JP2019194507A - Equipment control device - Google Patents

Abstract

To form a group of equipment to be a control unit in accordance with a distribution of persons in a space.SOLUTION: A building management device 10 includes: a group formation unit 12 for acquiring a distribution of persons in a room 4 by analyzing an infrared image from which the positions of the persons existing in the room 4 can be specified, dividing the room 4 into a plurality of small areas on the basis of the distribution, and forming a group of indoor units 21 according to a position corresponding to a divided small area; an equipment control unit 14 for controlling the operation of the indoor units 21 in the formed group unit; and a group information provision unit 13 for displaying the formed group in a liquid crystal panel of a remote controller 22 by transmitting group information.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

Description

  The present invention relates to a facility control apparatus, and more particularly to control of a plurality of facilities.

  For example, in a room in a building, it can be easily assumed that not only people but also devices with heat generation such as PCs are gathered at a place where people gather. In other words, it is desirable to maintain comfort by increasing the capacity of the air conditioner for places where people gather, compared to places where people are not.

  Conventionally, a technique has been proposed in which an imaging unit is provided for each air conditioning unit and air conditioning control is performed according to the number and positions of persons estimated by imaging (for example, Patent Document 1).

JP 2010-266169 A International Publication No. 2012/157573 JP 2009-174734 A JP 2013-092338 A International Publication No. 2014/170970 Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 06-160507 Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2015-043189 Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2015-200509

  In a large space, for example, a large room that occupies the entire floor of a building, a plurality of indoor units are usually scattered. In this case, the indoor units are divided into a plurality of groups, and air conditioning control is often performed for each group. For example, the indoor units are grouped according to the installation position and layout in the room, and one wall remote controller is associated with each group. When the resident operates the wall remote controller, the air conditioning control device equally controls the plurality of indoor units associated with the wall remote controller.

  By the way, the layout may be changed in a large room. Thereby, a certain indoor unit included in the same group may adjust the temperature in a place with few people, and another indoor unit may adjust the temperature in a place with many people. As described above, since indoor units included in the same group are controlled equally, a preferable indoor environment in which, for example, when operating in a strong air conditioner in accordance with a place with many people in summer, a place with few people becomes too cold. Can not be provided. Conventionally, this situation continues until the administrator changes the group.

  It is an object of the present invention to form a group of equipment which is a control unit according to the distribution of people in a space.

  The facility control device according to the present invention is a forming means for forming a group of the facilities based on the distribution of people in the space obtained from the location of people in a space where a plurality of facilities to be controlled are scattered and arranged. Control means for controlling the equipment in units of groups.

  The forming means divides the space into a plurality of small areas according to the level of gathering of people in the space, and forms a group by the equipment corresponding to the position of each divided small area. To do.

  The information processing apparatus may further include providing means for providing information indicating the group to a remote controller equipped with display means.

  In addition, the image processing apparatus includes a detection unit that detects a location of a person by analyzing at least one of a captured image or an infrared image in the space or a radio wave transmitted from a wireless device carried by the person.

  In addition, there is an inquiry unit that inquires an administrator about the configuration of the group formed by the forming unit, and the control unit is configured to allow the group of the equipment to be permitted or changed by the administrator in response to the inquiry by the inquiry unit. Control is performed.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to form a group of equipment that is controlled equally according to the distribution of people in the space.

  In addition, the formed group can be displayed.

  In addition, the administrator can be inquired about the validity of the formed group, and the formed group can be changed.

It is a figure which shows an example of the whole structure of the building management system in this Embodiment. It is a top view for showing the positional relationship of the layout of the room before a layout change, and the installation position of an indoor unit. It is a top view for showing the positional relationship of the layout of the room after a layout change, and the installation position of an indoor unit. It is a flowchart which shows the regrouping process in this Embodiment. It is a figure which shows an example of the display of the remote control in this Embodiment.

  Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating an example of the overall configuration of a building management system according to the present embodiment. In FIG. 1, a building management apparatus 10 is an embodiment of an equipment control apparatus according to the present invention, and manages equipment installed in a building. In the case of this Embodiment, it demonstrates supposing the air-conditioning equipment 2 and the illumination equipment 3 as an installation.

