Wireless sensor based home automation as an educational springboard

This paper details the design and development of a system that is intended to be used as a tool to educate and excite young school leaver to pursue engineering education, especially in the field of sensors and sensor applications. The system is essentially a home automation platform that allows users to interact with a network of sensors and actuators. The system consists of four hardware components; the computer/webserver that controls the network of sensors and actuators, the device the user will use to access the web server, the sensors/actuators of the system, and the microcontroller that bridges the web server and the sensor/actuator network. The end user of this system will be expected to assemble various components of the system together and in doing so, will gain an exposure to the engineering field. This exposure will increase the awareness of what engineering entails and hopes to prompt future students to take up engineering as a field of study. The system, while being a platform for exposing engineering, can also be a platform for future projects requiring remote access to an autonomous sensor network with the ability to change the environment around them, such as zoological research projects tracking the endangered birds. Finally, the system, capable of sensing temperature and light, controlling 230V 10A mains appliances and a keyless entry device, could be used simply as a home automation system in its own right by an interested hobbyist.