Edge Next Wave

If you surf, sail, paddle, or even just stand in the water, the shape, speed, height, and impact of the next wave can either swamp or propel you. I predict the next wave is coming with an artificial intelligence edge that if you are not ready for will knock you over.

Weakened and beat up from the last Covid-19 waves you are now armed with a new understanding of remoteness as an asset, not a liability, and an understanding of the power (and security) of control from the edge. Now you need to quickly shift your attention to the next wave about to hit you and the steepness of its intelligent edge, artificial or not.

Here’s a video of our great conversation from the Nov 16 edition of MondayLive! all about how COVID has accelerated the adoption and use of edge computing in BAS. Here are a few of my edited comments:

My background as a consultant in the early days of Direct Digital Control "DDC" was to use the request for proposal to basically draw innovation out.

We're now in another rapid innovation growth period, and I'm suggesting that we can dust that off and use it. The fact that we can portray all of this edge wave innovation remotely and actually see demos while quickly communicating what's going on globally, is exciting stuff. We need industry to start requesting innovation and I'm actually pointing to the request for proposal, rather than the bid and spec.

We plucked the BMS controls out of the project and held as a prime costs sum, for the building cycle, which was usually about three years—because if you actually specified anything three years ago, it was obsolete. Then we would ask for a proposal for the latest and greatest innovations just in time for our projects. Never buy rapidly evolving technology before you need it—you will always miss the next wave.

It takes obviously an owner that understands and is committed to the concept.

I find the subject matter for this MondayLive very timely. Innovation begets innovation. Communication of concept is now so much easier. We can now take a look at what they're doing in Singapore (for example), and say, Wow, that is really great. I don't want all of that, but I want that feature I saw, and roll it into our request for proposal mandatory requirements.

We're having a giant collision of traditional, non traditional, and IoT in this big melting pot. Concepts/approaches are completely different. You have to let go of a specification because you have no idea of what it is you're specifying; what you're basically looking for is a result. Forget how it gets done for a moment, separate yourself from the technology, and refocus on your mandatory requirements of the desired purpose of your RFP.

I love requesting innovation. It is how we learn while exploring the unknown unknowns.

Our last chapter, Requesting Innovation, began this discussion. Here are some examples of how Request for Proposals (RFP) are used and evaluated.

First, the Super Low Energy Building (SLEB) Smart Hub, a platform to access and evaluate latest green technologies with building owners, professionals, researchers and policymakers. The platform is promoting the following points-based evaluation criteria:

1. Track record and Quality of proposal – 70 points    

    a) Track record – 10 points    

     b) Quality of proposal – 60 points

2. Lump Sum Tender Price – 30 points

From the SLEB Smart Hub site:

Super low energy building and smart building movement has intensified in Singapore. Building owners and developers are increasingly exposed to novel energy-efficient technologies and products. In many cases, difficulties in acquiring comprehensive information and evaluating the performance of these technologies could hinder building owners from taking action.

BCA rolled out SLEB Smart Hub to address this gap. SLEB Smart Hub makes it easier for building owners and developers to do SLEB projects by providing actionable insights about these technologies, and predicting the cost and benefit of applying them to their buildings.

In alignment with the Smart Nation initiative, we employed cutting edge big data and artificial intelligence for storing and analysing building energy-efficiency. We provide smart services backed by these analysed data. SLEB Smart Hub aim to help building owners and developers source, and adopt innovative technologies.

Waterfront Toronto is expected to announce a retooled request for proposals to develop the Quayside, after an abrupt end to its Sidewalk Labs partnership.

In August we talked about Online Education Anywhere - 'Edge-You-Cation'. Our education has moved from centralized gatherings to our online edge. All of this is happening at warp speed. Two years ago we started this discussion in our chapter, Edge of Change. We need your input—everyone’s input—as we are now at the "Edge of Change" and we are all a part of it.

Here are some great examples of discussions from the edge:

Here’s a LinkedIn post on Versatile Edge Controllers Powered by Raspberry Pi  (that garnered over 6000 views and some great discussions with over 40 folks weighing in). They offer advanced features, convenient form, and cloud connectivity – giving you the ability to make any attached equipment a cloud-connected asset. From the Azure website:

Azure IoT Central is a ready-to-use hosted IoT application platform which allows you to focus on your domain expertise rather than the backend plumbing of building an IoT solution from scratch. The BASpi-Edge cloud connection is quick and easy to set up thanks to Shared Access Signature (SAS) connection authentication and TLS (Transport Layer Security) data encryption. This allows the user to upload select, processed, triggered, or all BASpi-Edge point data to the cloud securely where it can be trended, visualized, analyzed, alarmed, and accessed from anywhere – giving your applications the mobility and global accessibility you have been looking for. The Azure IoT Central web UI lets you monitor device conditions, create rules, and manage devices and their data throughout their life cycle. Furthermore, it enables you to act on device insights by extending IoT intelligence into line-of-business applications.

Have you Read the Latest Nov. 2020 BACnet Journal? Be sure to read this article by Anish Krishnamurthy Senior Consultant (IoT for Buildings), Infosys Limited. From his feature article:

Road Ahead Looks Flexible, Scalable & Hybrid

These all indicate that the future is very clear for IoT in Smart Buildings. It is clear that IoT technology will be incorporated in buildings but, unlike consumer IoT, the solutions will have to be interoperable and flexible, and at the same time building oriented. That is why people refer to the use of IoT in buildings as Building IoT, or BIot. With a matured architecture, both the building system and IoT are going to work hand-in-hand to help to create a Sustainable Eco System.

From Stephen Dawson-Haggerty, Co-founder of Comfy (a Siemens Company) writing on the connectivity.substack website comes this article, Vertical clouds: ultimate lock in Architectural confusion Stephen Dawson-Haggerty. Key quote:  

A long time ago, “interoperability” for automation and controls was actually pretty simple. Because systems usually weren’t networked, you just had to make sure that the vendor implemented a relatively simple standard like Modbus, HART, or even BACnet; as long as you had the data sheet and a competent controls tech, you could plug your shiny new controller into whatever other system you had with some arcane register-fu. Systems were interoperable (although not usually interchangeable): get tired of one vendor, and you could generally rip out one and reprogram your other controllers to talk to it. We gotta fix this! Of course, almost no one seems to achieve a nirvana, where systems share data easily and frictionlessly.

From www.nexuslabs.online comes part three of Jame Dice’s interview with Matt Schwartz, Implementing the BAS Architecture of the Future:

James Dice: All right Matt, welcome back! It’s time to put a pretty bow on our three-part series and fulfill our promise of providing a sample specification that anyone can tailor to their needs.

A couple months back, we dove deep into why the BAS industry is broken and what sort of architecture would fix it. I’m most excited about this third installment because we’re bringing these ideas into the real world. Let’s talk about how any building owner can implement the BAS architecture of the future.

Maybe the specification needs should be re-framed as Mandatory Requirements in a RFP? Yet another discussion with commentary, this time between James Dice and Andy Frank, Founder and Principal, Novant, as it appears in the December issue of AutomatedBuildings.com, The Independent Data Layer:

We are long past the point where we need to formalize a dedicated data tier that decouples a building's automation or management system from the downstream applications that rely on its data.

From Harbor Research comes this article on Future OEM Software Business Models:

The original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) that are embedding software into their products—and now are building more and more software into their systems and solutions businesses—are the dominant “translators” of how these technologies will be integrated into our economy and society, then we may have a bumpy road ahead as OEMs sort through the complexity and challenges of new software-driven business models.

And here is a compelling whitepaper on Artificial Intelligence in the field of Building Automation by Professor Michael Krödel, CEO, Institute of Building Technology, Ottobrunn, Germany and Professor for Building Automation and Technology, University of Applied Sciences at Rosenheim and Graham Martin Chairman & CEO, EnOcean Alliance. From the introduction:

The term "AI – Artificial Intelligence“ is increasingly associated with buildings and building automation. The question is: what is it, where do its tangible benefits lie in this field, and how does the building infrastructure need to be adapted to realise those benefits? Today’s building automation systems in the main operate ‘statically’ in response to fixed time programs or simple control parameters. Room temperature control is based on a preset temperature that is the same throughout the day. Lighting is operated manually, with switches, or on the basis of simple presence switches. None of this is truly ‘intelligent.’ The new dimension that AI can add into the building automation environment is to use autonomous analysis of the data as a basis for optimised operation.

Ken Herron, CMO for UIB, a conversational AI company, writing on thedigitalworkplace.com, talks about taking natural language to the Edge in this article, Meet your new intern: AI:

Human to machine communication has been a one-way game for decades.  But recently we’ve hit an important inflection point with conversational AI. Now humans can use their own natural language to talk with machines. This can fundamentally change the nature of conversation…

The proliferation of conversational AI doesn’t just change the nature of how we communicate with machines, it also affects the entire way we think about a user interface.

Are you communicating with a smart speaker? With a chatbot? A mobile app? When conversational AI is applied correctly, it can redefine what it means to interact with machines. A person might switch back and forth between voice and messaging without missing a beat.

It also changes the way that languages are learned. AI didn’t learn Arabic from a textbook, yet it has become extremely proficient at both written and spoken language. This should force us to rethink how humans actually learn languages. Hopefully with some technomimicry, we can apply this back to our own learning.

This is how I attempt to stay relevant when I talk about what is happening today; by using the eyes and intellect of my young mentors.

I spent most of my early life quoting and following my old mentors—it made me look much smarter than I was. But now I can relate that information to what my younger mentors are doing today and why they are doing it.

My advice is to share your thoughts in the medium of your choice. You will find kindred spirits out there in the unknown. Also, follow my lead and seek out younger mentors. You need to be Born Again Connected. Perception of reality is everything. We need a method to disconnect from our preconceptions and reimagine ourselves.

By the way, many of my younger mentors are now approaching mid-life and need to find younger mentors of their own. Find, engage, celebrate them, quote them, and share and make them part of your world. They will help you grow and understand better your successes, failures and today's challenges while continuing our industry’s circle of life.