Arduino and NodeMcu based Ingenious Household Objects Monitoring and Control Environment

With the advent of innovation and automation, convenience and simplicity has permeated all walks of life. Home automation is one such emerging technology which empowers the residents to have wireless, ubiquitous and computerized control over the household gadgets. Some popular ways to implement wireless connectivity amongst the connected devices are cellular networks, IR sensors, Bluetooth, ZigBee frameworks and Wi-Fi networks with each type having its intrinsic strengths and setbacks. There are a plethora of IoT setups available but most of them have restricted compatibility and are tailor-made for manufacturer supported devices. In order to overcome these difficulties and provide a cost efficient solution, a generic, all product supporting Wi-Fi based remote home automation scheme using an Arduino UNO (microcontroller), an 8 channel Relay module and a NodeMcu (Wi-Fi module) is proposed in this paper. Naive users are familiar with Wi-Fi as it is already used in consumer electronics sector. They can utilise their existing hotspots with minimal additional infrastructure for new IoT applications. Therefore, a Wi-Fi based system brings down the cost by eliminating the need to buy expensive auxiliaries. Being compatible with the Internet Protocol (IP), a significantly higher number of devices can be connected to the internet when Wi-Fi is used. Firebase functions as the cloud hosted real-time database assisting data exchange and synchronisation. The connected devices are monitored and controlled through a mobile application from anywhere across the globe. Additionally, voice based control can be provided with the integration of Google Assistant. The device statistics are visually presented as charts to provide the users an overview of their usage.

I. Introduction

The Internet of things (IoT) is an emerging technological paradigm where the devices of everyday use are networked together. This includes mobile phones, refrigerators, washing machines, Television, lamps, watches, wearable devices and almost everything one can imagine. Even traditionally dumb devices can work in perfect synchronisation and interact with each other. The networked devices can identify themselves to other devices. These devices can exchange data through light weight protocols like MQTT, CoAP etc. IoT is seen as the next great revolution in technology which has the enormous potential to transform the way we live, think and act.