Unified automation for buildings

ISA launches new standards committee on building automation

Fairgreen House in Galway (IRL)

The International Society of Automation (ISA) has extended its standards reach with the creation of a committee on building automation. ISA111, Unified Automation for Buildings, will development standards and guidelines to communicate the necessary information to enable building subsystems to be managed and to interact so that an individual building, a local collection of buildings such as a campus, or a geographically diverse collection of buildings appear to a user to be a single, coordinated, cohesive building automation system.

The committee will define the terminology, concepts, characteristics of automating building subsystems, and building automation architectural models necessary to unify the management of the variety of building automation subsystems. Direct communication between or among the variety of building subsystems without building management system involvement will also be considered and defined as appropriate.

ISA111 will not detail how any individual building subsystem works or is automated, but rather will address how the variety of subsystems can be monitored, managed, and interact in a cohesive and unified manner to ensure the safety and security of personnel, buildings and building automation systems, and to meet building functional and business case needs. “This committee has drawn great interest from across the global automation community,” stated Jacob Jackson of Assurity Design Group, who will serve as co-chair of ISA111. “This ranges from major manufacturing companies and vendors, to architect/engineering firms and integrators, all the way to government building authorities. We have also had strong interest from key organizations such as the Continental Automated Buildings Association (CABA) and InfoComm International.”

The launching of ISA111 follows the establishment earlier this year of an ISA Building Automation Systems Technical Interest Group. This group, similar to other ISA special-interest divisions and interest groups, brings together building automation professionals within the larger automation community for events, information exchange, and networking. The group will provide resources and support for the new ISA111.

Much of the work of ISA111 will be conducted via web meetings. However, the committee will hold an inaugural meeting on 17 October 2011, 2:30–5:15 p.m., in Mobile, Alabama, in conjunction with ISA Automation Week 2011.