Patents by Inventor Robert D. Turney

Robert D. Turney has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 11927357
    Abstract: A system includes a plurality of thermostats corresponding to a plurality of HVAC systems that serve a plurality of spaces and a computing system communicable with the plurality of thermostats via a network. The computing system is configured to, for each space of the plurality of spaces, obtain a set of training data relating to thermal behavior of the space, identify a model of thermal behavior of the space based on the set of training data, perform a model predictive control process using the model of thermal behavior of the space to obtain a temperature setpoint for the space, and provide the temperature setpoint to the thermostat corresponding to the HVAC system serving the space. The plurality of thermostats are configured to control the plurality of HVAC systems in accordance with the temperature setpoints.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 8, 2022
    Date of Patent: March 12, 2024
    Assignee: Johnson Controls Tyco IP Holdings LLP
    Inventors: Kerry M. Bell, Bridget E. Kapler, Alan S. Schwegler, Leyla Mousavi, Kierstyn R. Robbins, Robert D. Turney, Matthew J. Ellis, Michael J. Wenzel, Mohammad N. ElBsat, Juan Esteban Tapiero Bernal, Brennan H. Fentzlaff
  • Publication number: 20240061404
    Abstract: A controller for equipment that operate to provide heating or cooling to a building or campus includes a processing circuit configured to obtain utility rate data indicating a price of resources consumed by the equipment to serve energy loads of the building or campus, obtain an objective function that expresses a total monetary cost of operating the equipment over an optimization period as a function of the utility rate data and an amount of the resources consumed by the equipment, determine a relationship between resource consumption and load production of the equipment, optimize the objective function over the optimization subject to a constraint based on the relationship between the resource consumption and the load production of the equipment to determine a distribution of the load production across the equipment, and operate the equipment to achieve the distribution.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 15, 2023
    Publication date: February 22, 2024
    Applicant: Johnson Controls Technology Company
    Inventors: Michael J. Wenzel, Robert D. Turney, Kirk H. Drees, Matthew J. Asmus
  • Patent number: 11900287
    Abstract: A model predictive maintenance (MPM) system for building equipment. The MPM system includes an equipment controller configured to operate the building equipment to affect a variable state or condition in a building. The MPM system includes an operational cost predictor configured to predict a cost of operating the building equipment over a duration of an optimization period. The MPM system includes a budget manager configured to generate one or more budget constraints. The MPM system includes an objective function optimizer configured to optimize an objective function subject to the one or more budget constraints to determine a maintenance and replacement schedule for the building equipment. The objective function includes maintenance and replacement costs of the building equipment and the predicted cost of operating the building equipment.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 28, 2019
    Date of Patent: February 13, 2024
    Assignee: Johnson Controls Tyco IP Holdings LLP
    Inventors: Robert D. Turney, Sudhi R. Sinha, Michael J. Wenzel, Mohammad N. Elbsat
  • Patent number: 11789415
    Abstract: A heating, ventilation, or air conditioning (HVAC) system for a building includes HVAC equipment configured to provide heating or cooling to one or more building spaces and one or more controllers. The one or more controllers include one or more processing circuits configured to generate energy targets for the one or more building spaces using a thermal capacitance of the one or more building spaces to which the heating or cooling is provided by the HVAC equipment, generate setpoints for the HVAC equipment using the energy targets for the one or more building spaces to which the heating or cooling is provided by the HVAC equipment, and operate the HVAC equipment using the setpoints to provide the heating or cooling to the one or more building spaces.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 19, 2020
    Date of Patent: October 17, 2023
    Assignee: Johnson Controls Tyco IP Holdings LLP
    Inventors: Nishith R. Patel, Matthew J. Ellis, Michael J. Wenzel, Robert D. Turney, Brett M. Lenhardt
  • Publication number: 20230327439
    Abstract: A predictive controller for a building energy system includes one or more processing circuits configured to obtain a constraint that defines a total electric load to be served by the building energy system at each time step of a time period as a summation of multiple source-specific energy components. The source-specific energy components include a first energy component indicating a first amount of energy to obtain from a first energy source during the time step and a second energy component indicating a second amount of energy to obtain from a second energy source during the time step. The one or more processing circuits are configured to perform a predictive control process subject to the constraint to determine values of the source-specific energy components at each time step of the time period and operate equipment of the building energy system using the values of the source-specific energy components.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 2, 2023
