A

Informative Project Report on

“Report on Home Automation using IOT”

An Informative Project Report is submitted in partial fulfilment of the

requirement
for the Third Year in
Electrical Engineering

By

AKSHAY DESAI

Under the guidance of

Prof. Atul Arun Kale

University of Mumbai
Department of Electrical Engineering
A. C. Patil College of Engineering,
Kharghar Navi Mumbai-
410210 Accredited by NAAC 2021-22
 ABSTRACT

This project presents the overall design of Home Automation System (HAS) with low cost and
wireless system. It specifically focuses on the development of an IOT based home automation
system that is able to control various components via internet or be automatically programmed to
operate from ambient conditions. In this project, we design the development of a firmware for smart
control which can successfully be automated minimizing human interaction to preserve the integrity
within whole electrical devices in the home. We used Node MCU, a popular open source IOT
platform, to execute the process of automation.
Different components of the system will use different transmission mode that will be implemented
to communicate the control of the devices by the user through Node MCU to the actual appliance.
The main control system implements wireless technology to provide remote access from smart
phone. We are using a cloud server-based communication that would add to the practicality of the
project by enabling unrestricted access of the appliances to the user irrespective of the distance
factor. We provided a data transmission network to create a stronger automation. The system
intended to control electrical appliances and devices in house with relatively low-cost design, user-
friendly interface and ease of installation. The status of the appliance would be available, along with
the control on an android platform.
This system is designed to assist and provide support in order to 1fulfil the needs of elderly and
disabled in home. Also, the smart home concept in the system improves the standard living at home.

List of Figures
Fig 1.1 Model of phases in project management 5
Fig 2.1 Working of IOT enabled care devices 8
Fig 3.1 Block diagram of proposed system. 9
Fig 3.2 Creating an account and generating unique ID in Blynk Server. 10
Fig 3.3 Setup to control Node MCU from Blynk application 10
Fig 3.4 Connection diagram of Node MCU controlling 4 channel relay modules 11
Fig 4.1 Working principle of Blynk application. 13
Fig 4.2 Voice and switch mode control 13
 Contents

Chapter 1 (Introduction)
1.1 Introduction 4
1.2 Background 4
1.3 Project objective 4
1.4 Scope 5
1.5 Project management 5
1.6 Overview and Benefits 6

Chapter 2 (Theory)
2.1 IOT Internet of Things 7
Features of IOT 7
Advantages of IOT 7
Disadvantages of IOT 7
Application grounds of IOT 8

Chapter 3
Block diagram of proposed system 9
Proposed system 9
Overview of the project 9
Circuit diagram 11

Chapter 4 (logic and operation)

Principle and operation 12
Advantages of Node MCU 12
Disadvantages of Node MCU 12
Blynk application 12
Wireless communication network 13
Voice mode control 13

Chapter 5 (Conclusion and Future Scope)

