RS-485/MODBUS based Intelligent Building Automation System using LabVIEW

Jignesh G. Bhatt
Instrumentation & Control Engineering Department Faculty of Technology, Dharmsinh Desai University Nadiad 387 001, Gujarat, India e-mail: jigneshgbhatt@gmail.com

H.K. Verma
Electrical Engineering Department Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee Roorkee 247 667, Uttarakhand, India e-mail: hkvfee@gmail.com

AbstractBuilding

automation systems (BAS) are transforming from the legacy stand-alone security and safety systems to intelligent computerized network based solutions. This paper presents the design of a three-layer BAS for a residential building. Sensors and MODBUS compliant digital I/O DAQ modules are wired to form an RS-485 network at field level, that are connected to a PC based main controller. The design incorporates central servers for-(i) OLE for Process Control (OPC), (ii) Camera, (iii) Graphical User Interfaces (GUIs) and (iv) Entertainment. A local or remote workstation working as a client can access all functionalities using intranet or internet respectively. RS-485 network is used for the timecritical process-alarm data exchange, and Ethernet backbone is used for high speed Client-Server communication. Various functionalities of the BAS have been validated through laboratory implementation. Keywords- Building Automation System, Intelligent Building, Virtual Instrumentation, LabVIEW, MODBUS, RS-485.

A. Automation Subsystem
(i) Internal Climate Control This includes ambient temperature and humidity control and allows the homeowner (or user) to control the building's heating and air conditioning systems locally as well as remotely. (ii) Lighting Control Lighting of building is a major contributor to monthly electricity bill that can be reduced significantly by controlling switching frequency and ON/OFF timings of electric lights in a prefixed scheduled or on the basis of ambient light intensity. (iii) Water-Level Control Control of water level of underground and/or overhead tanks is very crucial for routine activities and to tackle abnormal occurrences like fire. Hence, availability of sufficient water can be ensured by automatic water-level control that switches ON/OFF the filling pump and discharge pump as necessary.

I.

INTRODUCTION B. Security Subsystem

Security camera channels can be selected for viewing, camera control and to monitor activity. Motion sensing feature can be configured that will detect unauthorized movement and generate alerts via audio-visual annunciation. Audio-video recording of areas under monitoring can also be done. Past recordings can be stored on the server and replayed on demand. Other major functions can be: 1. Detection of possible intrusion 2. Detection of fire and gas leaks 3. Medical alert 4. Tele-assistance

Building Automation System (BAS) is a data acquisition and control system that incorporates various functionalities provided by the control system of a building. Modern BAS is a computerized, intelligent network of electronic devices, designed to monitor and control the Lighting, Internal Climate and other systems in a building for creating optimized energy usage, safety, security, information, communication and entertainment facilities. BAS maintains the internal climate of building within a specified range by regulating temperature and humidity, regulates lighting based on parameters like occupancy, ambient light and timing schedule, monitors system performance & device failures and generates audio-visual-email and/or text notifications to building O&M staff. The BAS reduces building energy consumption and, thereby, reduces operational and maintenance costs as compared to an uncontrolled building. A building controlled by a BAS is often referred to as an Intelligent Building. Typically, the functionalities like entertainment, communication and information exchange need high data rates, while the features like automation, safety and security need low data rates but low latency, high network reliability and data security. Moreover, the BAS designs for residential buildings must be cost-effective and affordable to common people and easy to operate without specialized training.

C. Entertainment Subsystem
The audio entertainment subsystem includes audio switching and distribution on user demand. Audio switching determines the selection of an audio channel. Audio distribution allows an audio source to be heard simultaneously in several locations of the building. This feature is often referred to as 'multi-zone' audio. Similarly, the video subsystem includes video switching and distribution on user demand, and the feature is often referred to as 'multi-zone' video. Video door entry system can be integrated with the TV screens, allowing the user to view the entrant as seen by a door camera.

II.

BAS SUBSYSTEMS

The BAS needed be split into various subsystems according to the basic functionalities as below:

D. Communication Subsystem
An intercom system allows communication via a microphone and speaker between multiple rooms. Following features can be added: 1. Remote Control: using Intranet / Internet / PDA with wireless connectivity. 2. Alarm annunciation. 3. Inter-person communications. This paper presents a design of BAS based on a wired-network operating on RS-485/MODBUS protocol for a residential building. For automation, MODBUS protocol is used for data communication. Although not formally standardized, it is regarded as an open protocol[1][2]. The physical layer of communication system is an RS-485 two-wire network, chosen for its simplicity, low cost and adequate data bandwidth. At the management level, the high-bandwidth Ethernet technology is used. Remote operation of the BAS is provided by the TCP/IP-based Intranet/Internet. The next section presents a detailed design of a BAS for a residential building, including the design objectives, BAS functions and the hardware and software of the system. The design has been validated by implementing most of the functionalities and all the network technologies selected for the BAS in laboratory, and its results are reported here. The paper ends with concluding notes and showing future scope of work in form of suggestions for value addition to the proposed work.

