An automated control of daylight blinds and artificial lighting integrated scheme for therapeutic use

The therapeutic and healing effects of light have been demonstrated in various studies. Major ef-forts have been devoted to exploring the daily therapeutic use of daylight and artificial lighting in human habitats. However, the instability and nonuniformity of daylight are the key obstacles to applying it for therapeutic purposes. Thus, in this study, aiming at a stable therapeutic light con-dition, an automated control of daylight blinds and artificial lighting integrated scheme (DBALIS) is developed. A virtual test room set in Chengdu, a city in southwestern China, was developed us-ing Rhinoceros and Grasshopper. Banks of 224 daylight blinds and 245 artificial supplementary lighting (ASL) units comprising Ecor data were designed and evaluated using the Honeybee, Lady-bug, and Radiance tools. Rule-driven DBALIS models were developed in MATLAB to select and in-tegrate the hourly optimal combinations of blinds and ASL over the course of the year. Then, it is found that the DBALIS and the corresponding models for automated control of therapeutic light-ing are capable of overcoming daylight instability and nonuniformity and producing stable thera-peutic effects and visual comfort lighting conditions. The annual variation patterns of the optimal blinds and ASL were analyzed and integrated, and the annual dynamic model of the DBALIS was revealed.