International Journal of Research and Innovation in Applied Science (IJRIAS) |Volume VII, Issue III, March 2022|ISSN 2454-6194 www.rsisinternational.org Page 26 An IoT-Based Home Automation and Weather Monitoring System Alexander A. Willoughby, Ayodele O. Soge, Muiz A. Adeleke, Oluwaseyi A. Ilori Department of Physical Sciences, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Redeemer’s University, PMB 230, Ede, Osun State, Nigeria Abstract: This paper reports an IoT-based home automation and weather monitoring system developed for remote control of household appliances and weather monitoring. The proposed system comprises a Wi-Fi enabled ESP32 microcontroller as the network gateway, a relay module, and a DHT11 sensor for monitoring temperature and humidity. The status of the household devices and the weather data are continuously collected and stored in a MySQL database, which is set up on the IoT platform. A user interface was created using two different protocols - HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP) and Message Queuing Telemetry Transport (MQTT). The IoT-based home automation and weather monitoring system is designed to be low cost, user-friendly and can remotely control home appliances and monitor weather data over the internet. Keywords: Internet of Things, home automation, weather monitoring, ESP32 microcontroller, MySQL database I. INTRODUCTION he Internet of Things (IoT) is the network of things, with clear element identification, embedded with software intelligence, sensors, and ubiquitous connectivity to the Internet [1]. IoT allows physical objects to be sensed (to provide specific information) and controlled remotely across the Internet, thereby creating opportunities for more direct integration between the physical world and computer- based systems and resulting in improved efficiency, accuracy, and economic benefits [1]. According to Kodali et al. [2], IoT conceptualizes the idea of remotely connecting and monitoring real world objects (things) through the Internet. The integration of this concept into our home, makes it smarter, safer, and automated. Home automation involves the remote monitoring of home conditions, electric appliances, and executing the required actuation [3]. Home appliances such as television, air-conditioner, refrigerator, and light bulbs are assigned a unique address and are connected through a common home gateway which can be remotely accessed and controlled from any computer, mobile phone, or laptop [3]. It has been predicted that 21st century homes will become more and more self-controlled and automated due to the comfort it provides, especially when employed in a private home [4]. This prediction is supported by the current rapid advancement of wireless technologies such as Wi-Fi and cloud networks [4]. In recent years, several home automation systems for remote monitoring and control of household devices have been reported. Balakrishnan et al. [3] developed a MQTT (Message Queuing Telemetry Transport) based secured home automation system comprising temperature sensors and ESP8266 model as the network gateway. MQTT protocol was implemented for transferring and receiving sensor data which are accessible via ACL (access control list) and monitored on webpage or any network device. Likewise, Vinay Sagar and Kusuma [4] reported an IoT based home automation system using Intel Galileo that employs the integration of cloud networking, wireless communication, to provide the user with remote control of various lights, fans, and appliances within their home and storing the data in the cloud. The system was designed to be low cost and expandable allowing a variety of devices to be controlled. Kodali et al. [2] also reported an IoT based smart security and home automation system which sends alerts to the owner by using Internet in case of any trespass and raises an alarm optionally. It also serves as home automation by making use of the same set of sensors. The smart wireless home security system was constructed using TI-CC3200 Launchpad board which comes with an embedded micro- controller and an onboard Wi-Fi shield enabling the monitoring and control of all electrical appliances in the home. Yar et al. [5] proposed a cost-effective integrated system for smart home based on IoT and Edge-Computing paradigm. The proposed system uses a resource-constrained Raspberry Pi (RPI) device as a central controlling unit, which provides a cost-effective platform for interconnecting a variety of devices and various sensors in a home via the Internet. The home automation system provides remote and automatic control to home appliances, ensuring security and safety. Besides, the proposed solution uses the edge- computing paradigm to store sensitive data in a local cloud to preserve the customer’s privacy. The proposed framework reduced the computational cost, the network bandwidth and storage over the costly cloud solution. The smart home automation system was conclusively proven to be very efficient in terms of energy consumption, response time, data processing, and bandwidth use. Similarly, Maragatham et al. [6] proposed an IoT based home automation system using Raspberry Pi 4 embedded microcontroller with WLAN module (Wireless Local Area Network) to remotely control home appliances. Raspberry Pi 4 microcontroller acts as a monitoring module for the temperature sensor, and passive infra-red (PIR) sensor. The electrical appliances in the home were switched on and off using a relay module. Furthermore, a simple solution for home automation based on ESP8266 chips and Raspberry Pi boards was reported by Stolojescu-Crisan et al. [7]. The home automation system called qToggle uses a very basic core API (Application Programming Interface), allowing for a T