2015 International Conference on Energy Systems and Applications (ICESA 2015)
Dr. D. Y. Patil Institute of Engineering and Technology, Pune, India 30 Oct - 01 Nov, 2015
A Comparative Study And Implementation of Real
Time Home Automation System
Amiya Ranjan Behera, Jyoti Devi, Deepta Sundar Mishra
Department of Electrical & Electronics Engineering
Department of Instrumentation & Control Engineering
M Tech Scholars, MIT, Manipal, 576104, INDIA E-mail: amiyaranjan.1990@gmail.com
Abstract—A smart home/house is an advanced, automated
home. In other words it is a home that constitutes advanced
automation systems to provide the occupants with
sophisticated monitoring and controlling over the different
functions of the building. By applying smart home technology
we can enjoy comfort, can save energy and can make better
security. In this paper a study on different types of home
automation control has done and then less expensive and better
efficient system has been proposed. The proposed smart home
system which we are going to discuss consists of Arduino Uno
micro-controller. The controllers are capable of monitoring
and controlling different appliances in the home automatically
in response to the signals comes from the related sensors. The
proposed system is able to monitor and control lights, room
temperature, alarms and other household appliances. A
hardware implementation with MATLAB-GUI platform for
the proposed system is carried out to support the usefulness of
the proposed technique and the reliability of the system is
introduced. The proposed system is a cost effective, flexible
and simple model.
Index Terms—Smart Home, Home automation, Arduino Uno,
MATLAB-GUI platform, Wi-Fi, Manually-automated, Self-
automated
I. INTRODUCTION
Day by day the work and life of human being’s are
increasingly busy and complicated with the rapid growth in
communications and information technology. As the
economic expansion is growing rapidly, the standard of
living also keeps on rising up and the people are requiring
more living functions. The concept of smart home has
focused the attention of re-searchers. A lot of efforts have
been done for the development of home automation to
control that remotely. Smart Home is an advanced
technology to make a house to become intelligent and
automated. Usually, that technology has automation systems
for lighting, temperature control, security and many other
functions. Here in this paper a comparative study has done
on different types of home automation system. We have
gone through different techniques for the implementation of
smart home such as; phone-based remote controller for
home and office automation, PC remote control of
appliances by using telephone lines, Blue-tooth wireless
technology based home automation, internet based wireless
home automation system, remote home automation
monitoring using mobile through spoken commands, GSM-
based remote sensing and control system using FPGA,
GSM-Bluetooth based remote monitoring and control
978-1-4673-6817-9/15/$31.00 ©2015 IEEE
system with automatic light controller.
II. COMPARATIVE STUDY
The earlier work of such systems are mainly based on the
use of ZigBee technology, home automation using ZigBee
technology [4].High cost, low data speed, high complexity
and short range are the main disadvantages of ZigBee. Other
disadvantages include the hostile radio channel, resource
limitation, and mobility imposes challenges for wireless
home automation systems.
Another type of home automation based on telephone
line, such as a phone-based system for home automation
using a hardware-based remote controller [5], [6] and based
on a personal computer approach [7]. These kinds of
systems which make use of the telephone as the remote
control input device have no way to be connected through
any user interface. Phone based system has threefold
disadvantage:
x Graphical user interface has not been provided
for users.
x Users have to remember the access codes.
x Users have to remember which buttons to press
for the control of connected devices.
Shepherd in [8] has introduced the idea of using Blue-
tooth wireless technology as a cable replacement that
exploited the wireless interconnectivity which can be
implemented using radio home automation system method.
However, he gave no design and implementation details in
his work. Next Sriskanthan et. al. in [9] have developed an
automated system based on Blue-tooth wireless technology
which allows the user to monitor and control different
appliances that are connected over a Blue-tooth network
based on a mobile host controller. System that uses a GSM-
Bluetooth based controller and re-mote monitoring system
is proposed in [13]. But this system is not efficient in some
situations that required strong real-time applications.
Following are the disadvantages of blue-tooth;
x the battery usage during a single transfer is
negligible, but if Blue-tooth is kept on whole
day, then battery loss is significant. Because of
this it inevitably eats into the battery of these
devices, and lowers the battery life considerably.
x the security in Bluetooth is good but it is much
better in infrared technology.
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 Alkar et. al. in [10] have introduced an internet based
wireless home automated system for multi-functional
devices. Although the system has a low cost and flexible
wireless solution to the home automation, there are still
some limitations related to the wireless communication
range and power failure. The drawback of this system is that
no graphical user interface is provided for users and users
have to remember different attention commands (AT
commands) to control the connected devices. Here simple
object access protocol (SOAP) is used and the drawback of
using SOAP based Web a service is that it is complex and
adds overhead to the client and server when passing the
message, resulting in slower operation and higher
Bandwidth.
Jawarkar et. al. in [11] have proposed a remote
monitoring through mobile phone involving the use of
spoken commands. These spoken commands are generated
and sent in the form of text SMS to the control system via a
micro-controller that designed on the basis of SMS where a
decision of a particular task can be taken place. A text
message is generated and sent to control system mobile in
form of SMS. On receipt of SMS, control system mobile
informs AVR micro-controller based card, which performs
specified task. Voice controlled home automation systems
have a number of disadvantages that need to be considered
before deciding to install such a setup. The first, and largest
problem is the fact that many voice controlled systems are
not completely hands free. Voice control systems that run
on mobile devices still require you to press a button on your
device before you can issue a command. You need to get
your phone out of your pocket, open the app and hit the
appropriate button and THEN you can issue the voice
command. Another problem is, we have to pronounce
exactly/properly each and every word while giving voice
commands. Also we have to give commands in a place
where less surround noise and sound is present.
El-Medany et. al. in [12] proposed a GSM-based remote
sensing for controlling system based on using FPGA. This
system has worked as a remote sensing for the electrical
appliances at home to check whether it is on or off and in
the same time allowed the user to control the electrical
appliances at home based on SMS technique. Automatic and
immediate reporting to the user in case of emergency for
home security is possible is this system. Also Carl J Debono
in [14] has proposed a cost effective and flexible automation
system that implemented through FPGA controller and
mobile phone Blue-tooth network. This method provides a
parallel implementation of hardware results using fast
algorithm execution. FPGA based system has high initial
installation cost.
Based on all the preceding comparative study, a design
concept for a real-time home automation system using
Arduino Uno micro-controller is proposed in this paper.
Arduino is less expensive compared to other micro-
controller and it is an open source platform. The proposed
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Arduino Uno controller with MATLAB-GUI is introduced
in this paper provides a simple implementation at the system
as compared to the other types of controllers in the
literature.
III. SYSTEM DESIGN
The proposed system design consists of two main
hardware components. The first one is PC home server.
Another one is the Arduino Uno micro-controller board
which is flexible and inexpensive. It has different types of
digital and analog input. It also consists of serial interface,
digital and PWM outputs. As it can be connected to
computer via USB and communicated using standard serial
protocol, it is user friendly. It can be run in standalone mode
as interface connected to PC computers. Arduino has free
authoring software. As in the proposed system the
software/hardware is extremely accessible and very flexible,
so it is an open source project.
The proposed system consists of several blocks, namely:
input/output block, the micro-controller block, networking
block and controlling/monitoring devices block. The whole
system can be seen as in Figure-1. Detailed explanations of
each block are given below.
Fig. 1. Block diagram of proposed home automation
system
A. Micro-controller
The second block of the proposed system design is a
microcontroller system that serves as the centre of all
systems and regulates all activities of the input/output
system. The system used in this paper is Arduino.
Arduino is an open source physical computing platform
which implements the processing language on a simple
input-output board. Arduino can either be used to
develop standalone interactive objects or can be
interfaced to software on our computer. The boards can
be assembled by hand or can be purchased as pre-
assembled. The open source IDE (Integrated
Development Environment) can be downloaded for free
from [3]. Arduino is different from other available
platforms on the market because of these special
features:
x It is a multi-platform environment as it supports
Windows, Macintosh and Linux.
x It works on the basis of processing
programming IDE which is an easy-to-use
development environment for the user/designer.
x Arduino can be programmed via a USB cable
 instead of serial port. As Now-a-days many using LDR we can reduce energy consumption without
computers don't have serial ports, so this feature effecting the required lux level on the working plane. In
is really helpful for users. other way we can tell this as day-light integration. By doing
x Arduino has both open source hardware and day-light integration we can save energy consumption.
software using which we can make our own
stand alone system without paying anything to
the Ardiuno maker.
Here we are using Arduino Uno Board [3]. It is based
onATmega328. Arduino consists of 14 digital
input/output pins(of which 6 can be used as PWM
outputs), 6 analog inputs, a 16 MHz ceramic resonator, a
USB connection, a power jack, an ICSP header, and a
reset button. Arduino package contains everything
needed to support the microcontroller. It can be started
by connecting the board to PC with the help of USB
cable or can also be started by just supplying the board
with a battery/AC to DC adapter.

Fig.3.Typical construction of a plastic coated photocell

The PIR Sensor reacts to movement of heat emitted by
human body in motion. It controls the switching when it
detects any movement of body. Normally digital PIR
sensors have three pins: Input (5V), Output and Ground
(0V). The output can be digital High or digital LOW. It gets
activated when it detects any motion of body, then the
output became 5V(digital HIGH), when no motion it
Fig. 2. Arduino Uno remains at LOW.

B. Input/ Output Block

Input/output block consists of PIR (Passive Infra-Red)
motion sensor, LDR (Light Dependent Resistor) and an
LM35 temperature sensor as inputs and some lamps,
sockets, relay and buzzer as outputs. PIR sensor is used to
detect the presence of motion. The sensor readings are used
to turn off the lights if there is no activity and turn on the
lights otherwise. In addition, this sensor is also used for
security systems to detect suspicious movements. If it
detects any suspicious movement an alarm (buzzer) will
sound. An LM35 is functioning as temperature monitoring.
This sensor also serves as an input in order to execute some
sockets. The socket will in on condition when the
temperature exceeds a certain limit. This condition will Fig.4.Connection circuit of PIR sensor
activate a fan or Air Condition (AC) while connected to the
socket. Connection circuit between microcontroller system Another sensor has been taken in this project is
with a PIR sensor and an LM35 sensor is shown in Figure. temperature sensor i.e. LM35. The LM35 is an integrated
Photo resistor is also called as Light Dependent Resistor circuit sensor which is used to measure temperature with
(LDR). It is made up of high resistance semi-conductor. It is respect to an electrical output and the electrical output
a sensor whose resistance changes according to the strength changes with respect
of light that falls on its surface. The resistance offered by to temperature variation. It can measure temperature more
this sensor decreases with the increase in the amount of light accurate than other components like thermistor. It consists
falls on its surface and vice-verse. This sensor is used to of three pins Input(5V), ground(0V) and Output. The output
track the light or to know the strength of the light. Here we voltage varies linearly with temperature. LM35 IC has been
are interfacing the LDR with Arduino UNO to control the connected to Arduino to measure temperature. This IC will
lighting inside the home with respect to the day-light. The measure the surrounding temperature and it will give output.
intensity of the lights inside home will vary according to the Arduino will then read the output, convert into degrees
amount of light intensity falling on LDR surface. So by

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Fahrenheit and Celsius and we can monitor the room
temperature on computer display.
Fig.5. connection circuit for LM35 sensor
Output part consists of the relays and buzzer. Buzzer
serves as a warning alarm when there is a suspicious
movement. Relays connected with lamps and socket. A
relay is a simple electromechanical device made up of
electromagnet which can be operated by relatively small
electric current to turn OFF or turn ON large electric
current. Relays are using in many application because of its
long life, simplicity and high reliability. In this project
solid-state relay has been used. Solid state relay is shown in
Fig. 4.
Fig.6. Relay circuit
C. Networking block
The Arduino is connected wirelessly to the internet
through Arduino Wi-Fi shield. Using few instructions given
in [3] we can connect the Arduino to our wireless network,
so that we can control the whole system through internet.
By plugging the Arduino Ethernet shield module to
Arduino board and connecting it to the network with a RJ45
cable and following few simple instructions we can control
our device through internet.
The Arduino board can be connected to the internet using
802.11 wireless specifications [3] through the Arduino Wi-
Fi shield. HDG204 wireless LAN 802.11b/g system in
package is the base of the connection. The network (IP)
stack which includes TCP and UDP is provided by
AT32UC3. To get connected to the internet using shield, we
can use Wi-Fi library to write sketches. The Arduino board
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is connected to the Wi-Fi shield with long wire-wrap
headers which extend through the shield. Advantages of this
is, it allows another shield to stack on top as it keeps the
layout of pins intact. Using onboard micro-SD card slot we
can store files while serving over the network, which is
compatible with Mega and Arduino Uno. The SD Library
can access the onboard micro-SD card reader in which SS is
on Pin 4.
