LAB AUTOMATION SYSTEM WITH PLATFORM SUPPORT USING THE ASYNCHRONOUS MQTT PROTOCOL

Abstract

The objective of this project revolves around creating a Lab automation system with the main focus being the usage of a Smart IoT Platform to integrate and control devices capable of communicating over the internet. The system consists of daughter nodes using synchronous or asynchronous protocols for communication, a mother hub hosting a smart platform, a server and front end Web UI. The daughter nodes are microprocessors and smart peripherals like Lighting loads and plug load controllers. Each microprocessor employed hosts an automation circuit that can be controlled cumulatively at one interface, the smart platform. This platform is hosted by the mother hub, mainly the Raspberry Pi used in this project for that purpose. There is no commonly accepted open standard for interaction with smart devices. This hinders many devices from interacting with each other. A hub is a unit that acts as a tool for all the linked systems to communicate and handle. The R-Pi SoC flamboyant board that has been a choice of enthusiasts for its form-factor, processing, open source integration and the number of GPIO pins it offers for automation. It seeks to deliver local and remote tracking, interoperability, scalibilty, plug and play, robustness, open protocol, all this being cost-effective. The open source project Home Assistant, an automation platform running on Python3 is hosted on the mother hub. It has stronger focus on end users with a good selection of software providers and integration services as compared to other beta open source projects. The platform runs in a virtual environment created for its Command line and Graphic user interface. The Internet of Things (IoT) is a fast-growing theme of technical, social and financial importance. IoT’s open nature leads to dominant settings being created in which its parts can be rearranged based on the context. This has innovative consequences. Because IoT is not a consolidated sector where a dominant design guides incremental innovation, instead, innovation arises from connecting components together by concentrating on inter- industry cooperation and user engagement. The further growth and implementation of IoT will be simulated in the coming times.