Topic: Future
HVAC
HVAC
(heating, ventilation and air condition) is the technology of indoor and
vehicular environmental comfort. Its main purposes is to help maintain good
indoor air quality.
According to
the study of Grenville K. Yuill and his colleagues, air leakage is generally
the most significant factor in small-building energy assumption, and this
problem will increase the cost of operation. Since buildings in the future
should be sustainable, the cost must be eliminated.
Personally
speaking, HVAC is very important to an intelligent building. Since the
structure are fixed, once the building is constructed, there are limited ways
to improve the building’s performance by changing the structure. Therefore, innovation of HVAC system is
more feasible to make the building more “intelligent”. By improving the system,
the interior environment could become better which will make people more comfortable.
On the other hand, more efficient HVAC systems helps decrease energy
consumption, and this will make the building more sustainable. Thus, future
study about HVAC system is essential to intelligent buildings.
Sensor
At presents,
sensors have been wildly applied in buildings. They are important tools for
collecting data from the building. After integrating the data from the sensors,
engineers are able to make better decision which could help increase efficiency
in future constructions.
In real applications, researchers analyzed the sensor-integrated nailing for building
construction. To complete the analysis, they conducted several tests on structures.
After integrating the experimental data, they summarized that this technology
can be applied to increase the productivity of construction.
In my
opinion, applying sensors in and after construction is essential. Sensors are
able to provide data which directly reflects building’s states, and this will
help engineer better analysis what they are doing. In this case, they can
always adjust their decision, so
their work will become more efficient. On the other hand, after the building are constructed,
the existing sensors in the building will continue provide data which reflects
buildings’ situation. In terms of that, architects and engineers can use the
data to improve their design for the future.
AI
AI,
artificial intelligence is “the science and engineering of making intelligent
machines”. (McCarthy, 1995) When talking about AI, people often think about
robots, driverless car and space ship. Also, because of Sci-Fi movies, many
people will think about the war between human and robots. For civil
engineering, current application of AI is more focusing on analysis. For
example, engineers are able to use AI techniques to generate construction
plans. As the development of AI techniques, it is now feasible for project
planning because AI is able to handle the uncertainty involved in the content
project plans. Also it can store and use knowledge which is important for
detail construction operations. Finally, after all the analytic works are
done, they are able to clear graphical results to users. Due to technological limitation,
there are few AI robots which can help complete construction. However, as time
goes by, human will definitely invent those robots.
A few days
ago, I read the article “Superintelligence” by Nick Bostrom. In his paper, he
mentioned the risk of AI. There is one sentence that really shocked me: “Superintelligence
would be the last invention biological man would ever need to make, since, by
definition, it would be much better at inventing than we are.” If what we
invent are more intelligent than us, then human beings will be taken controlled
by the “new species”. Therefore, like Elon Musk, the ECO of Tesla Motors said, we
need to be careful with AI.
Database
Database is extremely
important for construction. In the part of sensor, I illustrated how engineers
used sensors to evaluate the building. Data is the response from the applied
sensors. Without the data, engineer won’t be able to analyze anything. In
addition, by using database, researchers are able to adjust current
construction specifications. For example, some researchers collected data from
low-rise steel frame. Then they generated the model and started analyzing. After
all the works were done, they found that “inherent in the ASCE 7 Standard wind loads are inconsistencies with respect to risk that can be significantly
reduced by using database-assisted design procedures”. (Jang, 2002)
In my
opinion, using database in construction has become a common sense to engineers.
By applying that, they are able to analyze their work and adjust the decision
for the future.
Future
For the
future construction of intelligent building, I think it is important to apply
all the techniques above. HVAC system is one of the major part of a building, its
innovation will significantly increase the level of intelligence. Sensors have
been used in many high-tech buildings, they help both construction and maintenance,
and they also provides data for future needs. As the development of AI, we can
expect that robots help us build the entire building, since their works are
accurate and efficient. Finally, everything that is relevant to analysis must
rely on database. By using database, engineers are able to make better
decision.
Comment:
Comment to Mark
I agree that AI's placing humans in the work force will become a problem. Since AI are more efficient than human, it requires much less work force to complete the same task. Therefore more people will become unemployed.
Comment to Derek
I like the concept of machine learning. By mining the current data, machine might be able to analyze something that we could never discovery. By using what the machine have found, engineers are able to make better decision.
Comment to Jonathan
I agree that current technology highly relies on database. The subtopics that our group have been assigned are all relevant to database. By using database, HVAC system are able to perform better. Also, sensors are generating data and integrating it into database. Finally, AI needs database to make its own judgement.
Reference
Yuill, G.K., Rioux, J.A., and Flanders, S.N.. “Impact of Changes to
Building Airtightness on HVAC Costs.” ASCE
Library. <http://ascelibrary.org/doi/pdf/10.1061/%28ASCE%291076-0431%281997%293%3A4%28164%29> (Jan 13, 2015)
Miller. M.L. and Bernold, L.E.. “Sensor-Integrated Nailing for Building
Constrction.” ASCE Library. <http://ascelibrary.org/doi/pdf/10.1061/%28ASCE%290733-9364%281991%29117%3A2%28213%29> (Jan 13, 2015)
Levitt, R.E., Kartam, N.A., Kunz, J.C.. “Artificial Intelligence
Techniques for Generating Construction Project Plans.” ASCE Library. <http://ascelibrary.org/doi/pdf/10.1061/%28ASCE%290733-9364%281988%29114%3A3%28329%29>
(Jan 13, 2015)
Nick, B.. “Superinteligence.” Nick
Bostrom’s Home Page. <http://www.nickbostrom.com/views/superintelligence.pdf>
(Jan 13, 2015)
Jang, S., Lu, L., Sadek, F. and Simiu, E.. “Database-Assisted Wind Load
Capacity Estimates for Low-Rise Steel Frames.” ASCE Library. <http://ascelibrary.org/doi/pdf/10.1061/%28ASCE%290733-9445%282002%29128%3A12%281594%29>
(Jan 13, 2015)
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