Interview with Abel Samaniego, Founder and CEO of DABBEL – Automation Intelligence GmbH
You are using Artificial Intelligence technologies to transform a building into a green, healthy and transparent space. How does it work exactly?
Optimal control of the building control systems is essential today as the building sector accounts for 40% of the energy consumption and 39% of CO2 emissions in Europe. More than 50% of this energy is used inefficiently and more than 28% of this is due to human error or wrong control decisions.
DABBEL is the Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based Autonomous Building Management System (AI BMS) with the ability to make its own decisions by means of a self-learning, self-adapting and self-configuring system with cognitive artificial intelligence. This way it is capable of self-managing all building control systems, like heating, ventilation or lighting, more efficiently than any human.
Basically, DABBEL replaces the human brain of the Technical Facility Manager with a 24/7 AI brain. It is a holistic and scalable solution, which reduces energy and operating costs by 20-40% while at the same time increases the well-being.
Current Building Management System (BMS) solutions require manual programming and are based on static rules. This introduces errors and requires permanent supervision, making it a long process overall. Furthermore, classic BMS is not able to reach its full potential, resulting in suboptimal conditions for the individuals inside the building and unnecessary waste of energy, CO2 emissions and the associated increased environmental impact.
Through state-of-the-art AI, DABBEL is completely autonomous, i.e. it can adapt to the building, learn from it and immediately react to changes of the building dynamics without any human interaction.
To achieve this, DABBEL has developed an AI-driven Model Based Predictive Control System, which anticipates the necessary conditions, depending on the current context. It models the building and each room/area individually in real-time, recognises the context and current conditions of this area and adjusts the control decisions of the HVAC systems maximising the energy efficiency while at the same time keeping a healthy environment for the occupants.
The installation of DABBEL it is very simple, just a software layout on top of your current Building System. Meaning, no investment/upfront costs or installation of hardware.
Revenue model is simple, just a monthly license fee (SaaS) without upfront costs, based on the number of square meters of the building.
We have heard a lot about green buildings, but you mention a “healthy building”. Can you explain this concept?
DABBEL is proactively steering the Heating, Cooling and Ventilation Systems (HVAC). Meaning, that we can keep the proper and healthy indoor level of very important parameter as CO2 or humidity for us under the recommended levels. No more calls to the building manager to tell them that it is too warm or too cold.
What is special about your solution? How does it differ from other green building solutions?
DABBEL, in contrast to other solutions on the market, adapts to the reality of the Real Estate Market, where the biggest part of the stock is not, by far, equipped with the hardware infrastructure to make your building “Smart”. DABBEL adapts to this reality covering the gap of data with our technologically advanced cognitive Artificial Intelligence in a scalable way, allowing companies with thousands of buildings under their portfolio a fast solution to cut costs and reduce CO2 emissions thanks to our implementation process.
Congratulations! You are a TOP 5 Finalist of the Smart Building / Smart Construction Innovation World Cup®! Tell us more about your experience at the BIM World MUNICH 2019.
It was an amazing experience! I feel very honoured to be part of the 5 selected finalists. The level of the competition was very high.
How do you think the industry will change in the next 5 years? Where do you see your company’s place in the digital value chain?
The industry is going to move in the direction of Data. Big commercial buildings are big silos of valuable information that can improve our daily life and reduce the climate impact.
We see DABBEL positioned as the first solution to drastically reduce the energy costs and CO2 emissions of the commercial buildings in the most cost-time-efficient, easy and scalable way.
Create your own success story by applying for the Smart Building / Smart Construction Innovation World Cup® Award 2020 and become an exhibitor of the BIM Town!