  The building management apparatus 10 in the present embodiment can be realized with a conventional general-purpose hardware configuration. That is, the building management apparatus 10 includes a CPU, a ROM, a RAM, a hard disk drive (HDD), a network interface that communicates with a monitoring server and an information terminal device used by the building manager, an air conditioning controller 20, a lighting controller 30, and a sensor controller. 40 has a communication interface for communicating with 40. You may connect input means, such as a mouse | mouth and a keyboard, and display means, such as a display, as needed.

  One or a plurality of rooms 4 are provided on each floor of the building that is managed by the building management system in the present embodiment. In FIG. 1, only one room 4 is shown. The room 4 suitable for application of the present embodiment is a space that is so wide that a plurality of indoor units 21 are scattered and used. The large space is divided into a plurality of small areas. The small area is divided by a partition or the like as necessary. In the room 4, a plurality of lights 31 are scattered and arranged in the same manner as the indoor unit 21.

  The air conditioning equipment 2 includes a plurality of indoor units 21 and a remote controller 22 installed in the room 4, and an outdoor unit 23 to which the plurality of indoor units 21 are connected. The indoor unit 21 is attached to the ceiling of the room 4. The remote controller 22 is assumed to be a wall remote controller attached to the wall near the entrance / exit of the room 4. Although a plurality of remote controllers 22 may be installed, the present embodiment assumes that all the indoor units 21 are set with a single remote controller 22.

  The air conditioning controller 20 is a controller that is connected between the building management apparatus 10 and the air conditioning equipment 2 and includes an air conditioning control unit 24 that controls the operation of the air conditioning equipment 2 and a group setting unit 25 that will be described in detail later.

  The lighting equipment 3 includes a lighting 31 installed in the room 4. The lighting controller 30 is a controller that is connected between the building management apparatus 10 and the lighting equipment 3 and includes a lighting control unit 32 that controls the operation of the lighting equipment 3 and a group setting unit 33 that will be described in detail later.

  A sensor 41 is disposed in the room 4. The sensors 41 are provided to detect the position and the number of people in the room 4, and a plurality of sensors 41 are dispersedly arranged in the room 4 as necessary. In the present embodiment, it is assumed that the sensor 41 is realized by an infrared sensor, but the present invention is not limited to this. The sensor controller 40 collects sensor data (infrared image) from the sensor 41 and transmits it to the building management apparatus 10. The building management apparatus 10 acquires the positions and the number of people (hereinafter referred to as “person distribution”) by analyzing the infrared image. In the present embodiment, the human distribution in the room 4 can be acquired using an infrared sensor. However, the present invention is not limited to this. For example, a camera is installed in the room 4 as a photographing unit, and the photographed image is analyzed. You may make it acquire a person distribution. Alternatively, a wireless communication device is installed and a radio device carried by a person, for example, a radio wave transmitted by a smartphone or a tablet terminal is received. The building management apparatus 10 determines a person distribution from the direction and intensity of the radio wave received by the radio device. You may get it.

  As described above, in the room 4, the indoor units 21 and the lights 31 are scattered and arranged. In the present embodiment, it is assumed that a seat and a PC are assigned to each employee so that the employee performs work in the room 4. Accordingly, in the room 4, heat is generated by an information device such as a person or a PC. In other words, the room temperature around a place where more people gather is likely to rise compared to a place where it is not. Therefore, a strong cooling function is desired in summer.

  The building management apparatus 10 includes a sensor data acquisition unit 11, a group formation unit 12, a group information provision unit 13, an equipment control unit 14, an equipment information database (DB) 15, a sensor data storage unit 16, and a group information storage unit 17. ing. Note that components not used in the description of the present embodiment are omitted from the drawings. The sensor data acquisition unit 11 acquires the sensor data collected by the sensor controller 40 and stores it in the sensor data storage unit 16. The group forming unit 12 detects the location of each person in the room 4 by analyzing the sensor data stored in the sensor data storage unit 16, and generates human distribution information indicating the human distribution. Then, a group of facilities is formed based on the person distribution information. The group forming unit 12 inquires of the manager about the right or wrong of the formed group by transmitting the configuration of the further formed group. The group information providing unit 13 provides group information indicating the formed group to the remote controller 22 via the air conditioning controller 20. The equipment control unit 14 controls the operation of the equipment. In the case of this embodiment, the equipment is controlled in units of groups. That is, control is performed so that facilities belonging to the same group perform the same operation.

