Description

Colibri provides a platform for smart building energy management. Semantics about the building, the building automation systems, other energy-consuming or energy-producing devices, and the environment are used to elaborate optimization strategies. The decisions are propagated to the building automation systems in order to influence physical processes within the building.

With the upcoming Internet of Things, integration approaches for building automation systems emerge in order to provide interoperability between heterogeneous technologies. They provide a technology-independent and often Web service-based interface to communicate with underlying field and automation devices (e.g. heating system, temperature sensor). Within this project, a technology connector according to the recently proposed RESTful BACnet Web services (BACnet/WS) extension of the BACnet standard should be implemented. This connector maps the message exchange based on BACnet/WS to the semantic interface of Colibri and vice versa. The connector needs to be able to handle BACnet/WS functionality, such as subscription to information updates. The implemented connector will be packed into a separate OSGi bundle within the Colibri platform. In summary, a link between the Colibri smart energy management system and the building automation systems behind a BACnet/WS-conform gateway can be established.

Benefit for the Student

Dive into latest technologies and emerging protocols for the Internet of Things and the Semantic Web. Improve your skills in Java-based software development and Web service-based communication. Learn about standards for integrating building automation systems.

Benefit for the Project

Complexity of communication and interconnection in a certain Colibri system can be significantly reduced by connecting high-level BACnet/WS integration gateways. The access to particular subsystems of the BACnet/WS gateway is hidden, and generic communication instead of technology-specific protocols can be used to communicate with building automation resources behind this gateway.

Requirements

Strong skills in Java-based software development and RESTful Web service communication are necessary. Moreover, basic knowledge about building automation and control networks is beneficial.

Mentors

Daniel Schachinger, Andreas Fernbach, Thomas Frühwirth

More information

https://github.com/dschachinger/colibri (Colibri)
http://www.bacnet.org/Addenda/Add-135-2012am-PPR1-draft-26_chair_approved.pdf (BACnet/WS)