Raspberry Pi as a Sensor Web node for home automation

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compeleceng.2015.01.019Get rights and content

Highlights

  • Implementation of Sensor Web node as a part of Internet of Things using a Raspberry Pi.

  • Ubiquitous solution of Home automation system: appears everywhere and anywhere.

  • Do-It-Yourself approach: user build own solution that meets specific needs.

  • Interdisciplinary approach: electronic, programming, services and soft computing.

  • System for monitoring confidence of fire created and developed starting from a scratch.

Abstract

The world of home automation is an exciting field that has exploded with new technologies and today is known as an area where “The internet of things” (IoT) vision becomes reality. The primary advantages that stem from this concept include how each device forms a small part of the Internet, by which the advanced system is able to interact and communicate, maximizes safety, security, comfort, convenience and energy-savings. This paper proposes an implementation of Sensor Web node as a part of IoT using a Raspberry Pi – inexpensive, fully customizable and programmable small computer with support for a large number of peripherals and network communication. Using this technology, in an example of monitoring and determining the confidence of fire in building, a full system, based on Sensor Web elements, is created and developed starting from a scratch. The given example confirms the advantage of Raspberry Pi – flexibility and extensive possibility of its usage.

Introduction

The “Internet of Things” – IoT, can be viewed as a highly dynamic and widely distributed network system. In other words, it is a system comprising many identifiable components that are able to communicate and to interact, either among themselves or with end-users or other entities in the network [1]. Home-automation, by way of smart devices that sense physical occurrences and translate them into a stream of information data, maximizes safety, security, comfort, convenience and energy-savings (Fig. 1) [1], [2]. The building elements of home automation are sensor networks and Building Management System (BMS). Using Sensor Web elements, as a part of IoT, in opposition to the standard sensor elements, the communication infrastructure rapidly changes from local to global, moving a BMS to global level too. Moreover, home automation system in a whole becomes ubiquitous – appears everywhere and anywhere.

Thus, home automation can be defined as a mechanism removing as much human interaction as technically possible and desirable in various domestic processes and replacing them with programmed electronic systems. Ultimately it is a system that aims to heighten quality of life with the automation of household activity that may be controlled over the Internet or telephone.

Originally, this system was used to control HVAC (Heating, Ventilation and Air-Conditioning) as well as fire safety and security, controlled by a central computer [3]. With the development of modern technologies home automation includes various features for security, surveillance, lighting, energy management, access control, entertainment-appliances, interfaces and software. The home automation system should be easy to understand and operate, as well as providing for easy expansion according to users’ needs and individual budget. More importantly, home automation provides for an alternative solution to the reduction of energy consumption, cost expenditure as well as increased convenience [3].

Research performed by Berg Insight [4] states that at the end of 2012, in the countries EU27 + 2, there were a total of 1.06 million smart home systems in use. This demonstrates that the European market for smart home systems is approximately three years behind North America in terms of penetration and market maturity. Berg Insight forecasts that the installed smart home systems in EU27 + 2 will grow and reach 17.4 million systems by 2017 (Fig. 2).

There are three types of home automation systems:

  • Individual control devices,

  • Distributed-control systems and

  • Centrally controlled systems.

Individual devices control only one appliance or function, examples include; programmable thermostats, motion detectors, occupancy sensors, photocell lighting controls and timers. A distributed-control system allows for individual appliances to communicate internally with each other over the existing electrical wiring without a central controller (although keyboard entry is possible using telephones or personal computers). A centrally controlled communication system routes signals between a central computer and appliance controllers or environmental sensors. The leading advantage of this system is that it can control some “dumb” appliances as well as “smart” appliances but if the controller fails, the whole system fails [5].

It is important to note that an automated home can be a very simple grouping of controls, or it can be heavily automated whereby any appliance that is plugged into electrical power is remotely controlled. There are hundreds of products available today that allow control over the devices automatically, either by remote control; or even by voice command. But commercial home automation systems are usually expensive (costs mainly include equipment, components, furniture and custom installation) and user can’t modify anything to tailor the system to its own home. On the other side, by using inexpensive hardware and open source software, it is possible to programmatically control many devices in a building in such a way that own solution meets user’s specific needs. This is known as Do-It-Yourself (DiY) category in home automation where customer creates its own source code, has the measurements, the metrics, the methods, the knowledge to build and to troubleshoot, repair, and enhance its own solution. In this way it is possible to realize the system which will include everything user would expect from a commercial home automation system. Therefore, providing techniques to end-users and the possibility to shape products according to their needs is beneficial for both, users and product developers.