Result 14
Limitation 14
Further Enhancement and Future Scope 14
Conclusion 14
References 14
 Chapter 1
Introduction
Internet of Things (IOT) is a concept where each device is assign to an IP address and through that
IP address anyone makes that device identifiable on internet. The mechanical and digital machines
are provided with unique identifiers (UIDs) and the ability to transfer data over a network without
requiring human-to-human or human-to-computer interaction. Basically, it started as the “Internet
of Computers.” Research studies have forecast an explosive growth in the number of “things” or
devices that will be connected to the Internet. The resulting network is called the “Internet of
Things” (IoT). The recent developments in technology which permit the use of wireless controlling
environments like, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi that 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 which
eliminates the need for wired connections between the Arduino board and computer which reduces
cost and enables it to work as a standalone device. The Wi-Fi shield needs connection to the internet
from a wireless router or wireless hotspot and this would act as the gateway for the Arduino to
communicate with the internet. With this in mind, an internet-based home automation system for
remote control and observing the status of home appliances is designed.
Due to the advancement of wireless technology, there are several different type of connections are
introduced such as GSM, WIFI, and BT. Each of the connection has their own unique specifications
and applications. Among the four popular wireless connections that often implemented in HAS
project, WIFI is being chosen with its suitable capability. The capabilities of WIFI are more than
enough to be implemented in the design. Also, most of the current laptop/notebook or Smartphone
come with built-in WIFI adapter. It will indirectly reduce the cost of this system.
Background
The concept of “Home Automation” has been in existence for several years. “Smart Home”,
“Intelligent Home” are terms that followed and is been used to introduce the concept of networking
appliance within the house. Home Automation Systems (HASs) includes centralized control and
distance status monitoring of lighting, security system, and other appliances and systems within a
house. HASs enables energy efficiency, improves the security systems, and certainly the comfort
and ease of users. In the present emerging market, HASs is gaining popularity and has attracted the
interests of many users. HASs comes with its own challenges. Mainly being, in the present day, end
users especially elderly and disabled, even though hugely benefited, aren’t seen to accept the system
due to the complexity and cost factors.
Project objectives
• Design of an independent HAS
To formulate the design of an interconnected network of home appliance to be integrated into the
HAS. The objective to account for every appliance and its control to be automated and integrated
into the network further formulated into the HAS.
• Wireless control of home appliances (Switch and Voice mode)
To develop the application that would include features of switch and/or voice modes to control the
applications.
• Monitoring status of appliances
Being able to view the status of home appliances on the application, in order have a better HAS.
• Secure connection channels between application and Node MCU
Use of secure protocols over Wi-Fi so that other devices are prevented to achieve control over the
HAS. Secure connections are obtained by SSL over TCP, SSH.
• Controlled by any device capable of Wi-Fi (Android, iOS, PC)
To achieve flexibility in control of the home appliances, and device capable of Wi-Fi connectivity
will be able to obtain a secure control on the HAS.
• Extensible platform for future enhancement
With a strong existing possibility of adding and integrating more features and appliances to the
system, the designed system needs to be highly extensible in nature.
SCOPE
The aim is to design a prototype that establishes wireless remote control over a network of home
appliances. The application is designed to run on android device providing features like, switch
mode control, voice command control and a provision to view the status of the devices on the
application itself. Considering its wide range of application, following are the scope of this
prototype.
The system can be implemented in homes, small offices and malls as well, being in charge of
control of the electrical appliances.
For remote access of appliances in internet or intranet. The appliances in the abovementioned
environment can be controlled in intra-network or can be accessed via internet.
The development of technology friendly environment. The system incorporates the use of
technology and making HAS. By the use of day-to-day gadgets we can utilize them for a different
perspective.
Project management
Management of any project can be briefly disintegrated into several phases. Our project has been
decomposed into the following phases:
 • Experimentation
This phase involved discussions regarding necessary equipment regarding the project. The study of
related already existing projects, gathering required theoretical learning. It also included figuring
out the coding part, by developing simple algorithms and flowcharts to design the whole process
• Design
This phase was, designing layout of the application, and the necessary features to be included. This
involved the complete hardware assembly and installing the code to Node MCU. The power strip
was designed to connect the home appliances that can be controlled via GPIO pins.
• Development and testing
This phase had the development of the application. The android device was
connected to the Node MCU via wireless network (WiFi) and the whole prototype was tested for
identification and removal of bugs.
• Real world testing
The prototype was ready to be tested into the real world and integrated with various real time
electrical appliances.
Overview and benefits
The benefits of an established wireless remote switching system of home appliances include:
• No legal issues
Obtaining access to or traversing properties with hard lines is extremely difficult.
• Reduced wiring issues
Considering the increase in price of copper, thus increases the possibility of the wire to be stolen.
The use of a wireless remote system to control home appliances means no wire for thieves to steal.
• Extended range
As the system establishes control over Wi-Fi, it was a generally considered descent range. That is
150 feet indoors. Outdoors it can be extended to 300 feet, but since the application is of a HAS, an
indoor range is considered.
• Security
As the connection of the control of the HAS is established over a secure network the system ensures
security to the maximum extent.
• Integrable and extensive nature
The prototype designed can be integrated to a larger scale. Also it has an extensive nature being
able to add or remove the appliances under control according to application.
 Chapter 2
IOT (INTERNET OF THINGS)
IOT as a term has evolved long way as a result of convergence of multiple technologies, machine
learning, embedded systems and commodity sensors. IOT is a system of interconnected devices
assigned a UIDS, enabling data transfer and control of devices over a network. It reduced the
necessity of actual interaction in order to control a device. IOT is an advanced automation and
analytics system which exploits networking, sensing, big data, and artificial intelligence technology
to deliver complete systems for a product or service. These systems allow greater transparency,
control, and performance when applied to any industry or system.
Features of IOT
• Intelligence
IOT comes with the combination of algorithms and computation, software & hardware that makes it
smart. Ambient intelligence in IOT enhances its capabilities which facilitate the things to respond in
an intelligent way to a particular situation and supports them in carrying out specific tasks. In spite
of all the popularity of smart technologies, intelligence in IOT is only concerned as a means of
interaction between devices, while user and device interaction are achieved by standard input
methods and graphical user interface
• Connectivity
Connectivity empowers the Internet of Things by bringing together everyday objects. Connectivity
of these objects is pivotal because simple object level interactions contribute towards collective
intelligence in the IOT network. It enables network accessibility and compatibility in the things.
With this connectivity, new market opportunities for the Internet of things can be created by the
networking of smart things and applications
• Dynamic Nature
The primary activity of Internet of Things is to collect data from its environment, this is achieved
with the dynamic changes that take place around the devices. The state of these devices change
dynamically, example sleeping and waking up, connected and/or disconnected as well as the
context of devices including temperature, location and speed. In addition to the state of the device,
the number of devices also changes dynamically with a person, place and time
• Enormous Scale
The number of devices that need to be managed and that communicate with each other will be much
larger than the devices connected to the current Internet. The management of data generated from
these devices and their interpretation for application purposes becomes more critical. Gartner
(2015) confirms the enormous scale of IOT in the estimated report where it stated that 5.5 million
new things will get connected every day and 6.4 billion connected things will be in use worldwide
in 2016, which is up by 30 percent from 2015. The report also forecasts that the number of
connected devices will reach 20.8 billion by 2020
• Sensing
IOT wouldn’t be possible without sensors that will detect or measure any changes in the
environment to generate data that can report on their status or even interact with the environment.
Sensing technologies provide the means to create capabilities that reflect a true awareness of the
physical world and the people in it. The sensing information is simply the analog input from the
physical world, but it can provide a rich understanding of our complex world
• Heterogeneity
Heterogeneity in Internet of Things as one of the key characteristics. Devices in IOT are based on
different hardware platforms and networks and can interact with other devices or service platforms
through different networks. IOT architecture should support direct network connectivity between
 heterogeneous networks. The key design requirements for heterogeneous things and their
environments in IOT are scalabilities, modularity, extensibility and interoperability.
• Security
IOT devices are naturally vulnerable to security threats. As we gain efficiencies, novel experiences,
and other benefits from the IOT, it would be a mistake to forget about security concerns associated
with it. There is a high level of transparency and privacy issues with IOT. It is important to secure
the endpoints, the networks, and the data that is transferred across all of it means creating a security
paradigm.
Application Grounds of IOT
• Wearables
Wearable technologies is a hallmark of IOT applications and is one of the earliest industries to have
deployed IOT at its services. Fit Bits, heart rate monitors, smartwatches, glucose monitoring
devices reflect the successful applications of IOT.
• Smart homes
This area of application concerned to this particular project, so a detailed application is discussed
further. Jarvis, an AI home automation employed by Mark Zuckerberg, is a remarkable example in
this field of application.
• Health care
IOT applications have turned reactive medical based system into proactive wellness based system.
IOT focuses on creating systems rather than equipment. IOT creates a future of medicine and
healthcare which exploits a highly integrated network of sophisticated medical devices. The
integration of all elements provides more accuracy, more attention to detail, faster reactions to
events, and constant improvement while reducing the typical overhead of medical research and
organization

