Autodesk, Inc.

Rhys Goldstein

Azam Khan

Alexander Tessier

A method and apparatus for simulating occupant behavior in buildings may be used to predict the energy use of a building structure. The activities of actual building occupants are recorded and provided as an input to the occupant behavior simulation. The occupant behavior simulation generates simulated occupant schedules with similar behavioral patterns. An arbitrary set of factors can be used to select plausible activity types, durations, and numbers of participants during an occupant behavior simulation. The simulated occupant schedules may then be incorporated into a building performance simulation to help architects predict the energy demand associated with different building design options.

Generation of occupant activities based on recorded occupant behavior

Embodiments of the present invention generally relate to the modeling of building occupant behavior. An embodiment of the present invention relates to a method for generating interdependent schedules in an occupant simulation model. Within schedules generated in accordance with the present invention may be included activities that require the attendance of other occupants. Disclosed are methods for distributing multi-occupant activities among other occupants of a building. In another embodiment of the present invention, personas are used to generate simulated occupant schedules from a limited number of real-world occupant surveys. Characteristics of the real-world schedules are manipulated so as to fit desired characteristics. Multiple persona models are disclosed.

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Toronto, Canada

Rhys Goldstein