An IoT Based Smart Home Automation System

Home automation has achieved a lot of popularity in recent years, as day-to-day life is getting simpler due to the rapid growth of technology. Almost everything has become digitalized and automatic. In this paper, a system for interconnecting sensors, actuators, and other data sources with the purpose of multiple home automations is proposed. The system is called qToggle and works by leveraging the power of a flexible and powerful Application Programming Interface (API), which represents the foundation of a simple and common communication scheme. The devices used by qToggle are usually sensors or actuators with an upstream network connection implementing the qToggle API. Most devices used by qToggle are based on ESP8266/ESP8285 chips and/or on Raspberry Pi boards. A smartphone application has been developed that allows users to control a series of home appliances and sensors. The qToggle system is user friendly, flexible, and can be further developed by using different devices and add-ons.