Research agenda for IoT-based comfort management systems in open-plan office spaces

Personal comfort of people working in open-plan office spaces is cornerstone for many companies to attract highly-skilled workers and increase their productivity and well-being. In this paper, we discuss the importance of several indoor environment quality (IEQ) factors, such as indoor air quality, thermal comfort, acoustic comfort and visual comfort, and present related work on comfort management systems. Our main contribution is a research agenda that outlines research questions and activities to be worked on in order to realise smart comfort management systems that consider multiple IEQ factors and provide intuitive user interfaces. We propose a strategy, based on the paradigms of Internet-of-Things and Digital Twins, that integrates smart furnishing objects, such as noise absorbing and infrared heating panels, and personal devices, such as fans, in existing building infrastructures for personal comfort.