IoT Based Intelligent Building Applications in the Context of COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

COVID-19 (Coronavirus) has affected our day to day life and the global economy and is far from being over. COVID-19 continues to spread rapidly around the world, more with the relaxation of restriction measures imposed by most countries. Limiting the further community spread of the epidemic has become a crucial issue, as employees return to office buildings. Technology, and especially intelligent building technology, can help to this purpose. Smart devices will have an important role to play in determining how the new normal workplace will function from now on. In this paper, we propose a solution for avoiding touching various objects and surfaces in offices, based on IoT. The system is called qToggle and provides a framework for efficiently and effectively interconnecting smart devices, equipping them with intelligence that helps automating many of the everyday activities in offices. Most qToggle devices are based on ESP8266/ESP8285 chips, Raspberry Pi boards and smart sensors. A mobile application allows users to control a series of appliances and sensors.

A review of facilities management interventions to mitigate respiratory infections in existing buildings

“…Moreover, Fazio et al developed an internal navigation system based on BIM that assists users in navigating smart buildings by tracking their location over time and recommending the most efficient route to their destination [ 154 ]. What is more, Bogdan-Petru et al presented a system equipped with IoT that would enable office users to handle office items remotely without touching them, such as opening and closing the entry door, controlling lighting, and operating the coffee machine [ 155 ]. Additionally, Swinarski et al simulated occupants’ behaviours in an educational building to evaluate the four different interventions for elevator operation [ 135 ].…”

“…Many studies in this review demonstrated that intelligent sensors, cameras, and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies could be integrated with building management systems (BMI) to facilitate infection control activities, such as occupant movement tracking [ 154 ], occupant counting, social distance and face masking monitoring, and the detection of feverish occupants [ 132 ]. Moreover, multiple articles have demonstrated how BIM and IoT-based apps could be used to visualise space occupancy [ 153 ], enabling occupants to reserve seats and control office facilities remotely [ 155 ] and facilitate social distancing [ 133 ].…”

Mobile Applications for COVID-19: Benefits, Technologies and Future Research Opportunities

“…For example, the IoT enables monitoring patients' chronic diseases that increase the risk of death caused by the COVID-19 virus. Therefore, there are many possibilities of using IoT technologies such as those that enable one to avoiding touching various objects and surfaces in offices [11]. R.P.…”

Dynamic Bandwidth Allocation for Internet of Things System Using Elastic Wireless Local Area Network

“…IoT usually uses several devices such as microcontrollers or microprocessors. The microcontroller commonly used in the IoT systems is ESP-32 [22] or ESP8266 [23], and the microprocessor often used in IoT development is the Raspberry Pi [24].…”