Patents Assigned to Control Technology
  • Patent number: 10706375
    Abstract: A central plant includes an asset allocator configured to determine an optimal allocation of energy loads across central plant equipment. The asset allocator identifies sources configured to supply input resources, subplants configured to convert the input resources to output resources, and sinks configured to consume the output resources. The asset allocator generates a cost function and a resource balance constraint. The resource balance constraint requires balance between a total amount of each resource supplied by the sources and the subplants and a total amount of each resource consumed by the subplants and the sinks. The asset allocator determines the optimal allocation of the energy loads across the central plant equipment by optimizing the cost function subject to the resource balance constraint. The asset allocator is configured to control the central plant equipment to achieve the optimal allocation of the energy loads.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 29, 2017
    Date of Patent: July 7, 2020
    Assignee: Johnson Controls Technology Company
    Inventors: Michael J. Wenzel, Matthew J. Ellis
  • Patent number: 10707521
    Abstract: Electrolyte solutions including additives or combinations of additives that provide low temperature performance and high temperature stability in lithium ion battery cells.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 29, 2018
    Date of Patent: July 7, 2020
    Assignees: Wildcat Discovery Technologies, Inc., Johnson Controls Technology Company
    Inventors: Gang Cheng, Ye Zhu, Deidre Strand, Boutros Hallac, Bernhard M. Metz
  • Patent number: 10707800
    Abstract: A multi-pulse transformer with multiple taps provides a constant magnitude voltage output to a variable speed chiller's compressor motor over a range of input voltages. The 3-phase transformer includes primary windings and a plurality of secondary windings. The secondary windings are electromagnetically coupled with the associated primary winding. The primary windings include taps for receiving multiple input AC voltages and the secondary windings have a single output terminal for supplying a predetermined output voltage which, after rectification produces a DC multi-pulse waveform for powering a DC link of a variable speed drive. Alternatively the 3-phase transformer includes multiple taps on the secondary windings. Each of the primary windings has a terminal for receiving an input AC voltage. The taps of the secondary windings provide an output voltage that is converted to a multi-pulse waveform for powering a DC link of a variable speed drive.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 10, 2018
    Date of Patent: July 7, 2020
    Assignee: Johnson Controls Technology Company
    Inventors: Zhiqiao Wu, John C. Hansen
  • Patent number: 10704796
    Abstract: A heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) system for a building includes a plurality of actuation devices, a plurality of sensors, and a controller. The actuation devices receive actuation signals and operate in accordance with the actuation signals to affect one or more variables in the building. The sensors measure the variables affected by the actuation devices and provide sensor response signals including values of the measured variables. The controller generates actuation signal timeseries including samples of the actuation signals and sensor response timeseries including samples of the sensor response signals. The controller applies a discrete cosine transformation (DCT) to each actuation signal timeseries and each sensor response timeseries. Each DCT generates a set of DCT coefficients. The controller identifies a similarity between two or more of the actuation signal timeseries and the sensor response timeseries by comparing the DCT coefficients resulting from the DCTs.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 6, 2017
    Date of Patent: July 7, 2020
    Assignee: Johnson Controls Technology Company
    Inventors: Sudhi Sinha, Youngchoon Park
  • Publication number: 20200209816
    Abstract: A building automation system (BAS) with microservice architecture. The system includes a server platform configured to perform various operations within the building automation system. The server platform includes a microservices platform configured to execute various processes within the BAS. The microservices platform includes a plurality of nodes where each node is configured to run one or more services as separate processes. The microservices platform further includes a message bus configured to control communication between processes and an orchestration network configured to control communication between the plurality of nodes. The server platform further includes a common data model (CDM) shared between the plurality of nodes where the CDM consists of metadata of the BAS. The server platform further includes a container orchestration platform configured to manage and control the plurality of nodes.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 22, 2019
