GUI Based Home Automation System Using Arduino and MATLAB

In this project, we are using MATLAB with Arduino to control the Home appliances, through a Graphical User Interface in Computer. Here we have used wired communication for sending data from computer (MATLAB) to Arduino. In computer side, we have used GUI in MATLAB to create some buttons for controlling home appliances. For communication between Arduino and MATLAB, we first need to install the “MATLAB and Simulink Support for Arduino” or “Arduino IO Package”. To do so follow the below steps or check the video below:

1) Download the Arduino IO Package from here. You need to Sign up before download.

2) Then Burn/upload the adioe.pde file to the Arduino using Arduino IDE. This adioe.pde file can be found in Arduino IO Package – ArduinoIO\pde\adioe\adioe.pde
3) Then open the MATLAB software, go through the Arduino IO folder, open the install_arduino.m file and Run it in Matlab. You will see a message of “Arduino folders added to the path” in command window of MATLAB, means MATLAB path is updated to Arduino folders.

That’s how we make the Arduino, communicate with MATLAB. Above method is suitable for “MATLAB R2013b or earlier versions”, if you are using the higher version of MATLAB (like R2015b or R2016a), you can directly click on Add-ons Tab in MATLAB and then click “Get Hardware Support Packages”, from where you can install Arduino packages for MATLAB.

After installing files, now you can create a GUI for Home Automation Project. Basically in GUI, we are creating Push Buttons for controlling the home appliances from computer. Buttons can be created by going into “Graphical User Interface” in “New” menu in MATLAB. Further we can set the name and colours of these buttons, we have created 8 buttons, in which six to ON and OFF three home appliances and two buttons to ON and OFF all the appliances simultaneously.

Now after creating the buttons, when you click on Run button in that GUI window, it will ask you to save this GUI file (with extension .fig), also known as ‘fig file’. As soon you saved the file, it will automatically create a code file (with extension .m), also known as ‘M file’ (see below screen shot), where you can put the Code (given in Code section below). You can download the GUI file and code file for this project from here:
Home_Automation_system.fig and Home_Automation_system.m (right click and select Save link as...), or you can create them yourself like we have explained.

After coding you can now finally Run the .m file from the code window, you will see “Attempting connection..” in the command window. Then a “Arduino successfully connected” message appears, if everything goes well. And finally you will see previously created GUI (buttons) in GUI window, from where you can control the home appliances by just clicking on the buttons in your Computer. Make sure that Arduino is connected to Arduino via USB cable. Here in this project we have used 3 bulbs for demonstration, which indicates Fan, Light and TV.

Working of the whole project, from installing the Arduino MATLAB support package to Turn On or OFF the appliance, can be understood at the Video at the end.

Circuit Explanation:
Circuit of this project is very easy. Here we have used an Arduino UNO board and Relay Driver ULN2003 for driving relays. Three 5 volt SPDT Relays are connected to Arduino pin number 3, 4 and 5, through relay driver ULN2003, for controlling LIGHT, FAN and TV respectively.


Programming Explanation:

When we press any button from the GUI window then it sends some commands to Arduino and then Arduino do that operation. After installing Arduino MATLAB IO support package, we can access Arduino from the MATLAB by using the same Arduino functions, with some little variation, like:

For making a pin HIGH in Arduino we write code as digitalWrite(pin, HIGH)

In MATLAB we will use this function with the help of an object or variable like,
a.digitalWrite(pin, HIGH);

and likewise so on.

Before doing this we have to initialise variable like this:
a = Arduino(‘COM1’); // change COM1 according to your port

In this project, there is no Arduino code except the Arduino MATLAB support package code or file. As explained earlier that code file (.m file) is automatically generated while saving the GUI file (.fig file). There is already some code prewritten in .m file. Basically these are Callback functions for Push buttons, means we can define what should happen on clicking on these Push Buttons.

In MATLAB code, first we initialise serial port and make it an object by using a variable. And then we can start programming like Arduino using the variable.

clear ar;
global ar;
ar=arduino('COM13');
ar.pinMode(3, 'OUTPUT');
ar.pinMode(4, 'OUTPUT');
ar.pinMode(5, 'OUTPUT');
ar.pinMode(13, 'OUTPUT');

In the call back function of each button, we have written the related code for On or OFF the respective Home Appliances, connected to Arduino via Relay. Like for example, Callback function for Light ON is given below:

function light_on_Callback(hObject, eventdata, handles)
% hObject    handle to light_on (see GCBO)
% eventdata  reserved - to be defined in a future version of MATLAB
% handles    structure with handles and user data (see GUIDATA)
global ar;
ar.digitalWrite(3, 1);
ar.digitalWrite(13, 1);

Likewise we can write the code in the Callback functions of all the buttons, to control the other connected Home Appliances, check the full MATLAB Code below (.m file).

