Study and design energy-efficient home automation systems

Home Automation Systems (HAS) consist of a number of appliances (e.g. washing machine, dishwasher, oven, refrigerator, boiler) and subsystem (e.g. for heating, for air conditioning, for entertaining), which are connected by a communication network. The various elements of the system share common resources (mainly electricity, but also water and gas) to accomplish their specific tasks, according to the user’s requirements. Since resources are limited, in the sense that their consumption cannot exceed fixed thresholds (related to costs, contract’s rules or provider’s directives), competition between the elements of the system generates internal conflicts. The aim of this thesis is to describe an approach to modeling and study of home automation systems, based on the MAS theory, which allows to introduce a rigorous formalization and to define practical tools for the analysis of performances. The models consist of a switched dynamics governed by a Petri net. They are two interconnected components, one of which is basically a switched system with time-driven dynamics and the other is an event-driven dynamical system, which influence each other. The first component (called BEHAVIOR) models the functional behavior of the appliance, while the second component (called PLUG) models its interaction with the supply system of each resource (e.g. electricity, gas, water) and the environment. To optimize the functioning of the modern house we need a comprehensive study of the entire structure seen as a distributed control system. It requires a study of real load profile that is the pattern of electricity usage of a device in the home and an analysis on the skills and properties that every device owns. The entire environment is composed by cognitive and responsive agents, able to communicate its request and to respond to user requests. This communication layer is composed by a data dashboard and a web service able to share and control user behavior in order to satisfy his desire