Smart Buildings

Smart buildings go beyond the concept of automation, a key feature of the IoT. A smart building system must be able to evaluate the data it gathers from sensors and automatically be able to act on the data, for example being able to activate a sprinkler system without human intervention if there is a fire.

Smart private homes

Smart homes are designed to improve residents’ security and comfort, enable the remote control of many home appliances, automate home maintenance schedules, monitor energy usage, and control home security systems.

Central to the development of smart homes is the concept of assistive technologies. Assistive technologies traditionally described aids, like wheelchairs, designed to help people with disabilities in their daily lives.

In the IoT era, the concept of assistive technologies is extended. Examples of assistive technologies are devices that enable the automated scheduling of when appliances like lights and washing machines are switched on or off. Smart medical and health devices are assistive technologies used in smart homes for the remote monitoring of elderly or sick residents, and children. Wearables sensors in smart homes automatically open doors, maintain an ambient temperature, and monitor and analyze energy usage in the home.

Security sensors in smart homes can detect and report gas leaks, water leaks, and security vulnerabilities.

Smart offices and commercial buildings

A smart office building or commercial complex enables the automated, centralized control of the structure’s water and electricity, lighting, heating, ventilation, security, parking spaces, waste management, elevators and emergency exits, access control to computer systems, and garden and equipment maintenance over an IoT network.

In the retail industry, IoT sensors around stores can help businesses collect data such as at what time a customer entered a shop, what they showed interest in, and what they bought. Smart commerce helps marketing and product teams to optimize a store’s layout, maintain optimal stock levels, monitor staff behavior, improve product tracking like return rates, monitor wait times in queues and foot traffic, and automate checkouts.

Commercial IoT applications deployed at supermarkets, malls, hotels, healthcare facilities, museums and exhibitions, and leisure complexes aim to create an enjoyable consumer experience outside people’s home environments. To create a comfortable environment, sensors monitor and automatically adjust air quality, lighting, and temperature in public buildings. Commercial IoT applications manage access control and security, monitor inventory in retail stores, gather data about people’s behavior in public places, and provide location services for visitors to hospitality venues.

Commercial IoT is not to be confused with consumer IoT, which is concerned with personal wearables and smart home devices.

Edge computing is a growing trend in commercial IoT. Edge computing provides capabilities for devices to collect, process, and act on data gathered close to its source, for example foot traffic in a supermarket, without having to backhaul to a data center.

Communication in commercial IoT solutions is effected by numerous connectivity types, including Bluetooth, wifi, LoRa, 4G LTe, and ZigBee, depending on the application. 

Smart workplaces

Smart workplaces feature hardware and software for improved communication and collaboration like video conferencing. In smart workplaces, sensors can keep track of business assets like company laptops. Smart workplaces enable automated monitoring of IT security vulnerabilities and remote management of off-site employees and contractors. In smart workplaces, many mundane tasks like scheduling a suitable conference room or catering for a meeting can be done remotely or by digital business assistants. In smart workplaces, new employees may receive push notifications to guide them around their new offices, for example notifying them where they are in the building or what security clearance they need to enter a particular office.

In a smart workplace, the coffee never runs out, toilets are always flushed, and visitors never have to circle the block for a parking space.

Smart factories and warehouses

In the industrial sphere, smart factories and warehouses are managed over industrial IoT (IIoT) networks. The IIoT is a combination of smart factories and warehouses, smart supply chains, smart logistics, and smart industrial machinery, creating a smart industrial ecosystem.

An example of how smart buildings are managed in the industrial sphere is the use of robots in factories and warehouses. The use of robots in the smart industry is called the Internet of Robotic Things (IoRT). 

Smart buildings include private homes, offices and commercial buildings, workplaces, and factories and warehouses.

Smart buildings deliver actionable information about a building itself or a specific room inside it so that owners or tenants can better manage it. The term smart building usually refers to commercial buildings, while the term smart home usually refers to private residences, but much of the functionality is the same and so the terms overlap.

The goal of creating a smart building is to reduce operating expenses, improve occupant comfort, automate energy consumption management, track the status of core building assets, and meet global regulations and sustainability standards in the industry.

To be effective, smart buildings require complex monitoring of the IoT networks that control the building system.