    Publication date: October 12, 2023
    Applicant: Johnson Controls Tyco IP Holdings LLP
    Inventors: Robert D. Turney, Nishith R. Patel
  • Patent number: 11782409
    Abstract: An environmental control system of a building including a first building device operable to affect environmental conditions of a zone of the building by providing a first input to the zone. The system includes a second building device operable to independently affect a subset of the environmental conditions by providing a second input to the zone and further includes a controller including a processing circuit. The processing circuit is configured to perform an optimization to generate control decisions for the building devices. The optimization is performed subject to constraints for the environmental conditions and uses a predictive model that predicts an effect of the control decisions on the environmental conditions. The processing circuit is configured to operate the building devices in accordance with the control decisions.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 17, 2022
    Date of Patent: October 10, 2023
    Assignee: Johnson Controls Tyco IP Holdings LLP
    Inventors: Robert D. Turney, Michael J. Wenzel, Mohammad N. Elbsat, Liming Yang, Matthew J. Ellis, Masayuki Nonaka
  • Patent number: 11774948
    Abstract: A controller for equipment that operate to provide heating or cooling to a building or campus includes a processing circuit configured to obtain utility rate data indicating a price of resources consumed by the equipment to serve energy loads of the building or campus, obtain an objective function that expresses a total monetary cost of operating the equipment over an optimization period as a function of the utility rate data and an amount of the resources consumed by the equipment, determine a relationship between resource consumption and load production of the equipment, optimize the objective function over the optimization subject to a constraint based on the relationship between the resource consumption and the load production of the equipment to determine a distribution of the load production across the equipment, and operate the equipment to achieve the distribution.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 13, 2021
    Date of Patent: October 3, 2023
    Assignee: Johnson Controls Technology Company
    Inventors: Michael J. Wenzel, Robert D. Turney, Kirk H. Drees, Matthew J. Asmus
  • Patent number: 11754984
    Abstract: A heating, ventilation, or air conditioning (HVAC) system for a building includes airside HVAC equipment configured to provide heating or cooling to one or more building spaces and one or more controllers. The one or more controllers are configured to generate airside energy targets for the one or more building spaces using a heat transfer model that defines a relationship between the airside energy targets, a temperature of the one or more building spaces, and a thermal capacitance of the one or more building spaces. The one or more controllers are configured to control the airside HVAC equipment in accordance with the airside energy targets.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 19, 2020
    Date of Patent: September 12, 2023
    Assignee: Johnson Controls Tyco IP Holdings LLP
    Inventors: Nishith R. Patel, Robert D. Turney, Matthew J. Ellis
  • Patent number: 11747800
    Abstract: An automatic work order generation system for model predictive maintenance (MPM) of building equipment including an MPM system including an equipment controller to operate the building equipment to affect an environmental condition of a building. The MPM system can perform a predictive optimization to determine a service time at which to service the building equipment. The automatic work order generation system includes an equipment service scheduler that can determine whether any service providers are available to perform equipment service within a predetermined time range of the service time. In response to determining that service providers are available to perform the equipment service, the equipment service scheduler can select a service provider and an appointment time based on one or more service provider attributes. The equipment service scheduler can generate a service work order and transmit the service work order to the service provider to schedule a service appointment.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 21, 2019
    Date of Patent: September 5, 2023
    Assignee: Johnson Controls Tyco IP Holdings LLP
    Inventors: Mohammad N. ElBsat, Michael J. Wenzel, Zhigang Wu, Yasutaka Yoshida, Robert D. Turney, Liming Yang
  • Publication number: 20230273579
    Abstract: A variable refrigerant flow (VRF) system for a building includes an outdoor VRF unit, a plurality of indoor VRF units, a battery, and a predictive VRF controller. The outdoor VRF unit includes powered VRF components configured to apply heating or cooling to a refrigerant. The indoor VRF units are configured to use the heated or cooled refrigerant to provide heating or cooling to a plurality of building zones. The battery is configured to store electric energy and discharge the stored electric energy for use in powering the powered VRF components. The predictive VRF controller is configured to optimize a predictive cost function to determine an optimal amount of electric energy to purchase from an energy grid and an optimal amount of electric energy to store in the battery or discharge from the battery for use in powering the powered VRF components at each time step of an optimization period.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 1, 2023
