When the movie Back to the Future Part II came out in 1989, the screenwriters had to imagine the world in 2015. The resulting movie shows a world with fax machines, self-tying shoes, and hover boards — proof that predicting the future is dicey business.
It does raise the question, though, about what the future holds for controls and BAS. What will systems look like in 10, 20, or 30 years? Looking back over the last 30 years, we have seen dramatic changes in control systems from those that were primarily pneumatic or electro-mechanical to systems that are now digital and follow open standards. Over the last decade, there has continued to be innovation, but at a slower pace. Recent changes are more incremental than transformational with the introduction of new wireless products as well as solutions for fault detection and analytics.