally manual occupants’ physical and cognitive needs than
control is depending on the user requirement and is current environments.
needed when an error or fault occurs in RAS. The authors present a prototype application that
illustrates how users can create their own smart
home functions on a handheld device. This concept
emphasizes the user’s individual and unique
lifestyle by letting him define his own criteria.
This approach lets the user stay in control of
the technology and thereby prevents the user from
not using the application due to irrelevance.
It is our belief that this type of context-aware
applications will, in many environments, be
preferred over the more autonomous ones, which, in
their effort to work smooth and transparent, leaves
little free choice to the users.
The Smart Home may become newest room
Fig. 3. Switch Mode for BAS and Manual study and coolest dormitory on campus. From an
idea to a reality is a long way.
A multifunctional room in a building serves a
multiple tasks such seating and sleeping and is thus References
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