Design & Development

Aurora

The final Aurora sensor box features a BME680 for sensing temperature, relative humidity, eCO2, and Indoor Air Quality (iAQ). The use of a single module simplifies the assembly process and reduces the footprint of the box. A fan pulls air from the outside and blows over the BME680 to ensure the sensor reading is up to date with the surroundings. Aurora also features a camera to perform onboard presence accounting. Aurora is powered by a 18650 battery, which is constantly charged by an external power supply to ensure uninterrupted operation of up to 5 hours in the event of a power outage. Aurora features a stack of two LED strips surrounding its bottom edge, as a means of commu- nicating with occupants nearby via its colors and flashing patterns. Diffusers help even out the glow from the LED and improve the look of the design.

Atlas Management Tool

The data obtained from Aurora is sent to ATLAS Management Tool where it is managed by the Facility Manager. On the left, the Facility Manager can filter the alerts by floor or tenant. Then, the Manager can check urgent alerts, warnings and past alerts, along with their date/time, location and severity index.

The severity index is a number on a scale of 1 to 100, where 1 is the least severe and 100 is the most severe. Warnings are any alerts with a severity index of less than 20, where urgent alerts range from 21 to 100.

Past alerts are any alerts that are generated on the current day. This reduces overload on the Facility Manager so that only current alerts are displayed and acted upon.

To the right of this Lise, there are plots for all parameters (bVOC, Indoor Air Quality, Humidity, Temperature, eCO2 concentration. The green-shaded region represents the permissible range for each parameter. Blue points are points within this range, while red points are points outside. Immediate HVAC controls like ventilation power, set temperature and humidity within the zones allow the Facility Manager to change pre-set conditions, in case HVAC automation does not work. FI the situation in the zone is quite bad - cases wherein severity index is almost 100, and HVAC in maximum power is unable to improve the conditions, then the Facility Manager can alert the tenants by sending a maintenance alert to the Aurora sensor box in that zone. This alert ensures that the Aurora lights are flashing red.

To the right, there are statistics particular to the tenant or floor selected, like pending requests, energy savings and more.

Atlas Management Tool receives reports and alerts from office users providing room usage, feedback and concerns with the building.

Atlas User interface

We created a user interface to be able to communicate with users regarding the condition of the building and the company, in the hopes of engaging them to take actions that would be mutually beneficial to them and the building, both socially and environmentally. The user interface was created using HTML, CSS, PHP and JavaScript and could be accessed from a computer or a mobile device, making it convenient for users.

A building with sensor boxes (Aurora) installed can communicate through lights to users that the energy consumption is high in the area that they are in. Users can look at the energy usage of their company through the web interface and see how well they are doing when they unplug or turn off devices in response to Aurora.

To enhance communication between the building users and the Facility Manager, we created a means for users to easily give feedback about the building and report problems to the Facility Manager with reports. Reports that are marked urgent will pop up on the Atlas Management Tool as an alert that the Facility Manager can quickly address.

Since reporting on employees' social health and wellness is a requirement by the EU, we wanted to help enhance company culture and build community in the workplace through the company website. We felt that a company website would give employees a didicated source for important company resources. Since stress can be high in the workplace and can lead to diminished mental health and cause other health risks, we wanted to provide employees with resources that could help them manage their stress. There is an education and wellness page and events page that help foster health and relationships outside the workplace, which has been shown to be important to enhancing well-being at work by providing employees with knowledge to improve their physical and mental health and a network of support at work.