Modeling, Identification and simulation of a Lighting Control System

Abstract

This paper presents the results of the first phase in the design of a control system for closed-loop regulation of the light amount in office-building rooms. This project is a joint development of Ghent University and Niko Lighting Company. The final objective is to regulate the light amount in a room at a constant level, irrespective of the disturbances from outside such as weather conditions. The main benefits would be a higher level of comfort and a continuous saving of energy. The system will be made commercially available as a micro-controller-based intelligent light-switch. The first phase in the project, described in this paper, is the modelling of the lighting system and the identification of a dynamic model of the system. A simulator, based on the obtained model, is also presented and validated. The simulator will be used in the second phase of the project to design, tune and test the controller and to evaluate the closed-loop system performance under varying environmental conditions (robustness tests).The project is rather challenging because undesired interaction might occur between separately controlled zones in a big room.