An Experimental Platform for Monitoring, Identification, and Control of HVAC Processes

This paper presents the concept of an intelligent control system platform equipped with advanced functions and integrated into a unique laboratory demonstrator for simulation of heating, ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC) processes. The resulting experimental platform constitutes a versatile testbed for development and experimental verification of techniques for signal analysis and feedback control. We proposed and implemented functions for detection of unexpected or undesired signal behaviour, process identification, and discrete-time proportionalintegral-derivative and two-degrees-of-freedom controller design. Functionality of the proposed advanced supervision server integrated into the laboratory HVAC testbed is demonstrated using preliminary results obtained from practical testing. The entire concept is built on an open-source control system platform, and is essentially applicable not only for smart buildings but also other industrial applications.