A building automation system is an arrangement for monitoring, open-loop control and/or closed-loop control of process variables in complex technical systems in a building, or in a campus comprising a number of buildings. A building automation system typically operates heating, ventilation and air-conditioning systems, lighting and shading devices and also access control, security and fire surveillance systems. In the building automation system, process variables—such as room air conditioning variables or events, for example—are detected, evaluated, monitored, influenced or generated, with the energy consumption of the building or campus also advantageously being optimized by the building automation system.
Generally, a building automation system encompasses and operates a plurality of field devices, such as sensors and actuators. Examples of typical field devices are temperature and humidity sensors, air quality sensors, pressure sensors, flow meters, electricity meters, heat meters, brightness sensors, fire alarms, intrusion alarms, alarm or sprinkler devices, drives for hot water valves, thermostat valves, ventilation flaps or blinds, light switches, smart card readers or devices for detecting biometric data. The building automation system typically comprises a plurality of software modules, processes or programs, and in general, a number of computers or processors for their activation and also as a rule a plurality of open-loop and closed-loop control devices as well as further devices, for example devices for linking the building automation system to external communication networks and graphical user interfaces having screens for viewing and analysis of captured signals, video and data from monitored and/or controlled points or elements within the building automation system.
The points or elements (building automation objects or field devices) of a building automation system are widely dispersed throughout a facility. For example, an HVAC system includes temperature sensors and ventilation damper controls as well as other elements that are located in virtually every area of a facility. Similarly, a security system may have intrusion detection, motion sensors and alarm actuators dispersed throughout an entire building or campus. Likewise, fire safety systems include smoke alarms and pull stations dispersed throughout the facility. To achieve efficient and effective building automation system operation, there is a need to monitor the operation of, and often communicate with, the various dispersed points or elements of a building automation system.
Electrical or wireless communication media are used in a building automation system for the exchange of data of individual devices or parts of systems, as a rule a number of communication networks exist, with cables, optical data communication channels, ultrasound connections, electromagnetic near fields or radio networks able to be used, including fiber optic networks or cellular networks for example. Examples of technologies or standards able to be used for the said data exchange are BACnet, LON or LonWorks® from the company ECHELON, the European Installation bus EIB, KONNEX, ZigBee or PROFIBUS defined by German standard DIN 19245. BACnet refers to the ANSI/ASHRAE 135-2008 building communication protocol standard, titled “BACnet, A Data Communication Protocol For Building Automation And Control Networks” (2008).
Building automation systems typically have one or more centralized control stations in which data from each of the points or elements in the system may be monitored and in which various aspects of system operation may be controlled and/or monitored. The control station typically includes a computer having processing equipment, data storage equipment, and a user interface. To allow for monitoring and control of the dispersed control system points or elements, building automation systems often employ multi-level communication networks to communicate operational and/or alarm information between operating elements, such as sensors and actuators, and the centralized control station.
One example of a building automation system control station is the APOGEE® INSIGHT® Workstation, available from Siemens Industry, Inc. of Buffalo Grove, Ill., which may be used with the model APOGEE® building automation system, also available from Siemens Industry, Inc. (APOGEE and INSIGHT are U.S. federally registered trademarks of Siemens Industry, Inc.) In this system, several control stations, connected via an Ethernet or another type of network, may be distributed throughout one or more building locations, each having the ability to monitor and control system operation. As a consequence, different people in different locations of the facility may monitor and control building operations.
The typical building automation system (including those utilizing the APOGEE® Insight® Workstation) has a plurality of field panels and/or controllers that are in communication with a workstation. In addition, the building automation system also includes one or more field devices connected to the field panels and/or controllers. Each field device is typically operative to measure and/or monitor various building automation system parameters. In particular, each field device may include one or more sensors and/or actuators to measure and/or monitor corresponding “points” within the respective building and/or building automation system, As referenced herein, a “point” may be (i) any physical input or output to or from a respective controller, field device, sensor or actuator, or (ii) any virtual point associated with a control application or logic object within a controller or field panel that is measured, monitored or controlled.
While the workstation is generally used to make modifications and/or changes to one or more of the various components of the building automation system, a field panel may also be operative to enable certain modifications and/or changes to one or more parameters of the system. This typically includes parameters such as a temperature set point or other set points in a field device controller or directly in a field device. In addition, the workstation may be configured to modify a control program or the like in a field panel for controlling a field device.
To this end, addressing of virtual or physical points of field devices within a building automation system is typically defined directly in a closed-loop or open-loop control program residing in a field panel controller or other building automation device that needs to control and/or monitor such points. For example, for points corresponding to field devices connected to a field panel controller over a BACnet network, the input, output and value of the field device or point is typically defined or modeled as a BACnet object that is addressed directly by a control program or application in the respective field panel controller. Conventional building automation systems with such an object-oriented software structure is described in patent application serial numbers WO99/39276A and WO99/60487A.
However, if a number of identical or similar control programs or applications are present in a single or multiple field panel controllers within a building automation system (for example, a number of room temperature closed-loop control programs in separate field panel controllers), the individual control programs or applications must each be adapted to include separately addressable point or BACnet objects for separate communication with the field devices that are associated with the respective point or BACnet object residing on the respective field panel controller. In addition, determining how field devices are related in the building automation system is often times difficult and inefficient given the sheer number of field devices typically present in large business automation systems. Moreover, control programs when written are customized for the specific number of inputs of field devices making the process inefficient for adding additional field device inputs or outputs (or points) when a field technician is engineering, setting up, configuring or commissioning control programs and applications for field panel controllers deployed to interface and communicate with the various field devices within the building automation system.
There is a need, therefore, for a system, process and apparatus or mechanism for grouping building automation objects corresponding to field devices employed in a building automation system, and particularly in and between field panel controllers employed therein, to provide efficient group communication between control programs of the respective field panel controllers and the field devices.