INTRODUCTION

The buildings that man has build to carry out his business, offices, schools, hospitals, etc., have been continuously evolving up to now. Over the years, improvements of various types have been introduces better safety, improved comfort, and adaptation of the environment to the needs of daily life.

For a few years, electronic devices have been available to make live easier through automation, control or optimization.

The key problem with these systems is to integrate and correlate them with a single, centralized management logic for the surveillance of all the complex operations necessary to make the building work.

Integration comes at various levels dividing the various functions, generally system but achievable, in the building; starting from the control of single parts of each system, lighting, plumbing, heating, etc., with dedicated sensors or interface. The next step is the integration of the various systems and finally adding global concentration of all the building's functions management with one interface tool, a computer that uses dedicated software to perform all the required activities. This is the management philosophy of what is call "Intelligent Buildings".

To physically construct this structure, without having to install miles of dedicated wires, a single BUS line in installed to connect and exchange information between the various components of the systems and the interface terminal.

In this manner, the building can be subdivided into areas, to plan use better or according to the modular spaces, that will be "autonomous" from the system management and therefore remain flexible and adaptable to meet the user's needs.