AI-driven digital twin make energy-efficient buildings easier to design

The article discusses a new AI-driven digital twin technology developed to aid architects and engineers in designing energy-efficient, zero-energy buildings with improved indoor comfort. Traditional design tools rely on static simulations that fail to provide real-time feedback on how heat, airflow, and comfort evolve as building designs change. This limitation is especially problematic for Task-Ambience Air Conditioning (TAAC) systems, which regulate climate around individual work areas and are known to save energy but have been difficult to evaluate during the design phase. The new AI-powered digital twin, called VEEM-ZEB, was created by researchers led by Professor Teng at Kanazawa University in collaboration with Fushou University. It enables real-time testing of energy consumption and thermal comfort by modeling a building as multiple climate zones rather than a single one, allowing simultaneous assessment of comfort and energy use using standard indicators like PMV and PPD. VEEM-ZEB incorporates a three-layer digital twin with rule-based symbolic AI and a VR interface that visually presents live results