    Publication date: July 2, 2020
    Applicant: Johnson Controls Technology Company
    Inventors: Gregory B. Cebasek, Joshua A. Edler, Peter J. Hazelberg, Kunal Saini, Jonathan M. Schwabe, Matthew T. Trawicki, Michael G. Welch
  • Publication number: 20200208857
    Abstract: One implementation of the present disclosure is a method of providing multi-dimensional load data to a user. The method includes generating, by a processing circuit, a user interface that enables a user to configure one or more components in one or more dimensions; receiving, by the processing circuit, a user input requesting load data in a first dimension; generating, by the processing circuit, first dimensional load data for each component in the first dimension; and presenting, by the processing circuit, the first dimensional load data to the user.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 31, 2018
    Publication date: July 2, 2020
    Applicant: Johnson Controls Technology Company
    Inventors: Rajesh Nayak, Abhigyan Chatterjee, Barkha Shah, Shailesh Tavate
  • Publication number: 20200211308
    Abstract: A building management system includes an entity database that stores a plurality of interconnected smart entities. The smart entities include object entities representing a plurality of people or physical devices and data entities representing data associated with the people or physical devices. The smart entities are interconnected by relational objects indicating relationships between the object entities and the data entities. Each of the object entities includes a plurality of stored identity attributes. An identity management service is configured to receive a first identity attribute from a first device within a building, receive a second identity attribute from a second device within the building, compare the first and second identity attributes to the stored identity attributes of an object entity of the plurality of interconnected smart entities, and allow access to at least one of a building space, a device of building equipment, or a computer system.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 10, 2020
    Publication date: July 2, 2020
    Applicant: Johnson Controls Technology Company
    Inventors: Youngchoon Park, Sudhi R. Sinha, Erik S. Paulson, Peter A. Ainsworth, Anne Gallagher
  • Publication number: 20200209822
    Abstract: Systems and methods for automatically interacting with a flexible number of devices are provided. The system includes a plurality of devices, a configuration tool, and a controller. The plurality of devices are configured to measure or generate a plurality of points in a building automation system. The configuration tool is configured to generate a control program. The controller is configured to identify a primary list of N devices, where N is an integer. The controller is configured to automatically generate a plurality of secondary lists of points based on the primary list of N devices. The controller is configured to provide the plurality of secondary lists of points as inputs to a control logic configured to use the plurality of secondary lists of points to generate one or more control signals to control the N devices.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 23, 2019
    Publication date: July 2, 2020
    Applicant: Johnson Controls Technology Company
    Inventors: Donald A. Gottschalk, Gregory B. Cebasek, Jeffrey D. Taylor
  • Patent number: 10698399
    Abstract: A system for predicting HVAC equipment failure includes an actuator and a controller. The actuator is coupled to the HVAC equipment and configured to drive the HVAC equipment between multiple positions. The actuator includes a processing circuit configured to collect internal actuator data characterizing an operation of the actuator and a communications circuit coupled to the processing circuit. The communications circuit is configured to transmit the internal actuator data outside the actuator. The controller is configured to provide control signals to the actuator and receive the internal actuator data from the actuator. The controller includes a failure predictor configured to use the internal actuator data to predict a time at which the HVAC equipment failure will occur.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 10, 2017
    Date of Patent: June 30, 2020
    Assignee: Johnson Controls Technology Company
    Inventors: Michael R. Brownie, Gary A. Romanowich, Robert K. Alexander, Nathan J. Vandermause
  • Patent number: 10697674
    Abstract: A vapor compression system includes a first conduit fluidly coupling a liquid collection portion of a condenser and an evaporator, where the first conduit is configured to direct a first flow of refrigerant from the condenser to a first inlet of the evaporator and a second conduit fluidly coupling the liquid collection portion of the condenser and the evaporator, where the second conduit is configured to direct a second flow of refrigerant from the condenser to a second inlet of the evaporator via gravitational force, and where the first inlet is disposed above the second inlet relative to a vertical dimension of the evaporator.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 25, 2018
