The OTOMO research
applied to office
lighting design:
Experiments and tests to use everyday objects as a platform to install
sensors and DALI-BLE control units, in new
or already occupied offices, in order to optimise
the consumption of the environments
themselves and to simplify the installation of
building automation systems. This would allow
the transformation of traditional environments
into smart environments without impact on the
constructive aspect of the buildings and without
the need for highly-skilled operators.
W The research location context
To date, on the market, there are
comprehensive and complex systems that
can be installed to perform operations similar
to those offered by the OTOMO 6 system.
However, they require the intervention
of programmers and highly-skilled workers able
to best configure each device. These systems
offer high levels of customization, but for the
same reason they run a high risk of giving poor
hen we talk about lighting for the
well-being of the individual, the
attention is often given to the characteristics
of the light sources. In the research published
on LUCE 325, our focus was on two elements
that can contribute to the Human Centric
Lighting. They are the circadian lighting
characteristics and the intelligent light
management systems (LMS). In this article,
we present the results of a research project
testing an OTOMO-controlled lighting system.
The OTOMO research
This research was developed by Eelectron S.p.A.,
with the collaboration of the Laboratorio Luce
of the Politecnico di Milano for the testing.
OTOMO (Optimized Office Automation) 1 is a
system designed to manage the comfort
and energy savings in buildings, especially
in the office environment. In fact, it is a BLE
(Bluetooth Low Energy) 2 network between
products, diffuse sensors, smartphones
and lighting fixtures, developed to generate
and optimize energy consumption depending
on the presence of occupants in offices.
The office was the focal point because it is an
environment inhabited by users who are not
usually those that support the energy costs
of the building itself and, consequently,
energy-saving strategies decided by the
manager are strongly required. The system
was born in an Italian company specialized
in the production of electronic hardware and
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software devices based on the KNX protocol,
the world standard for building automation 3 .
The first step of the research was the
development of a proprietary technology that
would allow to establish a relational network
between devices, in which the data
transmission and reception took place over BLE 4
technology. The next phase was the design
and production of all those products needed
to create a modern building automation
system such as lighting controls, shading
control systems and, under development,
also temperature controls.
The necessary condition for the management
of an office environment is based on the actual
presence of occupants that, in our case, was
detected through smartphones and/or beacons,
and IoT sensors placed in everyday objects such
as lighting fixtures, table lamps, curtains and
fan coils, instead of the traditional PIR 5 presence
sensor. The control and display of the
environmental parameters were made on
smartphones thanks to an app available for
iOS and Android devices. The products
communicated with a cloud infrastructure
that could process data, provide reports, and
manage system users, moreover allow remote
monitoring of systems and their updating.
The goals of the research project were many,
as to prepare the manufacturing company
for the integration of emerging technologies
in the IoT world, using the development of this
system to acquire specific know-how, but also
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Fig. 6 Registrazione funzionalità circadiana dalle ore 9.00 alle ore 18.00 /
Recording of circadian function from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.
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Fig. 7 Postazione di lavoro all’interno
dell’ufficio utilizzato per la sperimentazione /
The workstation in the office used for the testing
results and consequently of not living up
to expectations or becoming uncompetitive
from the point of view of costs, in the absence
of adequate staff or budget. Therefore, there
is a real risk that installers and final customers
will not adopt them. Alternatively, there are
simpler systems on the market that are not
able, however, to offer advanced features in
the HCL (Human Centric Lighting) 7, 8 perspective,
such as the management of a circadian
lighting 9 , constant brightness control and also
remote management. In summary, these
systems have limited functionalities and little
possibility of customization, but they have
the advantage of being installed by unskilled
operators.
Having considered the office environment
as a field of study, has allowed us to address
issues, in this specific research, such as the
control of light, blinds, heating and cooling,
all factors that have a high impact on the energy
consumed, and thus to realize a high efficiency
and low purchase cost system. The system is
in fact made up of a range of products, that are
both easy to install and that can be configured
via smartphones also by an unskilled operator.
Another important result of the research was
the fact of having involved companies from
different sectors like lighting, motorized blinds
and luminous or motorized furniture, in order
to combine different values and create
a network of companies able to exploit the
new IoT technology adopting it into their
products. One of the companies involved by the
RESEARCH AND INNOVATION / LUCE 327
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