• Industrial Automation
For a higher return of investment this field requires both fast developments and quality of products.
This vitality thus coined the term IIOT. This whole schematic is reengineered by IOT applications.
Following are the domains of IOT applications in industrial automation
• Factory Digitalization
• Product flow Monitoring
• Inventory Management
• Safety and Security
• Quality Control
• Packaging optimization
• Logistics and Supply Chain Optimization
• Government and Safety
IOT applied to government and safety allows improved law enforcement, defence, city planning,
and economic management. The technology fills in the current gaps, corrects many current flaws,
and expands the reach of these efforts. For example, IOT can help city planners have a clearer view
of the impact of their design, and governments have a better idea of the local economy.
 Chapter 3
Block diagram of the proposed system

*
Figure 3.1 Block diagram of proposed system.
The block diagram gives the functionality of the overall project. The Node MCU unit is the
microcontroller or the main controlling unit of the system. The user uses the mobile application in
setting commands for functioning of the appliances. The mobile application interprets the command
form in user in voice or switch mode and sends signal to the Node MCU unit, over a wireless
network established by Wi-Fi communication. Hence the Wi-Fi module (actually inbuilt into Node
MCU), helps the microcontroller establish Wi-Fi communication with a device and take commands
from an application over wireless network. The Node MCU on further receiving the signal then
turns on/off the appliance with the help of relay. The Node MCU, relay and the final appliances are
physically connected. There is a power supply unit that powers the microcontroller, the relay as
well as the final appliances. There is also a display unit that displays the status of the application.
Proposed system
The android OS provides the flexibility of using the open source. The inbuilt sensors can be
accessed easily. The application used to control the system has the following features.
Android Phone acts as a client and data are sent via sockets programming. The application takes
command from user in two different modes.
• Switch mode: Switch mode uses the radio buttons that are used to control the home appliances. The
radio button sends the status of the switch.
• Voice mode: Voice Mode is used to control the home appliances using voice command. Using the
inbuilt microphone of Smartphone, the application creates an intent that fetches the speech data to
the Google server which responds with a string data. The string data are further analysed and then
processed.
More detailed discussion about the modes of control and how they actually control the system is
discussed if coming chapters.
Overview Of Project
The following describes the process of creating an account in Blynk application and generating
unique ID against a particular device. This ID acts as an identifier for the particular device on the
Blynk server.
 Figure 3.2 Creating an account and generating unique ID in Blynk Server.
Once the unique Id is generated the next step would be to include this key into the coding written in
embedded C to establish communication between Node MCU and Blynk Server. The following
describes this process.

Figure 3.3. Setup to control Node MCU from Blynk application

Circuit Diagram

Figure 3.4 Connection diagram of Node MCU controlling 4 channel relay modules.
 Chapter 4
Principle And Operation
Node MCU is an open source IOT platform. It includes firmware which runs on the ESP8266 Wi-Fi
SoC from Espressif Systems, and hardware which is based on the ESP12 module. The term “Node
MCU” by default refers to the firmware rather than the development kits. The firmware uses the
Lua scripting language. It is based on the eLua project, and built on the Espressif Non-OS SDK for
ESP8266. It uses many open source projects, such as lua-cjson, and spiffs.
Advantages of Node MCU
• Low cost, the Node MCU is less costly compared to any other IOT based device.
• Node MCU has Arduino Like hardware I/O. It is becoming very popular in these days that Arduino
IDE has extended their software to work in the field of ESP 8266 Field module version.
• Node MCU has easily configurable network API.
• Integrated support for Wi-Fi network: ESP 8266 is incorporated in Node MCU, which is an easily
accessible Wi-Fi module.
• Reduced size of board.
• Low power consumption.
Disadvantages of Node MCU
• The operation of the circuit depends on the working internet connection. If the working internet
connection is not available then it will not run.
• Node MCU also depends on the free server provided by the third party, if the free server is not
working then it will not run.
• Node MCU has less resources of official documentation
• Need to learn a new language and IDE
• Reduced pinout
• Scarce documentation
Blynk application
The Blynk application was designed for the primary purpose of Internet of Things. Blynk is a
platform with IOS and Android apps to control Arduino, Raspberry Pi and the likes over the
Internet. It’s a digital dashboard where graphic interface for a prototype can be built by simply
dragging and dropping widgets. It can control hardware remotely, it can display sensor data, can
store and visualize data and possessed a lot more functionality. There are three major components in
the platform:
• Blynk Application: allows to you create amazing interfaces for your projects using various widgets
we provide.
• Blynk Server: responsible for all the communications between the smartphone and hardware. You
can use our Blynk Cloud or run your private Blynk server locally. It’s an open- source, could easily
handle thousands of devices and can even be launched on a Raspberry Pi.
• Blynk Libraries: for all the popular hardware platforms – enable communication with the server and
process all the incoming and outgoing commands.
Every time a radio button is accessed in the Blynk application, the message travels to the Blynk
Cloud, where it finds the specific hardware by the unique generated authentication token. It works
in the same way for the opposite direction. appliances. This is because Wi-Fi has its own
advantages over other wireless communication protocols.
 Figure 5.1 Working principle of Blynk application.
Wireless Communication Network
The prototype aims to wireless control over home appliances with the technology of IOT. As
discussed earlier, IOT supports various wireless communication protocols, like Bluetooth, Z-
Wave, Zigbee etc. this prototype uses Wi-Fi as wireless communication network to establish remote access
over home
Voice mode control
The prototype works in both switch mode and voice mode of control. The switch mode is simply be
accessing the radio buttons on the Blynk application, and the process of control has been discussed
earlier in this chapter in the section before. Here we will discuss the voice mode control of the
prototype. We use application IFTTT and Google assistant on smart phone to achieve control by
voice commands. IFTTT stand for ‘If This Then That’, is an interface that provides web based
service in which devices are connected to mobile application.
We cannot connect the Google Assistant to the Node MCU directly, and that is the only reason we
are using the Blynk app. Blynk app can directly connect to the Node MCU and send data to it. So, if
we can send the voice commands interpreted by Google assistant directly to the Blynk app, the
Blynk app can then forward those commands to the NodeMCU. But the problem is Google
Assistant cannot directly understand foreign commands like “turn on the fan” or “turn on relay one”
etc. on its own. So, to solve this we use another intermediate application/website called ‘IFTTT’.
Simply, to control our home appliances over the internet we are using Node MCU and to connect
Node MCU with the home appliances we use a relay board. Now to send on or off signals to the
Node MCU we use our smartphone, and we do this using the Blynk app. But we want to send the on
or off signals using voice commands.

