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Smart Home & Building Automation

Building-Wide Occupancy & HVAC Optimization Platform

US-based building-management / energy-efficiency technology company

The platform combines occupancy and environmental sensing across a building to understand space utilization and provide intelligence for more efficient HVAC operation.

~37%Estimated AI-first engineering effort reduction
~20%Estimated HVAC energy-use reduction from occupancy-aware control (design target)
5Engineering layers spanned
Layers we built
Sensors / GatewaysFirmwareEdge AICloudDashboard
The Ryvasys Split

Where AI accelerated vs. where our engineers led.

Every project follows the same Ryvasys Split — AI drafts the mechanical work, a named engineer reviews and owns every decision that touches safety, cost, or a regulatory limit.

Where AI accelerated

  • Firmware & sensor interfaces
  • Device APIs
  • Data pipelines
  • Analytics & dashboard
  • Test generation & documentation

Where our engineers led

  • Occupancy methodology & sensor fusion
  • Building-system integration
  • HVAC control boundaries
  • Architecture & reliability
  • Deployment validation
Engineering detail

Technical deep-dive

Additional detail on architecture, stack and implementation specifics for this engagement.

STACK

Architecture & stack

The platform combines distributed occupancy/environmental sensors and gateways across a building with edge-level pre-processing, feeding a cloud backend that provides intelligence and integration points for the building's HVAC control systems and a facilities-facing dashboard.

  • Distributed occupancy/environmental sensors and gateways with edge-level pre-processing
  • Cloud backend providing analytics and HVAC-integration intelligence
  • Facilities-facing dashboard surfacing building-wide utilization
DATA

Connectivity & data pipeline

Sensor and gateway devices stream occupancy and environmental data to the cloud, where it's aggregated across zones to build a building-wide picture of utilization; this feeds analytics and recommendations that integrate with existing HVAC control boundaries rather than directly actuating equipment outside agreed integration points.

  • Zone-level sensor data aggregated cloud-side into a building-wide utilization picture
  • Analytics and recommendations integrate with existing HVAC control boundaries
  • Deployment validated against real occupancy patterns before recommendations go live
CHALLENGE

Key engineering challenges

Fusing occupancy signals from multiple sensor types into a reliable building-wide utilization picture, and integrating cleanly with existing building-management and HVAC systems without overstepping agreed control boundaries, were the primary engineering challenges — building-system integration work tends to be as much about respecting existing infrastructure and safety boundaries as it is about the sensing itself.

  • Fusing multiple sensor types into one reliable occupancy signal per zone
  • Integrating with existing building-management systems without overstepping agreed control boundaries
  • Balancing sensor density against installation cost across a full building
RATIONALE

Why this approach

The platform was scoped to provide intelligence and recommendations rather than direct HVAC actuation, reflecting a deliberate choice to keep control-boundary risk with the building's existing systems while still delivering the efficiency value from better occupancy visibility.

  • Platform scoped to provide recommendations rather than direct HVAC actuation, keeping control-boundary risk with existing building systems
  • Edge pre-processing reduces the volume of raw data the cloud pipeline needs to handle
  • Integration respected existing infrastructure and safety boundaries by design, not as an afterthought

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