The French start-up Octopus Lab aims to predict the indoor air quality of a building even before it is built. This company has developed a way to support local authorities in the right choices of materials and ventilation system.
Is it possible to know the indoor air quality of a building even before its construction? The French start-up Octopus Lab responds with Indalo, an unprecedented model based on artificial intelligence . Finalist of the EDF Pulse 2020 start-up awards, this company wants to ensure quality air for the future occupants of a building to be built.
You should know that more and more public actors are taking indoor air quality into account in establishments open to the public. Sometimes problems of this nature appear after construction (or renovation) of a building due to poor ventilation. It can also be floor covering materials (or walls) that emit too much Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs). After the identification of these pollutions, these must be eliminated by means of new works. On the contrary, Octopus Lab promises anticipation of air quality problems interior by directly making the right choices in terms of ventilation and materials.
With Indalo, the start-up makes it possible to generate a digital model using information about the new construction. The system hosts a cloud-based database of material emissions information to indoor air. However, the database concerns no less than a thousand pollutants such as fine particles, terpenes, etc. These are usually default values. Nevertheless, Octopus Lab explains that it has made agreements with certain manufacturers . The goal? Indicate precisely the information relating to the compounds of the products. The Indalo algorithm also integrates data on the ventilation system, the occupancy of the premises as well as the quality of the outdoor air at the neighborhood level.
The software then produces several documents, simulating the variations in pollutant concentration over a typical week. for each room. It is also possible to produce diagrams by source or to identify the origin of emissions. All this is done through dynamic simulations indoor air quality. Beyond wanting to guarantee healthy air for future occupants, Octopus Lab wants to support local authorities in order to secure the obtaining of their construction certifications.
Here is the presentation video of the Indalo project:
