Today's global environmental issues are caused by the economic and social system and life styles that have resulted from metropolitanization in advanced nations. Recently, these issues have become more serious because of the additional metropolitanization in developing countries, such as BRICs.
For such a situation, it has been difficult to propose effective and realistic solutions because these issues have so far been analyzed on a global scale with macroscopic data captured by satellite observation. In nature, microscopic data must be obtained and analyzed in metropolitan areas causing such issues and other affected areas in order to grasp the relationship between consumption in the metropolitan society and bounty of the surrounding natural environment from a demand-supply perspective, as well as to develop a concrete prescription for maintaining a balance between the two.
We then noticed that the technology linkage between broadband and digital devices, which had been rapidly developed since the beginning of the twenty-first century, made possible a substantial reduction in costs, especially in metropolitan areas, and enabled the execution of accurate and high-level monitoring of a variety of different environmental parameters. By linking and combining the advantages of sophisticated digital devices with unit devices and networks, it is possible to easily and appropriately execute meaningful coordination of information or error corrections, enabling users to optimally observe actual environmental parameters.
In addition, with the result that the Internet society has been formed, it has become possible to coordinate the information of most people living in metropolitan areas and communities. It should be noted, however, that by sharing the data elevated from the mere value or text level to the information or knowledge level, people become aware of the prescription for environmental issues and it is possible to implement it. The results of the implementation are modified into easy to understand information and are refluxed widely, enabling the creation of autonomous circulation elevating people's level of awareness, and knowledge and coordination becomes more sophisticated.
As for activities to address global environmental issues, major emphasis on countermeasures is moving from the industry field to the consumer field, such as urban transportation or daily life energy conservation. However, unlike enterprises where the organizational management power is strong, implementing a countermeasure in the regional community is very difficult (because the sense of freedom and diversity of values are supported in schools and ordinary households), and this is the biggest problem in environmental activities at present.
Although we have thus far focused on technological innovation that vendors of equipment or supplier of systems can provide, the effort is getting close to its limit. In the future, the user side for such equipment or systems must improve the effect of technological innovation by devising ways to use them and by making it into a visible form. It becomes possible to turn environmental activities into an autonomous, non-solitary and positive one not being forced by others, through an activity where people, families, or communities in the same environment offer advice while maintaining the concepts of mutual understanding, mutual help, and cooperation. In such a society, it is supposed that the willingness to implement countermeasures will become mainstream instead of being forced to implement countermeasures, and very cooperative activities will be directly linked to new, value-added activities.
Possibility of new activity for global environmental issues through evolution of technology
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Outline of Research & Developmental Plan
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We aim to establish the operational technology for a consolidated area management system by executing research and development and managing and controlling technology in multi-vendor and multi-subsystem environments through research and development activities. The result of this activity will be positioned as a way to help build the so-called energy supplied chain management and control system that places a person at the center of a large-scale campus and metropolitan area as we capture these activities from the viewpoint of energy-conservation and environmental countermeasures.
- Accurate measurement and analysis of the actual operation of the facility management system.
- Establishment of integrated data collection technology in multi-vendor and multi-subsystem environments
- Establishment of data collection guidelines for general education research building at a university
- Verification of the effect of analysis and display of measured data
- Verification of introduction and its effect on advanced control technology and control system
Utilizing the second building at the Faculty of Engineering at Tokyo University (construction completed in 2005, 12 stories, general education research building), we aim to execute verification and evaluation of integrated and advanced facility management system technology and related operations technology. At the same time, we also intend to have the results of this demonstration field experiment to contribute to the horizontal deployment of other academic organizations, as well as vertical deployment in public facilities. We will describe the outline of research and development in this coordinated research consortium in the following sections.
(1)Accurate measurement and analysis of actual operation of facility management system
(a)Establishment of integrated data collection technology in multi-vendor and multi-subsystem environments
First, past management and control systems in facilities, such as the building system represented by energy conservation countermeasures, comprised multiple subsystems, and these subsystems were mostly based on each vendor's own technical specifications, hence it was not easy to secure interoperability between subsystems. Therefore, in practical application, cooperative management and control among these subsystems was rarely executed. In this paper, subsystem refers to the air conditioning, lighting, security, or power supply systems.
We will introduce and deploy the results of past research and developmental activities in the FNIC consortium and execute the establishment of the technical specifications necessary for building a mutual entry environment for measurement and control of the data between subsystems from multiple vendors, the introduction into actual systems, and verification of operation. We will propose unified technical specifications necessary for mutual entry of measurement and control data between subsystems as related to technical standardization groups to promote dissemination and standardization.
