The consequences that Covid19 is inevitably producing within the spaces in which we live and work, that are coinciding even more, have highlighted the need for a greater organisation of spaces, not only in terms of sanitation but, more generally, in terms of further services that presuppose not only connectivity, but interconnection (services that dialogue with each other). The concept of IoT, which incorporates several devices that communicate with each other with different protocols and with several applications in a variety of use cases, is therefore becoming increasingly important. In order to obtain a model that allows improvements involving different aspects, such as operational, security and user experience, it is therefore useful to use an open, interoperable IoT approach, i.e. able to communicate “in different languages” with multiple devices and software (both applications and frameworks, development environments), to facilitate the user’s life and allow him to enable any type of application in a single solution.

New opportunities for Facility Management

In the field of plant management and maintenance, the open approach of edge computers makes it possible to build infrastructures where systems and devices work collaboratively to offer and exploit new relationships in terms of building usage, service consumption (water, energy, etc.), environmental, air quality and Covid19 control and information coming from a wide range of hardware devices that can be simply implemented in building edge applications. Meter measurement, continuous monitoring of an asset that alerts in real-time in case of anomalies, predictive maintenance and all those forms of prevention for example, can save people’s lives and make the living or working space a safer and more comfortable place.

The technological innovation in the Building sector we are seeing, includes the interconnection and sharing of huge amounts of data derived from operational technologies in the field that are managed through advanced IT platforms aimed at implementing innovative digital processes, automating processes, and creating safe and intelligent spaces easily managed remotely. Unfortunately, the heterogeneity of resources that need to be monitored makes it difficult to apply an efficient model that is valid for everyone.

Edge computers and flexibility

Heating/cooling, lighting, air quality, access control are just some of the parameters user must be able to manage and control in real-time (or near-real-time)through an integrated data sharing system. One of the main challenges that innovators are facing in this period is the interoperability of systems, this is the IoT challenge. We believe that the GIoE and Beeta™ edge computers respond well to this challenge. The two control units are already compatible with:

– FIN FRAMEWORK – is a software suite that provides monitoring, control, planning, alarms, visualization, integration and analysis functionality. FIN Framework is already used by many system integrators involved in BAS control, HVAC, lighting and screening in buildings. > https://www.j2inn.com/fin_5_launch

– IBM EDGE – particularly suitable for interoperable applications that connect the field to the cloud in different IoT application areas > https://www.ibm.com/it-it/cloud/edge-application-manager

– AWS IoT Greengrass – Brings functionality for computing, messaging, data management, synchronisation and local ML inference to edge devices > https://aws.amazon.com/it/greengrass/

Although the pandemic triggered by Covid19 has undoubtedly led to socio-economic disruptions hard to forget, on the other hand it has been a trigger for innovation in many application areas, first of all in the Building, which over time will bring considerable benefits in our everyday lives.

See Tera edge computers: https://www.terasrl.it/en/edge-computers/