Personalized Home Automation System Using a Smart Phone

2021 ELE Engineering Design Project (XF01)

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Faculty Lab Coordinator

Xavier Fernando

Topic Category

Signal Processing / Communication

Preamble

Nowadays, people have smartphones with them all the time. So it makes sense to use these to control home appliances, lighting and heating in a personalized manner. There are many smart home control systems in the market such as Amazon Echo and Samsung SmartThings Hub. However, hey require smart appliances and the connection is often proprietary. However, this project aims to control any existing appliance using an Arduino and smartphone in an inexpensive manner.

Objective

The aim is to design a home automation system using a simple Android app, which you can use to control electrical appliances with clicks or voice commands. Commands are sent via Bluetooth to Arduino Uno. So you need not get up to switch on or switch off the device manually while watching a movie or doing some work. In addition, this system shall enable certain Location Dependent Services such automatic lighting control based on your presence.

Partial Specifications

1. The App should be able to recognize voice commands such as 'Turn-on living room lights' and perform the correct action.

2. The system should be able to control at least 8 devices.

3. The App should turn on the lights when you enter a room and it is dark.

4. There should be an automatic protection mode. For example, when you leave the house it should turn off all lights and TV.

Suggested Approach

There are many different ways to do this. Typically a voice recognition app and Bluetooth connection can be used. If the appliance (like TV) has a Bluetooth interface, the phone can directly talk to it. Otherwise a power relay module can be used to control the power received by the appliance such as a washing machine. The phone should be able sense the light intensity and your location to enable the automatic light turn on feature.

See https://www.electronicsforu.com/electronics-projects/hardware-diy/arduino-home-automation-system-android for a similar project

Group Responsibilities

The whole is responsible for the successful completion of the overall project.

Student A Responsibilities

Relay and power control to the appliance.

Student B Responsibilities

Bluetooth interface and control.

Student C Responsibilities

Voice, location and light recognition.

Student D Responsibilities

App development

Course Co-requisites

To ALL EDP Students

Due to COVID-19 pandemic, in the event University is not open for in-class/in-lab activities during the Winter term, your EDP topic specifications, requirements, implementations, and assessment methods will be adjusted by your FLCs at their discretion.