  In the equipment information database (DB) 15, information related to equipment installed in the building is accumulated. For example, in the case of the air conditioner 2, information related to each device such as the connection relationship between the outdoor unit 23 and the indoor unit 21, the models and performances of the indoor unit 21, the outdoor unit 23, and the remote controller 22 are stored. The equipment control unit 14 refers to the information set in the equipment information database 15 and operates the air conditioning equipment 2 within the operable range. The sensor data storage unit 16 stores the acquisition date and time of the sensor data in association with the sensor data. The group information storage unit 17 stores group information indicating a group of equipment formed by the group forming unit 12.

  The group setting units 25 and 33 group the facilities according to the group information provided by the group information providing unit 13. Thereby, each controller 20 and 30 controls an installation in a group unit according to control by the equipment control part 14.

  Each component 11-14 in the building management apparatus 10 is implement | achieved by cooperation operation | movement of the computer which forms the building management apparatus 10, and the program which operate | moves with CPU mounted in the computer. Each storage unit 15 to 17 is realized by an HDD mounted in the building management apparatus 10. Alternatively, RAM or external storage means may be used via a network.

  Further, the program used in this embodiment can be provided not only by communication means but also by storing it in a computer-readable recording medium such as a CD-ROM or USB memory. The program provided from the communication means or the recording medium is installed in the computer, and various processes are realized by the CPU of the computer sequentially executing the program.

  FIG. 2 is a plan view for illustrating the positional relationship between the layout of the room 4 and the installation position of the indoor unit 21. As shown in FIG. 2, it is assumed that 16 indoor units 21 of indoor units 1-1 to 4-4 are installed in the room 4. The room 4 is shared by a plurality of departments. In FIG. 2, a broken line 5 indicates a place (small area) used by each department (the same applies to a warehouse and a conference room described later) and also indicates an indoor unit 21 corresponding to each department. For example, the indoor units 1-1, 1-2, 2-1, and 2-2 are formed as a group corresponding to the department 1, and are controlled equally for the department 1. The indoor units 1-3, 1-4, 2-3, and 2-4 are formed as a group corresponding to the department 2, and are controlled equally for the department 2. That is, the group consisting of the indoor units 1-1, 1-2, 2-1, 2-2 and the group consisting of the indoor units 1-3, 1-4, 2-3, 2-4 are the same setting for each group. Operates on content, but each group is controlled independently. The above-mentioned “equally controlled” means that the same setting is made for the temperature, the air volume, and the like. Of course, this embodiment is characterized in that the operation of the facility is controlled in units of groups, and the operation control is performed separately from different groups. Even if it is the indoor unit 21 which belongs to the same group, you may control operation | movement of each indoor unit 21 individually, but in this Embodiment, the indoor unit 21 which belongs to the same group performs the same setting for convenience of explanation. It will be explained as a thing. A thick line 6 indicates a partition. The warehouse and the two meeting rooms are separated by a partition. Therefore, groups of the indoor units 21 are formed by the indoor units 3-1 and 4-1, the indoor unit 3-4, and the indoor unit 4-4, respectively.

  As described above, the room 4 is divided into a plurality of small areas, and each small area is used as a department, a warehouse, and a conference room. A group is formed by one or a plurality of indoor units 21 associated with each small area, and this group is a control unit of the indoor unit 21.

  By the way, when the room 4 is divided into a plurality of small areas and used as shown in FIG. 2, the room temperature suitable for the number of employees in the department, the number of installed information devices, the purpose of use of the small area, etc. Will be different. For example, in summer, air conditioning control is preferable from the viewpoint of energy saving and does not impair comfortability even if a warehouse with few people is set to a relatively high temperature. On the other hand, for departments with many people, it is desirable to perform air conditioning control so as to maintain comfort by setting a relatively low temperature. In the room 4 in which such air conditioning control is performed, the number of persons assigned to the department may be greatly changed due to, for example, relocation or organizational change at the turn of the year.

  FIG. 3 is a plan view for illustrating the positional relationship between the layout after the layout of the room 4 is changed and the installation position of the indoor unit 21. FIG. 3 shows an example in which the space (small area) of department 2 is reduced while the space of department 2 is expanded. Moreover, the meeting room is moved below the department 2 on the drawing with the change of the space. With such a layout change, the indoor units 3-4 and 4-4 should be changed to belong to the same group as the indoor units 3-2, 3-3, 4-2, and 4-3. Such a change of the group of the indoor units 21 due to the change of the small area has not been performed unless the building administrator who performs the group setting performs it.

