An Improved Microcontroller Based Automated Home Using GSM Phone

The advancements in technology in the world tend to make life for humans better. As time progresses, new technologies as well as improvement of existing technologies consistently given birth to a better, comfortable, safe and more secured way of living. One of these technologies which fosters better living in recent times is the smart home technology. This enables house owners to interact with their home. It brings about stress-free and risk-free means of controlling household system. This paper presents the utilisation of cheap and open-source materials in the development of a Short Messaging Service (SMS-based) smart home system. These materials include the Arduino microcontroller, SIM800l GSM module, electric relay, and some basic electronic components. Object-oriented system analysis and design (OOAD) was adopted as the development methodology for the research. Upon testing, the system was able to receive commands via SMS in order to turn on and off of Alternating Current (AC) appliances at home. Also, the system sends acknowledgement message to the sender to confirm if the command was carried out or not. It could check if the command it received was sent from the house owner’s phone or not. If command was from the house owner’s phone, the command is honored but if not, it is discarded. This is a feature that enables the home appliances not to be controlled by unauthorized persons.