    Date of Patent: June 30, 2020
    Assignee: Johnson Controls Technology Company
    Inventors: Jeb William Schreiber, Seth Kevin Gladfelter, Kevin Donald Krebs, Cameron Stuart Nelson
  • Patent number: 10700942
    Abstract: A building management system includes connected equipment and a predictive diagnostics system. The connected equipment is configured to measure a plurality of monitored variables. The predictive diagnostics system includes a communications interface, a principal component analysis (PCA) modeler, and a fault predictor. The communications interface is configured to receive samples of the monitored variables from the connected equipment. The PCA modeler is configured to construct PCA models for a plurality of operating states of the connected equipment using the samples of the monitored variables. Each PCA model defines a location of one of the operating states in a multidimensional modeling space. The fault predictor is configured to determine a proximity of a new sample of the monitored variables to one or more of the operating states using the PCA models and to predict a fault occurrence based on the proximity.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 21, 2016
    Date of Patent: June 30, 2020
    Assignee: Johnson Controls Technology Company
    Inventors: Samuel F. Hamilton, Carlos Felipe Alcala Perez
  • Publication number: 20200201273
    Abstract: A building management system includes multiple different types of building equipment configured to serve different types of spaces in a building or campus and perform different building functions. The building management system includes a controller configured to determine a type of building equipment and/or a type of space to be monitored or controlled via a user interface and select a layout for the user interface from multiple different layouts based on the type of building equipment or the type of space to be monitored or controlled via the user interface. The selected layout is configured for use with multiple different building equipment having the type of building equipment or multiple different spaces having the type of space. The processing circuit is configured to generate the user interface by populating the selected layout with building equipment-specific information for a particular building equipment or space-specific information for a particular space.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 5, 2020
    Publication date: June 25, 2020
    Applicant: Johnson Controls Technology Company
    Inventors: Ryan A. Piaskowski, Nicole A. Madison, Garrett Wiens-Kind, Beth A. Ray, Ann M. Cook
  • Publication number: 20200202768
    Abstract: A display device includes a front portion, a rear portion, a halo, and sides extending between the front portion and the rear portion. The front portion, the rear portion, and the sides form an enclosure. The halo includes a rim and an internal structure. The rim is positioned between the front portion and the rear portion. The internal structure is at least partially within the enclosure and includes a sweep portion and a receiving post. The receiving post and the sweep portion are configured to receive light emitted by one or more light emitting devices and at least one of guide, direct, diffuse, focus, and scatter light emitted by the one or more light emitting devices out of the display device.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 11, 2019
    Publication date: June 25, 2020
    Applicant: Johnson Controls Technology Company
    Inventors: John Robert Taylor, JR., John Michael Reiszl, Damon Bryan Smith
  • Publication number: 20200200420
    Abstract: A plant room management system. The plant room management system may include one or more memory devices configured to store instructions thereon that, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to obtain steady-state values of data samples generated by plant room equipment and generate key performance indicators based on the steady-state values; and generate a dashboard that displays the generated key performance indicators. The dashboard may include a plant efficiency and building cooling load widget that displays plant efficiency and building cooling load; a chiller efficiency and chiller cooling load widget that displays chiller efficiencies and chiller cooling load for a chiller; and a plant energy consumption widget that displays energy consumption grouped by equipment type.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 28, 2020
    Publication date: June 25, 2020
    Applicant: Johnson Controls Technology Company
    Inventors: Rajesh C. Nayak, Subrata Bhattacharya, Abhigyan Chatterjee, Braja Behari Mitra Majumdar, Samit Sen
  • Patent number: 10693406
