An intelligent simulation model for blind position control in daylighting schemes in buildings

Abstract

The models for daylighting control are to contend with multi-variant, dynamic, nonlinear components impacted by geographical, environmental and occupancy factors amongst many other things. Conventional techniques for system analysis are not suitable for dealing with blind control systems whose positions are strongly influenced by occupant’s mood, emotions, and perception. This paper attempts to illustrate the effectiveness of using intelligent techniques in the visual environment control domain of the building systems. With the use of adaptive neuro fuzzy inference system (ANFIS), the paper models nonlinear blind position dynamics from the simulated data. The model thus obtained is then used for controller design and validation. Using MATLAB’s fuzzy logic toolbox, the paper also gives the procedure for creating such a model that is capable of maintaining a user-specified illuminance profile. When implemented in an adaptive control scheme, the model could be further tuned online for time-varying dynamics. The article’s ultimate objective is to accentuate the use of soft computing techniques towards significantly improving the effectiveness of control process and help address the problem of control search space reduction when used along with simulation.