    Publication date: August 31, 2023
    Applicant: Johnson Controls Tyco IP Holdings LLP
    Inventors: Robert D. Turney, Nishith R. Patel
  • Publication number: 20230228438
    Abstract: A thermostat for a building zone includes at least one of a model predictive controller and an equipment controller. The model predictive controller is configured to obtain a cost function that accounts for a cost of operating HVAC equipment during each of a plurality of time steps, use a predictive model to predict a temperature of the building zone during each of the plurality of time steps, and generate temperature setpoints for the building zone for each of the plurality of time steps by optimizing the cost function subject to a constraint on the predicted temperature. The equipment controller is configured to receive the temperature setpoints generated by the model predictive controller and drive the temperature of the building zone toward the temperature setpoints during each of the plurality of time steps by operating the HVAC equipment to provide heating or cooling to the building zone.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 24, 2023
    Publication date: July 20, 2023
    Applicant: Johnson Controls Tyco IP Holdings LLP
    Inventors: Robert D. Turney, Matthew J. Ellis, Michael J. Wenzel, Mohammad N. ELBSAT, Juan Esteban Tapiero Bernal, Brennan H. Fentzlaff
  • Patent number: 11705726
    Abstract: A building energy system includes HVAC equipment, green energy generation, a battery, and a predictive controller. The HVAC equipment provide heating or cooling for a building. The green energy generation collect green energy from a green energy source. The battery stores electric energy including at least a portion of the green energy provided by the green energy generation and grid energy purchased from an energy grid and discharges the stored electric energy for use in powering the HVAC equipment. The predictive controller generates a constraint that defines a total energy consumption of the HVAC equipment at each time step of an optimization period as a summation of multiple source-specific energy components and optimizes the predictive cost function subject to the constraint to determine values for each of the source-specific energy components at each time step of the optimization period.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 26, 2020
    Date of Patent: July 18, 2023
    Assignee: Johnson Controls Tyco IP Holdings LLP
    Inventors: Robert D. Turney, Nishith R. Patel
  • Publication number: 20230194137
    Abstract: A refrigerant charge controller for heating, ventilation, or air conditioning (HVAC) equipment includes a processing circuit configured to analyze usage data for the HVAC equipment using a machine learning model to estimate an amount of refrigerant used by the HVAC equipment, identify a refrigerant deficiency based on the amount of refrigerant, and initiate a corrective action in response to identifying the refrigerant deficiency.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 16, 2023
    Publication date: June 22, 2023
    Inventors: Bo Fan, Zhigang Wu, Hayato Mori, Zhongyue Sun, Liming Yang, Robert D. Turney
  • Patent number: 11669061
    Abstract: A variable refrigerant flow (VRF) system for a building includes an outdoor VRF unit, a plurality of indoor VRF units, a battery, and a predictive VRF controller. The outdoor VRF unit includes powered VRF components configured to apply heating or cooling to a refrigerant. The indoor VRF units are configured to use the heated or cooled refrigerant to provide heating or cooling to a plurality of building zones. The battery is configured to store electric energy and discharge the stored electric energy for use in powering the powered VRF components. The predictive VRF controller is configured to optimize a predictive cost function to determine an optimal amount of electric energy to purchase from an energy grid and an optimal amount of electric energy to store in the battery or discharge from the battery for use in powering the powered VRF components at each time step of an optimization period.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 29, 2017
    Date of Patent: June 6, 2023
    Assignee: Johnson Controls Tyco IP Holdings LLP
    Inventors: Robert D. Turney, Nishith R. Patel
  • Patent number: 11662113
    Abstract: A building cooling system includes one or more cooling devices operable to affect an indoor air temperature of a building and a system management circuit. The system management circuit is configured to obtain an objective function that includes a power consumption term and a comfort term, perform an optimization of the objective function over a time horizon to determine values of the cooling capacity of the cooling devices where each value of the cooling capacity corresponds to a time step of the time horizon, and control the cooling devices based on the values of the cooling capacity of the cooling devices. The comfort term of the objective function a difference between a prediction of the indoor air temperature of the building and a temperature setpoint for the building, while the power consumption term is a function of the power consumption of the one or more cooling devices.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 18, 2019
