Door automation system for smart home implementation

In this paper is presented the design and the prototype implementation of a pneumatic door automation system intended to be used for access control in smart homes. The structure of the developed application is realized around the PIC 16F877A microcontroller which operates together with a pneumatic actuator based on a double acting cylinder controlled through an air distributor with solenoid valve. In the basic mode, the door opening and closing actions can be initiated manually by the user, through password authentification. The main parameters of the system can be configured locally, but an indepth diagnoses and reconfiguration can be performed only through the serial interface which ensure the communication between the main module of the system and an external PC. Compared with other similar systems, the proposed implementation solution allows a high operation speed and very good reliability due to the pneumatic actuation. In addition, the door automation module can be integrated in a centralized access control system dedicated to the smart homes that has all the appliances and other electricity based equipments connected into a local network.