A virtual reality-based context simulator for evaluating the effect of uncertainty on Smart Building Applications

Abstract

Smart Building Applications (SBAs) adapt their behaviour in response to context information generated by sensors present in the smart building. SBA developers must however account for uncertainty in the accuracy of context information resulting from imperfection in the sensing technology and potentially complex interactions between the sensed phenomenon, the sensor and the physical environment. To address this challenge, Context Simulators are increasingly employed. These generate simulated context information based on an internal model of the building, it sensors and its occupants and their activities. Some simulators employ Virtual Reality (VR) environments, to more accurately capture the likely behaviour of users in a simulated smart building, and thereby model and simulate their interaction with sensors and, via the resulting context information, with SBAs. This type of evaluation can result in better designed SBAs by prototyping them in simulated conditions before being deployed into a real physical environment. A number of key challenges remain to be addressed however, before such a simulation-based SBA prototyping approach can become widely used. Firstly, any context simulator must be flexible in its approach to simulating context, so that it supports simulating different mixes of SBAs, context sources and smart buildings, using a selection of methods most suitable to the evaluation task at hand. Secondly, the context simulator must support simulating uncertainty in context. Lastly, the process of setting up a simulation should be efficient in use, satisfying to the developer and also, be effective in correctly evaluating the SBA behaviour. This thesis presents the SimCon model which addresses these challenges by supporting simulation of context, in particular location context, with configurable levels of uncertainty for evaluating SBAs using visualisation. A comparative analysis of the state of the art is used to demonstrate the relative flexibility of the model. The SimCon model has been implemented in a simulation configuration and visualisation tool set which has undergone a number of evaluations with SBA developers to determine and improve its level of usability. Integration with existing building industry standards has

also been developed, to increase the leverage of such models and thereby the efficiency of the simulation configuration process.