    Abstract: A system or method for a VSD with an active converter including a controller, an inductor, an active converter, a DC link, and an inverter. The active converter is controlled to receive an input AC voltage and output a boosted DC voltage to a DC link, up to 850 VDC, the active converter using only low voltage semiconductor switches to provide the 850 VDC DC link voltage. The controller is configured to operate with a reactive input current magnitude equal to zero at a predetermined system load, and at system loads less than the predetermined system load, to introduce a reactive input current that results in a converter voltage having a magnitude less than the input voltage, wherein the vector sum of the input voltage and an inductor voltage is equal to the converter voltage.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 21, 2019
    Date of Patent: June 23, 2020
    Assignee: Johnson Controls Technology Company
    Inventors: Konstantin A. Borisov, Ivan Jadric
  • Patent number: 10691081
    Abstract: A building management system includes one or more data sources that provide utilization data describing an actual utilization of one or more spaces and a utilization circuit. The utilization circuit is configured to, for each space of the one or more spaces, calculate a utilization attribute of the space based on the utilization data describing the actual utilization of the space, and retrieve, from a space profile for the space, a utilization target corresponding to the utilization attribute. At least two of the plurality of space profiles are associated with a different type of space that serves a different function and define the target utilization of the space. The utilization circuit is further configured to generate a normalized utilization metric for the space by normalizing the utilization attribute relative to the utilization target and generate and provide a utilization recommendation for the space based on the normalized utilization metric.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 12, 2018
    Date of Patent: June 23, 2020
    Assignee: Johnson Controls Technology Company
    Inventors: Beth A. Ray, Sheri L. Meyer, Radu M. Dorneanu, Gregory B. Cebasek, Donald A. Gottschalk
  • Patent number: 10691423
    Abstract: A heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) system may include a HVAC unit that may control air flow, a first control system that may directly control operation of equipment in the HVAC unit, and a second control system communicatively coupled to the first control system. The second control system may be located in a different zone of a building as compared to the first control system, such that the second control system may receive a request to adjust the air flow output by the HVAC unit and send a command to the first control system based on the request. The command may cause the first control system to adjust the operation of the equipment in the HVAC unit to cause the air flow output by the HVAC unit to be adjusted according to the request.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 20, 2018
    Date of Patent: June 23, 2020
    Assignee: Johnson Controls Technology Company
    Inventors: Theresa N. Gillette, Tyler P. McCune, Jonathan A. Burns, Shaun B. Atchison, Shawn A. Hern, Brian D. Rigg, John W. Uerkvitz
  • Publication number: 20200193346
    Abstract: A building energy system includes equipment operable to consume, store, or generate one or more resources subject to a block-and-index rate structure. The building energy system includes a controller configured to obtain a cost function that represents a block of the resource(s) from the utility provider as being sourced from a first supplier at a fixed rate and a remainder of the resource(s) from the utility provider as being sourced from a second supplier at a variable rate. The controller is configured to optimize the cost function to generate values for one or more decision variables that indicate an amount of resource(s) to purchase, store, generate, or consume at each of a plurality of time steps, and control the equipment to achieve the values of the one or more decision variables at each of the time steps.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 18, 2018
    Publication date: June 18, 2020
    Applicant: Johnson Controls Technology Company
    Inventors: Mohammad N. ELBSAT, Michael J. Wenzel
  • Patent number: D888589
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 25, 2019
    Date of Patent: June 30, 2020
    Assignee: Johnson Controls Technology Company
    Inventors: Thomas J. Menden, Mark A. Thoni, Hyunchul Kim, Thomas Richardson, Scott Thorne
  • Patent number: D889493
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 2, 2018
    Date of Patent: July 7, 2020
    Assignee: Johnson Controls Technology Company
    Inventors: Alan S. Schwegler, Michael F. Kornacki, Corey A. Poquette, Joseph R. Ribbich, Maria L. Mejia, Benjamin W. Hapka, Drory Ben-Menachem, Selena Goodwin, Amber R. Manuguid, Nicholas V. Pollock, Brent T. Ellis, Brian D. Marr, Naomi Steele, Xinlu Xiao