A vendor and technology agnostic open-source automation software for the home. It is a platform for integrating different home automation systems and technologies into one single solution that allows overarching automation rules and offers uniform user interfaces.
Published in Chapter:
Challenges and Trends in Home Automation: Addressing the Interoperability Problem With the Open-Source Platform OpenHAB
Cristina Portalés (University of Valencia, Spain), Sergio Casas (University of Valencia, Spain), and Kai Kreuzer (openHAB Foundation e.V., Germany)
Copyright: © 2019
|Pages: 27
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-5225-7332-6.ch007
Abstract
Home automation (HA) systems can be considered as an implementation of the internet of everything (IoE) where many devices are linked by intelligent connections in order to improve the quality of life at home. This chapter is dedicated to analyzing current trends and challenges in HA. Energy management, safer homes, and improved control over the house are some of the benefits of HA. However, privacy, security, social disruption, installation/maintenance issues, economic costs, market fragmentation, and low interoperability represent real problems of these IoE solutions. In this regard, the latest proposals in HA try to answer some of these needs with low-cost DIY solutions, wireless solutions, and IP-based HA systems. This chapter proposes a way to deal with the interoperability problem by means of the open-source platform openHAB. It is based on the concept of a home automation bus, an idea that enables the separation of the physical and the functional view of any device, allowing to create a technology-agnostic environment, which is perfect for addressing the interoperability problem.