Traditionally, in building energy modeling (BEM) programs, occupant behavior (OB) inputs are deterministic
and less indicative of real world scenarios, contributing to discrepancies between simulated and
actual energy use in buildings. This paper presents a new OB modeling tool, with an occupant behavior
functional mock-up unit (obFMU) that enables co-simulation with BEM programs implementing functional
mock-up interface (FMI). The components detailed in the development of the obFMU include an
overview of the DNAS (drivers-needs-actions-systems) ontology and the occupant behavior eXtensible
Markup Language (obXML) schema, in addition to details on the creation of the obFMU that contains
the co-simulation interface, the data model and solvers. To demonstrate functionality of the tool, three
examples of occupant behaviors were simulated, including: (1) turning on and off lights, (2) opening and
closing windows, and (3) turning on and off the air conditioners. The obFMU can be used via co-simulation
with all building simulation programs that implement the FMI, thus users are not limited to a particular
tool. Another advantage is the use of obXML schema to represent occupant behavior, standardize the
description of occupant behavior enabling information exchange.