Figure 5.2 Voice and switch mode control

 Chapter 5
Result
The experimental model was made according to the circuit diagram and the results were as
expected. The home appliances could be remotely switched over wi-fi network. Both the switch
mode and the voice mode control methodologies were successfully achieved. The blynk application
was also successful in displaying the status of every application.
Limitations
Android devices having lower api version than 16 requires internet access to convert the speech data
to string data. Currently, the application is made for android smart phones; other os platform
doesn’t support our application. During voice mode, external noises (voice) may affect our result.
The speech instruction that we command in our voice mode may not give exact result as expected.
There hence lies an ambiguity in result.
Further Enhancement and Future Scope
Looking at the current situation we can build cross platform system that can be deployed on various
platforms like ios, windows. Limitation to control only several devices can be removed by
extending automation of all other home appliances. The prototype can include sensors to implement
automatic control of the home appliances like; an LDR that can sense daylight and switch lamp
accordingly, a pir to detect motion and be used for security purposes making an alarm buzz, or a
dht11 sensor that’s senses ambient temperature and humidity of atmosphere and switch fan/air
conditioner accordingly. Scope of this project can be expanded to many areas by not restricting to
only home, but to small offices
Conclusion
It is evident from this project work that an individual control home automation system can be
cheaply made from low-cost locally available components and can be used to control multifarious
home appliances ranging from the security lamps, the television to the air conditioning system and
even the entire house lighting system. And better still, the components required are so small and
few that they can be packaged into a small inconspicuous container. The designed home automation
system was tested a number of times and certified to control different home appliances used in the
lighting system, air conditioning system, home entertainment system and many more . Hence, this
system is scalable and flexible.
References
1 “Smart Energy Efficient Home Automation System using IOT”, by Satyendra K. Vishwakarma,
Prashant Upadhyaya, Babita Kumari, Arun Kumar Mishra.
2 “IOT Based Smart Security and Home Automation”, by Shardha Somani, Parikshit Solunke,
Shaunak Oke, Parth Medhi, Prof. P. P. Laturkar.
3 “A Dynamic Distributed Energy Management Algorithm of Home Sensor Network for Home
Automation System”, by Tui-Yi Yang, Chu-Sing Yang, Tien-Wen Sung; in 2016 Third
International Conference on Computing Measurement Control and Sensor Network.
4 “Enhance Smart Home Automation System based on Internet of Things”, by Tushar Churasia and
Prashant Kumar Jain; in Proceedings of the Third International Conference on I-SMAC (IoT in
Social, Mobile, Analytics and Cloud) (I-SMAC 2019) IEEE Xplore Part Number:CFP19OSV-
ART; ISBN:978-1-7281-4365-1