Using SPI bus the Wi-Fi shield processor and SD card
are communicated by Arduino. The SPI bus uses ICSP
header. The digital pins 11, 12, 13 of the Uno are allocated
for this. Pin 10 and 4 are used to select HDG204 and SD
card respectively, which cannot be used for general I/O
operations. Pin number 7 serves as a handshake pin between
Wi-Fi shield and Arduino. Either HDG204 or SD card can
be activated at a time as they share the same SPI bus.
Fig.7.Arduino Wi-Fi shield
Fig.8.Arduino Ethernet shield
D. Monitoring and controlling device
The last part is monitoring & controlling of equipments
which can be accomplished by any devices such as: smart
phone, tablet, laptop or PC. These devices connected to
LAN or WLAN via network block using HTML5 with two
way communication. The situation and conditions of home
based on the sensor readings has been sent to the monitoring
device via micro-controller in every two seconds. Status of
the equipment that monitored and controlled will be seen in
the monitoring device. While the monitoring device is able
to control appliances at home at any time.
 Fig.9. GUI interface mode
The appliances in home can be remotely controlled using
PC with MATLAB-GUI platform. The designed MATLAB-
GUI Platform can control home appliances individually or
all of them at same time by pressing ON/OFF buttons as
shown in figure. Also real time temperature can be
displayed.
IV. RESULT AND ANALYAIS
To verify our system design we have connected all the
sensors and circuits as shown in Fig. 10 and Fig. 11. Each
sensors have connected with different circuits separately
with the central micro-controller.
Fig.10. Sensor used in hardware circuit
Here in the circuit we have used three different sensors
i.e. LM35, LDR and PIR sensor. As we discussed
previously LM35 sensor is used here to sense and monitor
the real time temperature inside the room. In Fig. 12 we can
see that it is detecting and displaying the real time
temperature on the output screen of Arduino.
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Fig.11.Sensor circuit in hardware
LDR sensor has been connected to Arduino using
required components. It will help the artificial light to dim
automatically with respect to available day-light inside the
room. In Fig. 11 we can see that three different color LEDs
have been connected to LDR circuit. These LEDs will show
the available day light level inside the room. When
sufficient amount of day light is available inside the room,
the green LED will glow and when less amount of day-light
is available the red LED will blink. Yellow will blink for
medium level of available day light level inside the room.
Fig.12.Output result of LM 35 on screen
In our project PIR sensor has been used to detect
occupancy inside the room and accordingly to on and off the
electric equipments. During night hours it will detect
suspicious movement inside the room and will send signal
to micro-controller.
So if suspicious movement will be detected than buzzer
will buzz and emergency light will glow immediately. In
Fig. 13 we can see after motion been detected by the PIR
sensor, the LED (emergency light) is blinking also the
buzzer is buzzing. The range of PIR sensor we can adjust by
rotating the knob of PIR sensor in clockwise and in anti-
clockwise direction.
Fig.13. Output result of PIR sensor
E. Energy saving aspects
By using and implementing the above different types of
sensors we can save significant amount of energy as
follows;
x Using of LM35 will help the user to monitor the
real time temperature and accordingly will operate
(switch on/off) the AC/Fan load. So by
implementing this sensor we can avoid
unnecessary use of energy.
x Using LDR sensor we can integrate daylight
harvesting into the room. We can save significant
amount of energy by integrating sufficient amount
of available daylight into the home/room. Also by
using daylight we can reduce the ambient
temperature of the room in comparison to artificial
lights. So we need less amount of HVAC loads
where daylight is being used.
x Use of PIR sensor will help the user to save energy
by automatic controlling of different loads inside
the room according to the occupancy inside the
room. Also in some cases PIR sensor will alter the
users in case of theft or suspicious movement by
buzzing the alarm.
CONCLUSION
In this paper, a comparative study has been done for
different types of home automation techniques and finally a
design concept for a wireless real-time home automation
system based on Arduino Uno micro-controller as central
controller has been proposed. The proposed technique
capable of monitoring and controlling different appliances
in the home automatically in response to any signals came
from related sensors. A hardware implementation of the
system was carried out to verify the reliability of the system.
The implemented system is a simple, low cost and flexible
that can be expanded and scaled up. A future improvement
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can be added to the proposed system using wireless sensor
technologies. The proposed system can be developed and
fabricated as a commercial hardware package.
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