Generating metadata schema for data-driven smart buildings

Abstract

The integration of data from a variety of systems is critical for developing smart building applications. Design, construction, maintenance, energy management, and automation data are among few. For this integration, having a comprehensive metadata schema is crucial. Semantic web technologies and domain ontologies have been proposed as a means of modeling and linking domains and their relationships. This study proposes a semiautomatic metadata schema generator that combines an ontology database and a text search engine to generate a metadata schema. The proposed method is tested for a real-world building, and the resulting metadata schema is used to link timeseries data to the sensors and equipment in the building automation system.