7.

8.

Recording of alarms in MS Excel format and maintaining history of events / alarms. Remote monitoring and control facility from any PC in the Intranet / Internet.

C.

BAS Hardware

The proposed BAS system is modular in nature and has a 3layer architecture[3]. Modules in each layer are described below: 1. Field Level Modules (Layer-1) These are also known as device level modules and consist of sensors, actuators and controllers. Such field devices are ordinary ones, which are inexpensive, easy to interface and readily available from a large number of vendors. They function directly in the physical environment and are deployed for data acquisition and control of the environment. Examples of such Field Level Modules are the smoke sensors, glass break detectors, PIR sensors, door-window sensors, LPG detectors, etc. Digital I/O Modules are also included here that perform the function of data acquisition from sensors. 2. Interconnecting Modules (Layer-2) Also known as interfacing modules, they link various networks and/or network segments together for meaningful application development. These modules enable various BAS modules to interact either with the same protocol or by conversion of protocol. They are also used to provide network range extension, isolation and interfacing at various levels of ISO/OSI Model. For example an RS485/RS232 convertor used in the proposed BAS is an Interconnecting Module. 3. Management and Configuration Modules (Layer-3) The main purpose of these modules is to configure and manage various functionalities of BAS. They can be accessed locally or remotely. Such modules are deployed for monitoring, controlling, logging and archiving the processed data values. They function at the backbone level and provide GUI for monitoring and control using the data collected from the both types of modules described earlier. These modules also generate audio-visual alarm annunciation with some other useful features for user comfort. RS-485 network is implemented to construct the physical layer, while MODBUS is chosen to implement the application layer for the laboratory implementation of the BAS. GUI of this system has been prepared using LabVIEW software, and is very user-friendly. The BAS is divided into three layers as indicated in Fig. 1, which shows only one residence with a room, a corridor, a water tank and a lawn with main entrance monitored and controlled from the control room. The central servers for OPC, Camera, GUI and Entertainment as well as remote workstation, that are at the top (Layer-3) forming the configuration or management modules, are connected to the ethernet backbone and to the Internet. A PC based main controller and IP camera are at the middle layer (Layer-2). The main controller has features like TCP/IP support, Integrated OPC server and multiple communication ports. An RS-485 to RS232 Convertor Module is also at the same layer (Layer-2) as an interfacing module. This module performs dual functions of protocol conversion and isolation. Various sensors and digital I/O modules forms the third and last layer (Layer-1). This layer also

III. A. Design Objectives

DESIGN OF BAS

Following are the design objectives of the proposed BAS for residential buildings: 1. Energy conservation by switching off lights when not required. 2. Security of residents from intruders. 3. Safety against fire and gas leakage. 4. Remote operation (control) of any electric appliance from a central location within the building as well as from outside the building. 5. Connectivity to the Internet to meet information, e-services and communication needs of the residents. 6. Access to a central digital entertainment library. 7. Simple and user-friendly Human Machine Interface (HMI). 8. Low cost of the solution. 9. Simplicity, future expandability and interoperability.

B.

BAS Functions

The system has been designed to perform the functions mentioned below: 1. Reporting alarms and status of different areas under coverage in the GUI. 2. Alarm reporting by audio-visual annunciation. 3. Provides control of various devices via GUI. 4. Live video of view (with audio) captured by IP camera and its live streaming as well as recording facility. 5. Entertainment panel provides continuous broadcast of live radio via GUI. 6. Entertainment panel provides unique video-on-demand facility via GUI.

consists of digital input and output (I/O) modules connected on an RS-485 network in multi-drop configuration and further to the main controller via RS-485 to RS-232 Convertor Module. These

digital I/O modules perform data acquisition from sensors and avails control outputs of main controller to actuators.

Figure 1. Schematic of the Building Automation System.