Code

function varargout = Home_Automation_system(varargin)
% HOME_AUTOMATION_SYSTEM MATLAB code for Home_Automation_system.fig
%      HOME_AUTOMATION_SYSTEM, by itself, creates a new HOME_AUTOMATION_SYSTEM or raises the existing
%      singleton*.
%
%      H = HOME_AUTOMATION_SYSTEM returns the handle to a new HOME_AUTOMATION_SYSTEM or the handle to
%      the existing singleton*.
%
%      HOME_AUTOMATION_SYSTEM('CALLBACK',hObject,eventData,handles,...) calls the local
%      function named CALLBACK in HOME_AUTOMATION_SYSTEM.M with the given input arguments.
%
%      HOME_AUTOMATION_SYSTEM('Property','Value',...) creates a new HOME_AUTOMATION_SYSTEM or raises the
%      existing singleton*.  Starting from the left, property value pairs are
%      applied to the GUI before Home_Automation_system_OpeningFcn gets called.  An
%      unrecognized property name or invalid value makes property application
%      stop.  All inputs are passed to Home_Automation_system_OpeningFcn via varargin.
%
%      *See GUI Options on GUIDE's Tools menu.  Choose "GUI allows only one
%      instance to run (singleton)".
%
% See also: GUIDE, GUIDATA, GUIHANDLES

% Edit the above text to modify the response to help Home_Automation_system

% Last Modified by GUIDE v2.5 28-Feb-2016 01:59:17

% Begin initialization code - DO NOT EDIT
gui_Singleton = 1;
gui_State = struct('gui_Name',       mfilename, ...
                   'gui_Singleton',  gui_Singleton, ...
                   'gui_OpeningFcn', @Home_Automation_system_OpeningFcn, ...
                   'gui_OutputFcn',  @Home_Automation_system_OutputFcn, ...
                   'gui_LayoutFcn',  [] , ...
                   'gui_Callback',   []);
if nargin && ischar(varargin{1})
    gui_State.gui_Callback = str2func(varargin{1});
end

if nargout
    [varargout{1:nargout}] = gui_mainfcn(gui_State, varargin{:});
else
    gui_mainfcn(gui_State, varargin{:});
end
% End initialization code - DO NOT EDIT

% --- Executes just before Home_Automation_system is made visible.
function Home_Automation_system_OpeningFcn(hObject, eventdata, handles, varargin)
% This function has no output args, see OutputFcn.
% hObject    handle to figure
% eventdata  reserved - to be defined in a future version of MATLAB
% handles    structure with handles and user data (see GUIDATA)
% varargin   command line arguments to Home_Automation_system (see VARARGIN)

% Choose default command line output for Home_Automation_system
handles.output = hObject;

% Update handles structure
guidata(hObject, handles);

clear ar;
global ar;
ar=arduino('COM13');
ar.pinMode(3, 'OUTPUT');
ar.pinMode(4, 'OUTPUT');
ar.pinMode(5, 'OUTPUT');
ar.pinMode(13, 'OUTPUT');

% UIWAIT makes Home_Automation_system wait for user response (see UIRESUME)
% uiwait(handles.figure1);

% --- Outputs from this function are returned to the command line.
function varargout = Home_Automation_system_OutputFcn(hObject, eventdata, handles)
% varargout  cell array for returning output args (see VARARGOUT);
% hObject    handle to figure
% eventdata  reserved - to be defined in a future version of MATLAB
% handles    structure with handles and user data (see GUIDATA)

% Get default command line output from handles structure
varargout{1} = handles.output;

% --- Executes on button press in light_on.
function light_on_Callback(hObject, eventdata, handles)
% hObject    handle to light_on (see GCBO)
% eventdata  reserved - to be defined in a future version of MATLAB
% handles    structure with handles and user data (see GUIDATA)
global ar;
ar.digitalWrite(3, 1);
ar.digitalWrite(13, 1);

% --- Executes on button press in light_off.
function light_off_Callback(hObject, eventdata, handles)
% hObject    handle to light_off (see GCBO)
% eventdata  reserved - to be defined in a future version of MATLAB
% handles    structure with handles and user data (see GUIDATA)
global ar;
ar.digitalWrite(3, 0);
ar.digitalWrite(13, 0);

% --- Executes on button press in fan_on.
function fan_on_Callback(hObject, eventdata, handles)
% hObject    handle to fan_on (see GCBO)
% eventdata  reserved - to be defined in a future version of MATLAB
% handles    structure with handles and user data (see GUIDATA)
global ar;
ar.digitalWrite(4, 1);

% --- Executes on button press in fan_off.
function fan_off_Callback(hObject, eventdata, handles)
% hObject    handle to fan_off (see GCBO)
% eventdata  reserved - to be defined in a future version of MATLAB
% handles    structure with handles and user data (see GUIDATA)
global ar;
ar.digitalWrite(4, 0);

% --- Executes on button press in tv_on.
function tv_on_Callback(hObject, eventdata, handles)
% hObject    handle to tv_on (see GCBO)
% eventdata  reserved - to be defined in a future version of MATLAB
% handles    structure with handles and user data (see GUIDATA)
global ar;
ar.digitalWrite(5, 1);

% --- Executes on button press in tv_off.
function tv_off_Callback(hObject, eventdata, handles)
% hObject    handle to tv_off (see GCBO)
% eventdata  reserved - to be defined in a future version of MATLAB
% handles    structure with handles and user data (see GUIDATA)
global ar;
ar.digitalWrite(5, 0);

% --- Executes on button press in all_on.
function all_on_Callback(hObject, eventdata, handles)
% hObject    handle to all_on (see GCBO)
% eventdata  reserved - to be defined in a future version of MATLAB
% handles    structure with handles and user data (see GUIDATA)
global ar;
ar.digitalWrite(3, 1);
ar.digitalWrite(4, 1);
ar.digitalWrite(5, 1);

% --- Executes on button press in all_off.
function all_off_Callback(hObject, eventdata, handles)
% hObject    handle to all_off (see GCBO)
% eventdata  reserved - to be defined in a future version of MATLAB
% handles    structure with handles and user data (see GUIDATA)
global ar;
ar.digitalWrite(3, 0);
ar.digitalWrite(4, 0);
ar.digitalWrite(5, 0);