Optimal sensor and actuator deployment for HVAC control system design

This paper studies control-theory-inspired optimal sensor and actuator deployment to improve the temperature monitoring and control performance of HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) systems in buildings. The deployment strategies are based on maximizing observability- and controllability-based metrics such as the respective Gramians. Our solution approach has the following benefits compared to previous work. First, an analytical, closed-form solution is developed. Second, the computational cost is low to ensure practical use of our approach. The effectiveness of our deployment strategies is demonstrated via simulation examples and by calculating different metrics of relevance.