D. BAS Software
The software used in the BAS is based on OPC, an acronym for OLE (Object Linking and Embedding) for Process Control. Its purpose is to provide standards based vendor independent infrastructure for data exchange[4][5]. OPC is based on client-server architecture and enables a fully scalable solution for future changes and expansion. OPC specifications include OPC Data Access, Alarms and events, Historical Data Access, OPC Data eXchange, access to OPC server data through web services, etc. The software used in the BAS is based on OPC, an acronym for OLE (Object Linking and Embedding) for Process Control. Its purpose is to provide standards based vendor independent infrastructure for data exchange[4][5]. There can be multiple local or remote OPC clients accessing the same data from single or multiple OPC servers and running the same program.

IV.

LABORATORY IMPLEMENTATION

The proposed BAS design has been validated by implementing most of its functionalities in laboratory. The laboratory implementation of three layer BAS is shown on a panel in Fig. 2. It provides the functions of automation, safety, security, communication and entertainment.

Figure 2. Front view of the BAS Panel.

Figure 4. Entertainment panel of LabVIEW GUI.

At the top layer (Layer-3), PCs acting as local OPC clients are connected on an Ethernet LAN and that are acting as remote workstations are connected using internet. At the middle layer (Layer-2), the BAS consists of a PC acting as the main controller, OPC server and OPC client, and an IP camera connected to LAN. Data acquisition and control modules are connected on RS-485 network in half duplex mode. At the device level, a smoke sensor, motion detector, glass break detector, door-window sensors, ambient light detector, occupancy sensor, water level sensor and LEDs are connected. Remote control and event notification facilities have been also implemented. OPC server is configured in NAPOPC[6] software supplied by ICPCON configured for data exchange, while GUI based OPC client has been developed on LabVIEW[7] (Graphical Programming Environment from National Instruments) as shown in Figs. 3 and 4, developed for serving control and entertainment purposes respectively.

VI.

CONCLUSION

The design implemented in laboratory employs high speed Ethernet at layer-3 for establishing connection between servers and clients. Data acquisition and control in layer-1 use RS-485 and MODBUS protocols, which are industry standard. In this layer, application is implemented using LabVIEW GUIs. For BAS software, OPC is selected because of interoperability, vendor independence and other merits. The BAS scheme presented here is based entirely on wired network. Rewiring of existing buildings may be difficult and costly, and hence in such cases power line and wireless networks can be more suitable. In fact, a mixed-network protocol at the device level could be the best solution.

VII. FUTURE SCOPE

In modern contexts, BAS is a rapidly growing phenomenon. Emerging wired/wireless communication technologies are expected to transform the present partially networked houses into Smart, Intelligent and Adaptive Homes. Higher and higher penetration of automation will lead to increased device intelligence and they would be performing their routine tasks in vivid situations autonomously and without much human intervention. Such smart homes will provide high level of energy optimization, security, communication and entertainment facilities. Enhancement of each and every facet is important for rapid growth and wide acceptance of BAS. Focus should be on making BAS more and more user-friendly and a part of residents routine life. Therefore, serious efforts should be made to make BAS rugged, reliable and cost-effective as well as userfriendly. This work can be further extended by 1. connecting GSM Modem to enable sending of SMS alerts in case of alarm/event. 2. adding more and more functionalities to the GUI to make it more attractive and user-friendly. 3. trying to build similar GUI for commercially available Wireless Sensor Network Motes. 4. trying to build similar GUI for commercially available power line based automation devices and home appliances.

V.

RESULTS

Figure 3. Front panel of LabVIEW GUI.

5.

for adding more and more security, communication and entertainment features.

REFERENCES
[1] [2] MODBUS Specifications and Implementation Guidelines [Online] Available: http://www.modbus.org W. Kastner, G. Neugschwandtner, S. Soucek, and H. M. Newman, Communication Systems for Building Automation and Control, Proceedings of IEEE, Vol. 93, Issue 6, June 2005, pp. 1178-1203. W. Granzer, W. Kastner, G. Neugschwandtner, and F. Praus, A Modular Architecture for Building Automation Systems,

[4] [5]

[6] [7]

[3]

Proceedings 6th IEEE International Workshop on Factory Communication Systems, Torino, Italy, 2006, June 28-30, pp. 99102. OPC Overview [Online] Available: http://www.opcfoundation.org Randy Kondor, Integrating OPC into Building Automation [Online] Available: http://www.automatedbuildings.com/news/ dec03/articles/matrikon/matri.htm Users Manual, NAPOPC DA Server [Online] Available: http://www.icpdas.com/products/Software/NAPOPC/napopc.htm Online Help and Technical Support Documentation [Online] Available: http://www.ni.com/support