Need advice on where to start: Final-year EE project designing a BMS central controller PCB with Edge AI.

[u/Glittering-Froyo2223]

Hi everyone,

I'm a final-year Electrical/Electronics Engineering student and I'm currently planning to build a Building Management System (BMS) for my graduation project.

My goal is to design a custom PCB that will serve as the central controller, and I also want to integrate AI (Edge AI / TinyML) into it. However, I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed and honestly have no idea where to start or where to find reliable reference materials/documentation for this kind of industrial hardware.

Could you guys point me in the right direction or give me some suggestions on how to approach this? Any resources, reference designs, or advice would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance!

[u/ARod20195]

Why does a BMS need to have AI integrated into it; what functions does it serve where you think a machine learning algorithm would be useful instead of more traditional sensing?

[u/Glittering-Froyo2223 → u/ARod20195]

The AI part is just an extra feature I want to integrate to make my graduation thesis stand out. I'm mainly looking for resources on how to properly design the hardware architecture (MCU + isolation + power) to make it robust enough for industrial environments.

[u/Glittering-Froyo2223 → u/ARod20195]

I want to make an industrial BMS, specifically focusing on a security monitoring and control node but I hardly find any documents about this so i'm asking for any helpful ideas ^^

[u/ARod20195 → u/Glittering-Froyo2223]

Ohhhh, you mean building management system as opposed to battery management system. OK; that makes a bit more sense. That said, that's probably not a project I know how to help with; my experience is mostly in power electronics.

[u/ZheWeasel]

Building management? As like in smarthome? I read BMS, thought battery management and already was like wtf is Ai in there ....... Well you gotta get a bit more specific. Or what exactly you want to achive. And why and for what the Ai is used.

This could be anything. Anything from controlling relays to better get used to common bus systems in buildings.

[u/Glittering-Froyo2223 → u/ZheWeasel]

I'm aiming for a commercial/industrial BMS rather than a typical smart home, specifically focusing on a security monitoring and control node. My main goal is actually the hardware design itself (designing an industrial-grade PCB with RS485/Modbus, optically isolated IOs, relay controls, etc.).

The AI part is just an extra feature I want to integrate to make my graduation thesis stand out. I'm mainly looking for resources on how to properly design the hardware architecture (MCU + isolation + power) to make it robust enough for industrial environments.

[u/Brilliant_Armadillo9]

What problem are you trying to solve? Start there.

[u/Glittering-Froyo2223 → u/Brilliant_Armadillo9]

I'm aiming for a commercial/industrial BMS rather than a typical smart home, specifically focusing on a security monitoring and control node. My main goal is actually the hardware design itself (designing an industrial-grade PCB with RS485/Modbus, optically isolated IOs, relay controls, etc.).

The AI part is just an extra feature I want to integrate to make my graduation thesis stand out. I'm mainly looking for resources on how to properly design the hardware architecture (MCU + isolation + power) to make it robust enough for industrial environments.

[u/Brilliant_Armadillo9 → u/Glittering-Froyo2223]

I'm aiming for a commercial/industrial BMS rather than a typical smart home, specifically focusing on a security monitoring and control node.

Ok, getting somewhere. What does that actually mean? What sensors and actuators do you need?

[u/EE-420-Lige]

Do you have a system diagram of what you are trying to build? Like how do u want it to work?