In this work, one of the prototype platforms which enable end-user programming in order to build a complete open-source home automation system is considered. The aim is to show how to make devices, components and appliances web aware so that managing and monitoring can be done by web browser. In addition, it is possible to make the IP (Internet Protocol)-enabled devices and components to be also aware of other components on the network and to be capable to interact directly with each other without human interference or a central management computer. In other words, different devices and the appliances in the home, as home environment, being connected to the Internet, can be controlled remotely or continuously monitored. This contributes to overall cost reduction and energy saving which is one of the main concerns of today.

This paper presents Raspberry Pi usage as a Sensor Web node for home automation with a fire-safety example (monitoring and determining the confidence of fire in a building). Raspberry Pi computer, which was introduced in 2012, is currently a mainstream system subject to widespread availability that can be used in home automation. As a small and powerful tool it enables the home automation enthusiast, programmer and electronic hobbyist to enhance their homes with sensors and software [2]. In order to justify the practicality of Raspberry Pi within home automation a comparison with other sensor nodes and development platforms is performed [6], [7]. The subsequent analysis has shown that Raspberry Pi is an ultra-cheap-yet-serviceable computer board with support for a large number of input and output peripherals. This makes it the perfect platform for interaction with many different devices and usage in a wide range of applications. Combining Raspberry Pi with Wi-Fi it can communicate remotely, therefore increasing suitability for the construction of wireless sensor nodes and Sensor Web nodes. Raspberry Pi can also be used as a processing node in Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN), not just as a sensor node but also as a controller. In addition, data processing and decision-making can be based on artificial intelligence, what is performed in developed testbed on the example of monitoring and determining the confidence of fire.

The rest of this paper is organized as follows; Section 2 highlights the State of the Art, Section 3 presents an implementation of three components used for building a Raspberry Pi as a Sensor Web node, Section 4 provides an example of client application for data visualization and processing as one possible way of application. Finally, Section 5, based on the performed research and obtained results, provides the concluding remarks and outlines potential directions for future work.

Section snippets

State of the art

Raspberry Pi (Fig. 3) is a small computer with the dimensions; 85.60 mm × 53.98 mm × 17 mm, weighing only 45g and affordable for 25–35$. This makes it perfect for home automation, where a small device can easily be placed in a case and mounted inside an electrical box, or replace an existing thermostat device on a wall [2]. The Raspberry Pi board contains a processor and graphics chip, program memory (RAM – Random-Access Memory) and various interfaces and connectors for external devices. Some of these

Raspberry Pi based Sensor Web testbed

For the control of intelligent home via the Internet in real-time, a simple and convenient infrastructure is constructed based on the client/server architecture. For the purposes of chosen home automation project the rest of the paper presents, in detail, three realized basic elements:

  • Raspberry Pi connection with sensors that gather information from the environment,

  • Creation of the driver with which sensors would be accessed and thereby the access and operation be facilitated, and

  • Raspberry Pi

Raspberry Pi as a Sensor Web in action

With the threats, risks and dangers that exist today, fire and security systems in particular have come to play an increasingly significant role in life-safety operations. Fire can cause severe damage to the infrastructure and internal area, as well as life threatening conditions. Therefore, early and accurate fire detection is important for the prompt extinguishing of the fire, and the reduction of damages and loss of life. It is obvious, thus, that fire-safety systems are essential. Their

Conclusion

The application of the IoT technology, in the context of the home automation means integration of all electrical devices and their monitoring, controlling and alerting in ways not possible before. This works to provide many advantages including, safety, security, improved comfort, energy and cost savings.

In order to address the issues of flexibility and functionality, a novel, standalone, flexible and low cost home controlling and monitoring system using RESTful based Web services as an

Vladimir Vujović works at the Department of Computer science and informatics, Faculty of Electrical Engineering in East Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. As a Ph.D student at the Faculty of Technical Sciences in Novi Sad, Serbia, he is pursuing research in the field of Software engineering, Information systems and Artificial intelligence (Model Driven Software Development, Information System Design, Home Automation, Sensor Networks, etc.)

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    Vladimir Vujović works at the Department of Computer science and informatics, Faculty of Electrical Engineering in East Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. As a Ph.D student at the Faculty of Technical Sciences in Novi Sad, Serbia, he is pursuing research in the field of Software engineering, Information systems and Artificial intelligence (Model Driven Software Development, Information System Design, Home Automation, Sensor Networks, etc.)

    Mirjana Maksimović received the M.Sc. and Ph.D degree in Electrical Engineering from University of East Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. She works at the Departments of Automatics and Electronics, Electroenergetics and Computer science and informatics, Faculty of Electrical Engineering in East Sarajevo. Her current research and teaching interests extend to a range of topics in Telecommunications, Automation and Electronics.

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