CQD-ERL: Quality-Diversity RL cuts HVAC energy in tropical buildings
A new controller juggles diverse policies to optimize chiller plants in Singapore's humidity.
Deep Dive
Key Points
- CQD-ERL maintains a product archive of specialized policies indexed by weather/load clusters and behavior descriptors
- Combines gradient-free evolutionary search with soft-actor-critic, sharing a single replay buffer
- Safety shield enforces constraints; validated against ASHRAE Guideline 36 on a full annual backtest
Why It Matters
Smart HVAC control can cut building energy use, a major slice of global electricity consumption.