Home Automation System Using Arduino

Abstract

Automated “homes of the future” have been staple exhibits for World’s Fairs and popular backgrounds in science fiction. However, problems with complexity, com- petition between vendors, multiple incompatible standards, and the resulting ex- pense have limited the penetration of home automation to homes of the wealthy, or ambitious hobbyists. Possibly the first home “computer” was an experimental home automation system in 1966. We have used Arduino which is a general purpose, low-cost, programmable, portable, easy to implement, low power consuming and high performance hardware operat- ing on 5V and an output current of a few milli amperes. We have mainly focused on the areas of Energy management and Lighting. We would like to give a glimpse of what the basic idea of home automation is. Us- ing this we can easily maintain comfort while saving energy: automate lighting, temperatures based on schedules and events. In order to achieve this, a Bluetooth module is interfaced to the Arduino board at the receiver end while on the trans- mitter end, a GUI application on the cell phone sends ON/OFF commands to the receiver where loads are connected. By touching the specified location on the GUI, the loads can be turned ON/OFF remotely through this technology. The loads will be operated by Arduino board through relays.