Integration of Lift Systems into the Internet of Things and the Need for an Open Standard Information Model

The Internet of Things (IoT) is currently the subject of hype and is still in the process of consolidation from a number of visions of its purpose and the benefits it will bring. This paper starts with a review of the development and current status of, and motivations for, the IoT and continues with a discussion of the potential for integrating lift systems into it. The conclusion is that a toplevel semantic layer for the IoT architecture is key to the successful delivery of so-called smart building and smart urban services - particularly when machines talk to machines without human intervention. It is at the semantic level that raw data is transformed into valuable and meaningful information, and it is the semantic level that can unlock the imaginative potential to engineer a smart urban environment in which lift systems play an important role. The new services will inevitably require the exchange of information across disciplines, between different corporate as well as private third-party agents and will highlight the importance of agreed standards upon which systems from different suppliers can interoperate. The paper concludes with an overview of an open standard information model for representing the semantics of lift (and escalator) operation which could support this requirement.