Advanced analytics and smart buildings

Machine learning, a sub-area of Artificial Intelligence, has come to change our lives. The capacity to handle and to analyse large volumes of data in the wake of the technology advances of recent years is making paradigm shifts possible while increasing our capacities in practically all industrial sectors.

The great impact IoT can have on industry is not due exclusively to the monitoring and fragmentation of processes, but rather to the application of machine learning or other analytical processes to the huge volume of data that it generates and which can combine them with data from other systems to provide us with behavioural predictions or other valuable information for our businesses.

Smart systems can today be based upon a wide range of technologies such as new wireless networks with a variety of technical characteristics, cloud computing, edge computing and IoT technology. All these technologies help to capture, store and process data, using predictive analytics technologies, for example. The information generated by these techniques facilitates decision-making and improves efficiency at all levels of the company.

In smart buildings, for instance, these technologies are used to monitor and act upon different variables related directly to key aspects of the building, such as energy efficiency, the comfort of the people working there, maintenance tasks and facility management services. The ultimate objective is to contribute to personal well-being and health and to facilitate processes and obtain cost efficiency by helping create a healthy and productive work environment.

This automation is achieved using building management systems that acquire information from IoT devices such as CO₂, temperature or lighting sensors, cameras, and so on, and can process the data obtained along with that from other systems. Among other things, such data make it possible to predict and diagnose breakdowns or technical interventions, monitor comfort variables in real time and automate processes. This includes features such as car park management, HVAC systems, consumption of supplies, lighting, security systems and a whole host of other examples.

Andreu Sanchez

Cellnex Smart & IoT Senior Product Manager