Home automation using general purpose household electric appliances with Raspberry Pi and commercial smartphone

This study presents the design and implementation of a home automation system that focuses on the use of ordinary electrical appliances for remote control using Raspberry Pi and relay circuits and does not use expensive IP-based devices. Common Lights, Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (HVAC), fans, and other electronic devices are among the appliances that can be used in this system. A smartphone app is designed that helps the user to design the smart home to his actual home via easy and interactive drag & drop option. The system provides control over the appliances via both the local network and remote access. Data logging over the Microsoft Azure cloud database ensures system recovery in case of gateway failure and data record for lateral use. Periodical notifications also help the user to optimize the usage of home appliances. Moreover, the user can set his preferences and the appliances are auto turned off and on to meet user-specific requirements. Raspberry Pi acting as the server maintains the database of each appliance. HTTP web interface and apache server are used for communication between the android app and raspberry pi. With a 5v relay circuit and micro-processor Raspberry Pi, the proposed system is low-cost, energy-efficient, easy to operate, and affordable for low-income houses.