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In a 2013 high-profile cybersecurity incident, the personal and financial information of nearly 110 million Target shoppers were compromised. The potential path of entry: an HVAC vendor who conducted business with the retail giant. The headline-grabbing news took place a few years ago, but the take-home message remains constant: Internet of Things (IoT)-driven building automation systems (BAS) are a double-edged sword. They deliver a range of much-needed efficiencies but increase the number of threat vectors. Using IoT for managing BAS does not have to be a game of chance.

A Building Automation System (BAS) has functions of monitoring and controlling the operation of all building sub-systems such as HVAC (Heating-Ventilation, Air-conditioning Control), electric consumption management, fire alarm control, security and access control, and appliance switching control. In the BAS, almost operations are automatically performed at the control centre, the building security therefore must be strictly protected. In the traditional system, the security is usually ensured by a number of cameras installed at fixed positions and it may results in a limited vision. To overcome this disadvantage, our paper presents a novel security system in which a mobile robot is used as a patrol. The robot is equipped with fuzzy-based algorithms to allow it to avoid the obstacles in an unknown environment as well as other necessary mechanisms demanded for its patrol mission. The experiment results show that the system satisfies the requirements for the objective of monitoring and securing the building.

BuildingIQ, a provider of energy management software headquartered in California, provides tools to commercial building owners and managers to improve the energy efficiency of their building operations. BuildingIQ offers solutions that use technology originally developed by the Energy Division of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO), Australia's national lab. The average commercial building wastes 30% of the energy it uses. Even simple changes, such as adjusting temperature settings and ensuring that lights are not on when no one is around, can produce substantial savings. BuildingIQ has responded by developing an energy management system driven by artificial intelligence (AI) that optimizes HVAC systems for maximum efficiency.