Development of a low cost home automation system for switching electrical devices

Abstract

Automation is a demand in this era of information and communication technology where a smart control system is used to reduce or replace human operators in the industry, offices or homes to produce some goods or services. Home automation system is the subset of automation system that allows us to control household appliances like light, door, fan, air-conditioner etc. in an intelligent way. It also includes those of domestic activities, such as home entertainment systems, houseplant and yard watering, pet feeding, and the use of domestic robots. Home automation system provides home security and emergency systems to be activated while necessary. It helps handicapped and old aged people which will enable them to control home appliances and alert them in critical situations. It not only refers to reduce human efforts but also energy efficiency and time saving. There are different types of home automation systems in the market. They are generally proprietary and closed, expensive and not very customizable by the end user. To overcome this limitation, there are scopes of research in this area. In this project work, a simple home automation device has been chosen to implement. It will sense the presence of human(s) by the motion sensor and according to its signal the electrical devices will be turned on/off. To do this, a simple PIR sensor has been used to detect the presence of humans. A program code was being downloaded into the microcontroller. When the PIR sensor gives an input signal to the microcontroller, the microcontroller then gives an output signal to the relay module which then turn on the light connected to it. If PIR sensor doesn’t give any output signal which will be feed to the input of the microcontroller, then the relay has been turned off and so the light connected to it. This is a very simple project work which is very cost-effective and can be used in so many places where automatic power consumption control is the main concern.