Intelligent house with PLC

Abstract - With the development of new electronic technologies a dwelling it can be transformed in a smart house easily by using a PLC. By interconnecting and automation of all electric devices from a dwelling, it leads to easier control and monitoring of them and increase quality of life for persons.

Index Terms - home automation, domotics, intelligent house, smart house, PLC, user, lighting control, security control and air conditioning unit.

I.INTRODUCTION

First Project for a Smart House was initiated in the early 1980's as a project of the National Association of Home Builders with the cooperation of a collection of major industrial partners. The "smart house" technology is one realization of home automation ideals using a specific set of technologies that responds to the dweller's needs and desires as adjusting lighting, temperature, starting of appliances at a certain time, even ambient music.

The basic idea of home automation is to employ sensors and control systems to monitor a dwelling, and accordingly adjust the various mechanisms that provide heat, ventilation, lighting, and other services. By more closely tuning the dwelling's mechanical systems to the dweller's needs, the automated "intelligent" home can provide a safer, more comfortable, and more economical dwelling. For example, the electronic controller of an automated home can determine when the dwellers have gone to bed and turn off the lights and lower the thermostat; it can monitor burglar and fire alarms; it can anticipate hot water usage and optimize the operation of the water heater.

Home automation (also called domotics) is the residential extension of "building automation". It is automation of the home, housework or household activity. Home automation may include centralized control of lighting, HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning), appliances, and other systems, to provide improved convenience, comfort, energy efficiency and security. Home automation for the elderly and disabled can provide increased quality of life for persons who might otherwise require caregivers or institutional care.

A home automation system integrates electrical devices in a house with each other. The techniques employed in home automation include those in building automation as well as the control of domestic activities and the use of domestic robots.

Typically, a new home is outfitted for home automation during construction, due to the accessibility of the walls, outlets, and storage rooms, and the ability to make design changes specifically to accommodate certain technologies.

Although automated homes of the future have been exhibited for World's Fairs and have popular backgrounds in science fiction, the complexity, the competition between vendors, the multiple incompatible standards and the resulting expenses have limited the penetration of home automation to homes of the wealthy or ambitious hobbyists.

II. The Birth of PLC

The early history of the PLC goes back to the 1960's when control systems were still handled using relay control. During this time the control rooms consisted of several walls containing many relays, terminal blocks and mass of wires.

Back then the problems that the technicians and control engineers faced continuously wre:

- the lackof flexibility to expand the process, as well as the inordinate amount of time needed to adjust the process when changes were needed.

- troubleshooting which covered from dirty contacts, loose wires, outdated prints on the terminal blocks with informal nomenclature, to cryptic connection documentation. In 1968 Bill Stone, who was part of a group of engineers at the Hydramatic Division of General Motors Corporation presented a design criteria developed by the GM engineers for a "standard machine controller".

According to the criteria developed, the early model of this machine not only had to eliminate costly scrapping of assembly-line relays during model changeovers and replace unreliable electromechanical relays, but also:

- Extend the advantages of static circuits to 90% of the machines in the plant.

- Reduce machine downtime related to controls problems, easily maintained and programmed in line with already accepted relay ladder logic.

- Provide for future expansion, it had to be modular to allow for easy ex-change of components and expandability.

- It had to work in an industrial environment with all it's dirt, moisture, electromagnetism and vibration.

- Include full logic capabilities, except for data reduction functions.

III. THE SYSTEM

The elements of a domotics system are:

- Sensors. Is a device that measures a physical quantity and converts it into a signal which can be read by an observer or by an instrument. It can be used to get informations about temperature, umidity, noise, face recognition, someone present.

- Actuators. is a mechanical device for moving or controlling a mechanism or system. It is operated by a source of energy, usually in the form of an electric current, hydraulic fluid pressure or pneumatic pressure, and converts that energy into some kind of motion.

- PLC. A Programmable Logic Controller is an industrial computer control system that continuously monitors the state of input devices and makes decisions based upon a custom program to control the state of output deveces.

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