In the context of more sustainable buildings in green and smart cities, the DIH employs innovating technologies that include, but are not limited to, Occupancy Driven Intelligent Energy Management Systems, Interoperability and Robust Real-time Communication platforms, IoT enabled devices, On-Grid and Islanded Operation frameworks, for consumption, generation and storage. As the first grid-connected microgrid in Greece, the nZEB Smart Home consists a highly diverse infrastructure for applying various Smart Grid scenarios (Demand Side Management, RES & Microgrid Optimization, Power Flow, etc.)

Smart Health services and technologies includes a great number of underlying concepts such as Continuous and Connected Care, Patient Monitoring, Real-time Predictive Analytics, and more through a Unified IoT Health Platform that offers multi-dimensional access to healthcare professionals, relatives or caregivers. Additionally, the DIH supports treatment adherence, behavioural monitoring, wellness and quality of life integrated services, along with AI-driven Conversational Agent (Virtual Assistant) for Self-management of chronic diseases.

Smart cities go far beyond the use of information and communication technologies. They incorporate smarter urban transport networks, parking systems, upgraded water supply systems, waste disposal facilities as well as automated and efficient street lighting. A Smart city also means a more interactive and responsive city administration, safer public spaces and meeting the needs of an ageing population, without neglecting the privacy and the safe storage of the huge amount of data generated.

Human oriented approaches are essential in all sectors and within most technologies not only in terms of ethics and security, but also for maximizing comfort, acceptance and overall engagement. Towards that direction, a multi-layered IoT framework has been designed offering real-time occupancy extraction, occupancy flow analysis, as well as advanced visual analytics for occupant-aware solutions. Investing upon Computer Vision and AI-driven techniques, award winning solutions have been provided to the market.

Towards providing holistic services for smart buildings, the DIH provides solutions for seamless integration with elevation systems, hence delivering Smart Elevators that are designed to transform the simple act of traveling between floors. Using monitoring systems based on multiple sensors to detect the status of the elevator, in and out of the chamber, it can support numerous new technologies, with the most interesting being energy management via inverters, use of thermography for the detailed detection of human presence distribution and the interconnection with assisting robotic systems.

The DIH empowers robotic systems with enhanced knowledge and innovative capabilities through the combination of multi-sensorial networks and artificial intelligence (AI), covering the full lifecycle of robotics. Advanced manipulation and control (mobile robot navigation, arm manipulation and grasping, etc.) intuitive Perception (semantic mapping, human tracking, activity recognition, etc.), and Cognition (learning by demonstration, proactive engagement, adaptive task planning, decision making etc.) are some of the functionalities supported.

A cutting edge Big Data Analytics infrastructure consisting of a Graph Analytics based Platform (GAP) and a High-Performance Computing (HPC) system provide a powerful toolset for facilitating and significantly accelerating Data Mining and Enhanced Visualization processes by incorporating state-of-the-art techniques, like behavioural clustering, interactive visualizations, multi-objective optimization, and many more.

The nZEB Smart Home DIH supports high-end construction and renovation suggestions that include enhanced performance through Structural Intelligence that’s built on state-of-the-art materials that offer thermal insulation, fire protection, sound insulation and passive ventilation. Enriching material performance with dedicated monitoring systems and thermographic inspections, each building can be reconstructed as a Digital Twin, enhancing conventional Building Information Modelling (BIM) technologies even more.

The DIH infrastructure consists of a multi-sensorial network that includes sensors, actuators and displays both in the interior and at the exterior of the building, which interact and exchange information with users to provide them with automated, customized, and secured services. Having achieved integration with almost all open wireless (WiFi, EnOcean, ZigBee, Z-Wave, LoRa, etc.) and wired (BACnet, Modbus, KNX, OCPP, DLMS, etc.) protocols, we have access at any given time, to indoor and outdoor environmental conditions such as, temperature, humidity, wind speed and direction, air pollutants, air quality and much more, from various hardware components. The collected data can be stored and analysed in order to automate procedures, make predictions and extract valuable information.

Water conservation is necessary for smart cities to exist and function efficiently. Smart water solutions are growing fast as they give consumers the ability to easily monitor their water consumption and provide useful information through the IoT platform. The DIH’s installed sensors are used to capture important data such as water quality, temperature, pressure, consumption, etc. Additionally, the infrastructure contains a rainwater collection system (underground water tank) that, when needed, redistributes stored water in the form of grey water within the building.