Building automation encompasses many areas such as smart homes, assisted living as well as home automation. We tackle the topic of energy efficiency, which grows in importance in the global energy transition. With the continuous increase in energy consumption, there is great potential of energy saving in buildings. The challenge is to utilize these saving capacities and at the same time guarantee comfort of inhabitants as well as economic efficiency. We develop modern control methods which incorporate knowledge of disturbances and are applicable to large-scale distributed systems.

Publications:

• W. Ye, H. Chang, P. Zhang, L. Quakernack, M. Kelker, J. Haubrock. Comparison of hierarchical MPC-based energy management strategies for residential microgrids. Proceedings of the 2024 IEEE Power & Energy Society Innovative Smart Grid Technologies Conference Europe (ISGT Europe 2024), 2024.
• S. Gau, T. Leifeld, P. Zhang. A novel and fast MPC based control strategy for switched linear systems including soft switching cost. Proceedings of the 56th IEEE Conference on Decision and Control (CDC), pp. 6513-6518, Melbourne, Australia, 2017
• A. Nehring, P. Zhang. Scenario based MPC for decentralized switched systems with Plug and Play capabilities. Proceedings of the 56th IEEE Conference on Decision and Control (CDC), pp. 5304-5309, Melbourne, Australia, 2017.
• A. Nehring, P. Zhang. Decentralized scenario-based plug and play MPC for linear systems with multiplicative uncertainties. Proceedings of the 13th European Workshop on Advanced Control and Diagnosis, Lille, France, 2016.
• M. Kettunen, P. Zhang and S. Jämsä-Jounela. An embedded fault detection, isolation and accommodation system in a model predictive controller for an industrial benchmark process. Computers and Chemical Engineering, Vol. 32, No. 12, pp. 2966-2985, 2008.

Master Thesis:

• N. F. Bin Zainurin: Design of Modular Model Predictive Controller for Building Automation. 2023.
• Y. Tao: Modelling and prediction of resident behavior in Smart Homes. 2020.
• S. Koos: Szenariogenerierung für SMPC basierend auf  Risikoanalyse. 2017.
• C. Hakizimana: Modeling and Stochastic control for home energy management. 2016.
• Z. Mao: A Multi-zone optimization model for buildings using TRNSYS for simulations and MATLAB for identification. 2015.

Bachelor Thesis:

• A. Römer: Occupancy based optimisation of a heating control. 2018.
• J. Jiang: Energy-efficient building HVAC control using  hybrid system LB-MPC. 2016.
• S. Koos: Modellhaus zur Gebäudeklimatisierung. 2015.