An approach for more efficient energy consumption based on real-time situational awareness

Abstract

In this paper we present a novel approach for achieving energy efficiency in public buildings (especially sensor-enabled offices) based on the application of intelligent complex event processing and semantic technologies. In the nutshell of the approach is an efficient method for realizing the real-time situational awareness that helps in recognizing the situations where a more efficient energy consumption is possible and reaction on those opportunities promptly. Semantics allows a proper contextualization of the sensor data (i.e. its abstract interpretation), whereas complex event processing enables the efficient real-time processing of sensor data and its logic-based nature supports a declarative definition of the situations of interests. The approach has been implemented in the iCEP framework for intelligent Complex Event Reasoning. The results from a preliminary evaluation study are very promising: the approach enables a very precise real-time detection of the office occupancy situations that limit the operation of the lighting system based on the actual use of the space. © 2011 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.