Papers for

smart building developers

Papers whose findings have a practical use for this group, as judged from the abstract. Open a paper to read what it means in practice.

Localintent enhances smart building automation outcomes with local llms

LocalIntent: Outcome-Specific Structured Generation for Backend-Compatible Smart Building Automation with Local LLMs

Abstract: Locally deployed large language models (LLMs) can reduce reliance on remote cloud services for natural language smart building automation, but backend-facing processing requires correct outcome selection, alignment with local capabilities, and valid structured outputs. We investigate whether a complete outcome-specific prompting design improves compact-model outputs beyond generic route-then-generate prompting. The proposed LocalIntent approach routes requests to ordinary or persistent-rule branches: the former produces commands, clarifications, or rejections, while the latter generates trigger-action rules, followed by deterministic validation. We evaluate four locally executed Gemma and Qwen models spanning 2B-9B parameters on 101 non-persistent and 54 persistent-rule records, comparing Monolithic prompting, generic two-stage prompting, LocalIntent, and validation-guided repair. Across the evaluated datasets, LocalIntent achieves higher intent understanding, device identification, and action/parameter correctness than generic two-stage prompting, while clarification/mode correctness remains model-dependent. The largest gains occur for rules, where LocalIntent improves intent understanding from 26.4% to 80.6%, device identification from 59.3% to 84.7%, rule-mode correctness from 49.1% to 98.6%, and action/parameter correctness from 5.6% to 44.9%. For non-persistent requests, pooled gains are smaller: intent understanding increases from 39.6% to 53.2%, and action/parameter correctness from 30.7% to 42.8%.

Fri 16 OctArtificial Intelligence
The gist
Smart building systems need to understand and act on voice or text commands correctly. The authors studied a way to improve how small local language models handle these commands by tailoring prompts depending on the type of task. Their method, LocalIntent, helps the system better understand instructions, pick the right devices, and generate valid actions, especially for complex rule-based commands. This means smarter buildings can run more reliably without sending data to cloud servers.
Open → 2610.23511v1

Dataset enables mapless robot navigation using human signs indoors

SiGNgapore - An Interactive Dataset for Sign-based Visual Navigation

Abstract: The future of autonomous robots in human-oriented environments depends on their ability to navigate in the absence of prebuilt maps; exploiting navigational aids, such as navigational signs, designed by humans for humans is critical for enabling autonomy. This manuscript introduces a unique dataset collected using a handheld device, at various public spaces across Singapore, representing environments that humans frequent daily, and focusing on sign-centric decision making for mapless navigation. The dataset includes RGB, sparse depth, odometry and IMU measurements of scenarios centered around navigational signs and the complex environments where they are placed. Additionally, we provide 56 long-horizon navigation missions and over 450 sign-centric scenarios. All data is provided in a human- readable format, as well as utility scripts for conversion to ROS 2. Lastly, we provide venue maps and GPS aligned scene graphs of the test environments. We discuss the potential use cases for this dataset.

Wed 7 OctRobotics
The gist
Navigating indoor spaces without maps is hard for robots. This paper presents a new dataset collected from real places in Singapore that helps robots learn to use human-made signs for navigation. The data includes videos, depth, and movement info focused on signs and their surroundings. The authors also provide tools to work with the data and maps of the locations. This resource can help build robots that find their way like humans do, by following signs.
Open → 2610.09488v1