  Therefore, the present embodiment is characterized in that the group of the indoor units 21 can be automatically changed in accordance with the layout change. Hereinafter, the operation in the present embodiment will be described.

  The sensor 41 constantly senses the situation of the room 4, and the sensor controller 40 transmits the sensor data generated by the sensing to the building management apparatus 10. The transmission timing may be set as appropriate, for example, every 5 minutes. When the sensor data acquisition unit 11 in the building management apparatus 10 receives the sensor data transmitted from the sensor controller 40, the sensor data acquisition unit 11 stores the sensor data in the sensor data storage unit 16. Data acquisition in the sensor data acquisition unit 11 may be performed with the start of execution of a regrouping process described below.

  The regrouping process is a process performed to reorganize the group of existing indoor units 21 in accordance with the layout change of the room 4. In this embodiment, it is assumed that when the layout is changed, the regrouping process is performed according to the instruction from the building manager. However, the regrouping process is performed periodically regardless of whether the layout is changed. May be implemented. Hereinafter, the regrouping process in the present embodiment will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG.

  When the regrouping process is started, first, the group forming unit 12 analyzes the sensor data stored in the sensor data storage unit 16 in accordance with the specified condition to detect a person's location, and the detected location The person distribution information relating to the person distribution in the room 4 is generated (step 101). The designated condition is, for example, a data analysis period. The group forming unit 12 analyzes the degree of gathering of people based on the generated person distribution information. Of course, since a person moves, it is preferable to process sensor data included in a certain period. However, if the period is lengthened, the processing load increases, but the angle of the obtained person distribution information increases.

  The group forming unit 12 obtains the degree of gathering of people by analyzing the tendency of the location of people based on the sensor data included in the designated data analysis period. Thus, for example, before the layout change shown in FIG. 2, there are few people gathering in the meeting room position (small area), and there are people who are resident after the layout change. The location of the conference room before the layout is assumed to have been integrated into the department 3. If the layout has not been changed, it is assumed that a place where people have gathered at positions corresponding to the indoor units 1-4 and 2-4 has been changed to a conference room because there is almost no people. The group forming unit 12 divides the room 4 into a plurality of small areas as described above, and forms a group by the indoor units 21 corresponding to the positions of the divided small areas. The group forming unit 12 devises a group setting plan after the layout change indicating the structure of the group formed in this way (step 102). That is, the setting plan includes information in which the formed unit is associated with the indoor unit 21 included in the group.

  By the way, the regroup processing in the present embodiment includes an automatic mode in which a group is automatically set in accordance with a setting plan prepared for a group change, and an approval mode in which the building administrator is approved for setting contents of a new layout. Works with. The mode is set in advance before the regrouping process is executed. Of course, you may make a building administrator specify in the middle of a process. When the automatic mode for automatically changing the group is selected (Y in step 103), regrouping, that is, group reorganization is performed according to the setting proposal (step 107). On the other hand, when the approval mode for obtaining approval from the building manager is selected (N in step 103), the group forming unit 12 transmits the setting plan to the building manager by e-mail or the like, thereby An inquiry is made (step 104).

  When the building manager receives the setting proposal, the building manager confirms the drafted group configuration. Then, the building manager responds to the inquiry with either approval of the setting plan, rejection of the setting plan, or correction of the setting plan. For example, there is a possibility that the group forming unit 12 forms a single group by combining the indoor units 1-4 and 2-4 corresponding to the positions of two conference rooms because there are few people. The building manager corrects the setting plan so that two groups are formed by dividing the indoor units 1-4 and 2-4. As described above, when the group forming unit 12 cannot properly infer the contents of the layout change from the person distribution information by checking the setting plan with the building manager, the building manager can change the room corresponding to the changed layout. The grouping of the machines 21 can be corrected. The building administrator makes the above-mentioned type of response to the inquiry. In the case of correction of the setting plan, the building administrator corrects the setting plan using the PC, and then sends the corrected setting plan to the building management apparatus 10. Send to.

  When an answer is returned from the building manager to the inquiry, the group forming unit 12 receives the answer (step 105). If the building manager rejects the setting plan, that is, if the regroup is not OK (N in step 106), the process returns to step 101. In this case, the group forming unit 12 generates the person distribution information again by changing the conditions (step 101). The contents of the condition to be changed may be set by the building manager. Since the process following the generation of the person distribution information is as described, the description is omitted.

