Abstract: Sensing and control apparatus for a building HVAC system includes interior and boundary sensors, such as cameras and thermal sensors, generating sensor signals conveying occupancy-related features for an area. A controller uses the sensor signals to produce an occupancy estimate and to generate equipment-control signals to cause the HVAC system to supply conditioned air to the area based on the occupancy estimate. The controller includes fusion systems collectively generating the occupancy estimate by corresponding fusion calculations, the fusion systems producing a boundary occupancy-count change based on sensor signals from the boundary sensors, an interior occupancy count based on sensor signals from the interior sensors, and the overall occupancy estimate. Fusion may be of one or multiple types including cross-modality fusion across different sensor types, within-modality fusion across different instances of same-type sensors, and cross-algorithm fusion using different algorithms for the same sensor(s).

Abstract: Sensing and control apparatus for a building HVAC system includes interior and boundary sensors, such as cameras and thermal sensors, generating sensor signals conveying occupancy-related features for an area. A controller uses the sensor signals to produce an occupancy estimate and to generate equipment-control signals to cause the HVAC system to supply conditioned air to the area based on the occupancy estimate. The controller includes fusion systems collectively generating the occupancy estimate by corresponding fusion calculations, the fusion systems producing a boundary occupancy-count change based on sensor signals from the boundary sensors, an interior occupancy count based on sensor signals from the interior sensors, and the overall occupancy estimate. Fusion may be of one or multiple types including cross-modality fusion across different sensor types, within-modality fusion across different instances of same-type sensors, and cross-algorithm fusion using different algorithms for the same sensor(s).

Abstract: An airflow system includes a damper apparatus configured to adjust a flow volume of recirculated air and a flow volume of outside air within the airflow system, a variable air volume (VAV) apparatus disposed in fluid communication with the damper apparatus, and a controller disposed in operative communication with the damper apparatus and the VAV apparatus. The controller is configured to determine a percentage of outside air provided to the airflow system by the damper apparatus, determine a minimum flow volume provided by the VAV apparatus of the airflow system, which relates a required flow volume of outside air provided by the VAV apparatus to a zone and the percentage of outside air provided to the airflow system by the damper apparatus, and adjust a flow volume of air provided by the VAV apparatus to the zone based upon the determined minimum flow volume provided by the VAV apparatus.

Abstract: An HVAC system employs a technique built around a system identification/modeling method that determines critical building loads and airflows experimentally without relying on design plans or statistical modeling approaches. Operation includes observing the dynamic response of individual room temperature, in response to a change of inlet air flow conditions (either air flow rate and/or supply air temperature). This empirically-based model enables development of an optimized control approach that minimizes conditioned airflow while meeting required ventilation, thermal, and humidification performance objectives. Building-wide performance is achieved by aggregating empirically determined room-level loads, thus ensuring that the coupled performance objectives can be achieved while minimizing energy use for every space within a building.

Abstract: An airflow system includes a damper apparatus configured to adjust a flow volume of recirculated air and a flow volume of outside air within the airflow system, a variable air volume (VAV) apparatus disposed in fluid communication with the damper apparatus, and a controller disposed in operative communication with the damper apparatus and the VAV apparatus. The controller is configured to determine a percentage of outside air provided to the airflow system by the damper apparatus, determine a minimum flow volume provided by the VAV apparatus of the airflow system, which relates a required flow volume of outside air provided by the VAV apparatus to a zone and the percentage of outside air provided to the airflow system by the damper apparatus, and adjust a flow volume of air provided by the VAV apparatus to the zone based upon the determined minimum flow volume provided by the VAV apparatus.

Abstract: An HVAC system employs a technique built around a system identification/modeling method that determines critical building loads and airflows experimentally without relying on design plans or statistical modeling approaches. Operation includes observing the dynamic response of individual room temperature, in response to a change of inlet air flow conditions (either air flow rate and/or supply air temperature). This empirically-based model enables development of an optimized control approach that minimizes conditioned airflow while meeting required ventilation, thermal, and humidification performance objectives. Building-wide performance is achieved by aggregating empirically determined room-level loads, thus ensuring that the coupled performance objectives can be achieved while minimizing energy use for every space within a building.

Abstract: An improved automatic feedback control scheme enhances plasma spraying of powdered material through reduction of process variability and providing better ability to engineer coating structure. The present inventors discovered that controlling centroid position of the spatial distribution along with other output parameters, such as particle temperature, particle velocity, and molten mass flux rate, vastly increases control over the sprayed coating structure, including vertical and horizontal cracks, voids, and porosity. It also allows improved control over graded layers or compositionally varying layers of material, reduces variations, including variation in coating thickness, and allows increasing deposition rate. Various measurement and system control schemes are provided.

Abstract: The present invention is directed to a method of controlling the application of a surface coating by chemical deposition using a closed loop control on growth rate. The method compares a measure of growth rate against a setpoint for the growth rate and adjusts a primary input parameter in order to drive/maintain the measure of growth rate equal to the setpoint.

Abstract: An interface angle estimation system comprising thermal and surface imagers and apparatus for determining an interface angle. The imagers provide imaging data to the interface angle determining apparatus, which determines the interface angle.

Abstract: The control system includes a master loop for controlling crystal interface diameter and slave control loops for controlling the melt and the crystal thermal environment. Diameter and meniscus angle signals are partitioned into both a low frequency and a high frequency signal. The low frequency signal is used to adjust the set point of the melt. The higher frequency signal is used to control the crystal pull rate. The crystal control slave loop regulates crystal heat flux which may include following a heat flux trajectory. The heat flux trajectory may also be used to adjust the melt temperature set point.