Second, we will establish measurement and analysis technologies for realizing accurate and practical measurement of the operational status of systems for facilities that have already been completed. However, it is not easy to introduce measurement systems into existing systems.
Through this research and activity, we will establish measurement and analysis technology on the operational status of systems where construction has been completed by introducing practical, cost-effective additional measurement equipment or effective utilization of existing equipment.
Establishment of such technologies that contribute to facility management in multi-vendor environments will make it possible to realize a sustainable facility system. That is, it will be possible to continuously introduce advanced technologies and allow multiple technologies to coexist (leads to improvement of availability of systems), contributing to the realization of the continuous evolution of facility systems and improvements in operational reliability.(b)Establishment of data collection guidelines for general education research building at the university
Unfortunately, there are no guidelines for measurement and control of facilities (including the building as well as the experimental equipment in the building) that can be utilized for environmental or energy conservation countermeasures in educational and research facilities (including public facilities) at universities. In this activity, we will collect and analyze environmental data from the general education and research building at the university, through which we will investigate the guidelines for data collection necessary for grasping the operational status of the educational and research facilities at the university and verify the effectiveness of such guidelines.
Although it will be impossible to apply the same guidelines for data collection to all university educational and research facilities as is, it may be possible to offer important and useful knowledge when deploying the guidelines horizontally to similar educational and research facilities. In particular, the establishment of elementary technology for measuring the operational status of experimental and research facilities and the operations technology for presenting the results of the analysis has so far been scarcely confronted.
(2)Verification of effect of analysis and display of measured data
(a)Establishment of integrated data collection technology in multi-vendor and multi-subsystem environments
By presenting and feeding back the results of the analysis of measured data to operators and users of a facility, we know that the form of user activities and the efficiency of the activity are improved in order to realize energy conservation. However, most past achievements corresponded to cases where it was relatively easy to control users, such as in factories or business sites.
The general education and research building at the university that we will work on is a typical case where user control is not easy because there are no past achievements to confront with regard to research and development on ways to display and report the results of the analysis and verification of its effectiveness.
There are many similar educational and research facilities, and electrical power consumption in these facilities is substantial. Therefore, the actual degree of influence on society will not be small by any means, although it may be seem so at first glance that this is a demonstration experiment for verifying the effectiveness of the special facility.
(3)Verification of introduction and the effect of advanced control technology and control system.
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Based on measured and analyzed data, we must manage and control the facilities. As for the measurement of data, what measurement system and what measurement technology are useful in such an environment? How to install additional measurement equipment into the existing facilities and how to operate the equipment? What measurement data and measurement equipment can contribute to effective management and control? Which measurement data are effective when cooperative operation among subsystems is presupposed?
Management and control of a combined on-line reservation systems in a lecture room or meeting room, air-conditioning systems, lighting systems, and security systems will serve as typical examples of such cases.
In addition, since capturing of the location information of users using RF-ID tags has been available for some time, it will be possible to evaluate the advantages and cost-effectiveness of its introduction. In other words, it is possible to include measurement for existing facilities and for persons working in the facility for the measurement of the operational status of the facility. So, we will execute research and development of management and control technologies for an integrated facility system targeting the evaluation of effectiveness in a practical environment.
To overcome the limitations of individual equipment, a review of the limit from the user's viewpoint is required. Furthermore, it is necessary to change facility management from simple equipment management to more sophisticated management where it will be possible to match the operational status of users who work at the facility. Limitations of individual equipment correspond to the viewpoint of efficiency of equipment, while matching user's activity corresponds to the viewpoint of effectiveness for users. That is, the above description means changing the viewpoint from efficiency to effectiveness is required. When we try to review equipment management at a facility and realize an improvement in effectiveness, it is necessary to add information to equipment individual technology at present. In order to be flexible for that usage form, which is always changing, it is necessary to obtain information on the change of usage form and to communicate it immediately.
Through the above described research and developmental activities, we will develop management and control technologies for an integrated area management system in multi-vendor and multi-subsystem environments aiming at establishing operations technology.
When grasping the results of this activity from the viewpoint of energy conservation and environmental countermeasures, it may be positioned as an activity that will contribute to building the so called Energy supplied chain management and control system with the person at the center of a large scale campus and metropolitan activity.
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