  When the building administrator approves the setting plan or sends a modified setting plan, that is, when the regroup is OK (Y in step 106), the group forming unit 12 accepts the approved or modified setting. The indoor units 21 are regrouped according to the plan (step 107). As a result of the regrouping, each group is formed by the indoor units 21 at positions corresponding to the new small areas as shown in FIG.

  According to the present embodiment, the room 4 is divided into small areas according to the degree of gathering of people such as whether many people are gathered in a certain area of the room 4 or not so much, and the small area A group of indoor units 21 is formed by the indoor units 21 corresponding to the positions. Then, the group information providing unit 13 transmits group information regarding the reorganized group to the air conditioning controller 20. The group setting unit 25 in the air conditioning controller 20 groups the indoor units 21 according to the received group information. As a result, the air conditioning controller 20 controls the operation of the indoor unit 21 in units of groups under the instruction from the equipment control unit 14.

  FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating an example of display on the remote controller 22 in the present embodiment. The remote controller 22 in the present embodiment is equipped with a liquid crystal panel 221 as display means. On the liquid crystal panel 221, the formed group of indoor units 21 is displayed. FIG. 5 shows the configuration of the small area. Since the small area and the group of the indoor units 21 are associated with each other on a one-to-one basis, it is the same as the group of the indoor units 21 displayed. is there. When an employee in the room 4 wants to change the setting contents for the air conditioning equipment 2, the employee selects the small area whose setting contents are to be changed from the liquid crystal panel 221. In FIG. 5, only the department 3 is hatched to indicate that the employee has selected the department 3 in the small area in order to change the setting of the department 3.

  After the selection operation of the small area to be changed (department 3 in this example), when the setting such as the set temperature is changed, the equipment control unit 14 causes the indoor units 3-2 to 3-4 and 4-2. The air conditioning controller 20 is instructed to change the setting contents for -4-4. Thereby, the indoor units 3-2 to 3-4 and 4-2 to 4-4 are changed with the same setting contents.

  For convenience of explanation, in the present embodiment, it has been described that settings are made for all groups with one remote controller 22, but a plurality of remote controllers 22 are prepared and each remote controller 22 is associated with each small area. May be. In this case, it is necessary to prepare the number of remote controllers 22 so that the number of small areas does not exceed. On the other hand, the remote controller 22 that is not associated with a group is made unusable by turning off the power. In this embodiment, the remote controller 22 is assumed to be a wall remote controller attached to the wall. However, for example, a movable handy remote controller may be used. Alternatively, a PC or the like used by an employee may be used as a remote control.

  In the above description, the air conditioning equipment 2 has been described as an example of equipment, but the lighting 31 can be grouped by performing the same processing on the lighting equipment 3.

2 air conditioning equipment, 3 lighting equipment, 4 rooms, 10 building management device, 11 sensor data acquisition section, 12 group formation section, 13 group information provision section, 14 equipment control section, 15 equipment information database (DB), 16 sensor data storage Unit, 17 group information storage unit, 20 air conditioning controller, 21 indoor unit, 22 remote controller, 23 outdoor unit, 24 air conditioning control unit, 25, 33 group setting unit, 30 lighting controller, 31 lighting, 32 lighting control unit, 40 sensor controller 41 Sensor.

Claims (5)

Forming means for forming a group of the equipment based on the distribution of people in the space obtained from the location of the person in a space where a plurality of equipment to be controlled is scattered and arranged,
Control means for controlling the equipment in units of groups;
An equipment control device comprising:   The forming means divides the space into a plurality of small areas according to the level of gathering of people in the space, and forms a group by the equipment corresponding to the position of each divided small area. Item 2. The equipment control device according to Item 1.   The equipment control apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising providing means for providing information indicating the group to a remote controller equipped with display means.   2. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising detection means for detecting a location of the person by analyzing at least one of a captured image or an infrared image in the space or a radio wave transmitted from a wireless device carried by the person. The facility control device described. Inquiry means for inquiring an administrator about the configuration of the group formed by the forming means,
The equipment control apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the control means controls the equipment in units of groups permitted or changed by an administrator in response to an inquiry from the inquiry means.