CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.0         BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

In this modern era, home Automation is the use of control systems and information technology to regulate equipment, industrial machinery, and processes, minimizing the need for human involvement. Automation plays an increasingly important role in the global economy and in day by day encounter. Engineers work to associate automated devices with mathematical and organizational tools to create complex systems for rapidly expanding parameters of applications and human activities. For the development of smart cities, there is a need to automate everything, so the concept of smart home automation system is an idea which is used to make the city smart. A Smart Home is one that provides comfort, security and gives the feeling of home to house members. Smart homes also provide Energy efficiency (low operating cost) and convenience at all times, for every individual at home.  Home automation means the monitoring and control of household objects intelligently for effective usage. The household objects should be intelligently interconnected as well as provide information for better operations. Home automation augmented with the Internet of Things (IoT) provides better flexibility in managing and controlling household objects in a wider aspect. This will support the interconnectivity of a large number of smart homes for better resource utilization in wider area.  People who are working are so busy so that they often forget to turn off their electrical devices when they are leaving the house for work. Those devices consume the electricity whole day so it leads to huge amount of electricity to go waste. So to overcome this problem Smart Home Automation System concept has been introduced.

“Smart Home” is a term used to characterize a residence house that has appliances, lighting, heating, cooling, security and camera systems that are capable of communicating with each other and can be remotely accessed from any room as well as remotely from any area by phone or internet through speech.  Internet of Things (IoT) is a new revolution of the Internet and the expansion of internet services. IoT digitizes our world, providing us with prolific amounts of data & new delivery models that allow business to engage in new value creation special needs with a system that can respond to voice command and control all the appliances or devices in the home. The system should be cheap, easy to configure, easy to use and easy to run.

Home automation gives an individual the ability to remotely or automatically control things around the home. A home appliance is a device or instrument designed to perform a specific function, especially an electrical device, such as a refrigerator, for household use. Automation is today’s fact, where things are being controlled automatically, usually the basic tasks of turning ON/OFF certain devices, regulates and beyond, either voice, motion, remotely or in close proximity. The recent developments in technology which permit the use of Bluetooth and Wi-Fi have enabled different devices to have capabilities of connecting with each other. Using a WIFI shield to act as a Micro web server for the Arduino esp8266 chip eliminates the need for wired connections between the Arduino board and computer which reduces cost and enables it to work as a standalone device.

1.1         MOTIVATION

The world has changed after the evolution of term called Automation. In every sector automation is reducing human labor. Firstly introduced in industries and now in a variety of sectors rely on automation system. Development of advanced home automation system has huge opportunity in present time. Again Internet of Things (IOT) is going to be a new era of technology in future. It is expected that 30 billion of devices will be connected within 2020. So it is the right to get prepared for the future technologies.

1.2         AIMS AND OBJECTIVES

The goal of this project is to develop a home automation system that gives the user complete control over all remotely controllable aspects of his or her home. The automation system will have the ability to be controlled by a voice through the Alexa from the Amazon echo dot. The system should be able to reply back to the user if successful or not.    

1.3         SCOPE OF STUDY

The field of automation is blooming and these systems are having great impact on human beings. The project which is to be implemented is a home automation to build an internet connected remote (TV and lighting) using Node MCU and creating an Alexa skill to communicate with it via WIFI which has very good future development. In the current system, application is installed on a phone so the home appliances can be controlled using only the device on which it is installed.

1.4      METHODOLOGY                          

Real Time clock based home automation in an advance project to control the devices in timely and systematic manner. The devices can be controlled wirelessly from other places using wireless technology. RTC with EEPROM can record all the working parameters in the devices or appliances. Basically the project is a concept to bring automation in the industry or home. All the home appliances will be controlled by the internet of thing (IOT) through Amazon echo(Alexa). The appliances in the industry or home will be interfaced with centralized micro controller NODE MCU for the systematic working. The inbuilt RTC and EEPROM present in the controller will be activated for the operation. The controller also interfaced with WIFI to receive the control commands from Wi-Fi shield (ESP8266). The operator will use his/her voice with the Amazon echo through the Wi-Fi in that. If operator wants to switch the Light to (turn on or off)   he just needs the WIFI of the Amazon echo Alexa and the ESP8266 to be on, and then speak vocally to the Alexa with the required command that has been programmed in to the NODEMCU Arduino. Once he switched the Wi-Fi will send the data to Wi-Fi present at microcontroller. In the same way all other appliances can be controlled.

Figure.1.0 Block diagram of Home Automation Based on Alexa Voice Recognition.

From the above block diagram in figure 1.0 at the Left Hand Side (LHS) the DC adapter is connected to the AC source where it is connected to the node MCU, the node MCU serves as the brain of the system which sends the signal needed to either turn on or off the appliances to the relay. The relay sends the signal to the current sensor which performs the required action. Here, the current sensor senses the state of the appliances to know if the light is either ON or OFF and sends the signal back to the node MCU to tell the state of the appliances to avoid reverse of the command given by the Alexa. At the Right Hand Side (RHS), the DC adapter is connected to the AC source which is connected to the node MCU. The infrared receiver is used to decode the hexadecimal code inside the TV remote and the infrared transmitter sends the code to the television.  

1.5         LIMITATIONS                                                  

 The limitations of this project are discussed below:

Wireless connection was designed based on dynamic IP addresses which changes every time after switching to a different network.

Users have to give a command to the Alexa for the micro controller to act every time it connects with a new network.

Users have to connect both the Amazon echo with the NODE MCU together on the same WI-FI hotspot.

Users have to provide the user name and password of the WI-FI any time he change it to new one.

1.6     OUTLINE OF PROJECT

This project consists of five chapters, chapter one deals with the background of study, statement of problem, motivation, aim and objectives, methodology, limitation of work and outline of report. Chapter two deals with the literature review, chapter three deals with the design, chapter four deals with construction, testing and packaging, while chapter five deals with the conclusion and recommendation.

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