    Date of Patent: May 30, 2023
    Assignee: Johnson Controls Tyco IP Holdings LLP
    Inventors: Robert D. Turney, Liming Yang, Michael J. Wenzel
  • Patent number: 11644207
    Abstract: A thermostat for a building zone includes at least one of a model predictive controller and an equipment controller. The model predictive controller is configured to obtain a cost function that accounts for a cost of operating HVAC equipment during each of a plurality of time steps, use a predictive model to predict a temperature of the building zone during each of the plurality of time steps, and generate temperature setpoints for the building zone for each of the plurality of time steps by optimizing the cost function subject to a constraint on the predicted temperature. The equipment controller is configured to receive the temperature setpoints generated by the model predictive controller and drive the temperature of the building zone toward the temperature setpoints during each of the plurality of time steps by operating the HVAC equipment to provide heating or cooling to the building zone.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 10, 2019
    Date of Patent: May 9, 2023
    Assignee: Johnson Controls Tyco IP Holdings LLP
    Inventors: Robert D. Turney, Matthew J. Ellis, Michael J. Wenzel, Mohammad N. Elbsat, Juan Esteban Tapiero Bernal, Brennan H. Fentzlaff
  • Patent number: 11636429
    Abstract: An automatic parts resupply system for building equipment including a model predictive maintenance system configured to determine a service time at which to perform service on the building equipment by performing a predictive optimization of a total cost of operating and servicing the building equipment over a time period. The service time is a decision variable in the predictive optimization. The automatic parts resupply system includes a resupply manager. The resupply manager is configured to generate a parts resupply order for the building equipment based on a result of the predictive optimization. The resupply manager is configured to determine a transmission time at which to transmit the parts resupply order to a parts supplier. The resupply manager is configured to transmit the parts resupply order to the parts supplier at the transmission time.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 12, 2019
    Date of Patent: April 25, 2023
    Assignee: Johnson Controls Tyco IP Holdings LLP
    Inventors: Michael J. Wenzel, Mohammad N. ElBsat, Yasutaka Yoshida, Mori Hayato, Robert D. Turney
  • Publication number: 20230116964
    Abstract: An oil management controller for heating, ventilation, or air conditioning (HVAC) equipment. The controller includes a processing circuit. The processing circuit is configured to analyze operating data for the HVAC equipment using a machine learning model to predict a variable state or condition of oil used by the HVAC equipment. The processing circuit is configured to identify an oil deficiency based on the variable state or condition of the oil. The processing circuit is configured to automatically initiate a corrective action responsive to identifying the oil deficiency.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 12, 2020
    Publication date: April 20, 2023
    Applicant: Johnson Controls Tyco IP Holdings LLP
    Inventors: ZHONGYUE SUN, LIMING YANG, ROBERT D. TURNEY, LUMING WANG, BO FAN, ZHIGANG WU
  • Publication number: 20230088808
    Abstract: A heating, ventilation, or air conditioning (HVAC) system for a building includes HVAC equipment configured to provide heating or cooling to one or more building spaces and one or more controllers. The one or more controllers include one or more processing circuits configured to generate energy targets for the one or more building spaces using a thermal capacitance of the one or more building spaces to which the heating or cooling is provided by the HVAC equipment, generate setpoints for the HVAC equipment using the energy targets for the one or more building spaces to which the heating or cooling is provided by the HVAC equipment, and operate the HVAC equipment using the setpoints to provide the heating or cooling to the one or more building spaces.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 21, 2022
    Publication date: March 23, 2023
    Inventors: Nishith R. Patel, Matthew J. Ellis, Michael J. Wenzel, Robert D. Turney, Brett M. Lenhardt
  • Publication number: 20230085072
    Abstract: A method includes operating equipment to affect a variable state or condition of a space and training weights of a neural network by outputting control dispatches from the neural network based on simulated inputs, simulating costs associated with operating the equipment in accordance with control dispatches, and adjusting the weights to reduce the costs. The method also includes generating a control dispatch for the equipment by applying an actual measurement relating to the space as an input to the neural network, and controlling the equipment in accordance with the control dispatch.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 21, 2022
    Publication date: March 16, 2023
    Inventors: Robert D. Turney, Henry O. Marcy, V