An interoperable framework for home automation design, testing and control

The interest in smart homes is growing day by day and one of the main issues still unsolved concerns the communication between heterogeneous objects (appliances, home automation systems, personal smartphones and tablets) of different brands. In this context devices are increasingly interconnected one with each other but the real opportunities and benefits arising from this situation have not been yet completely exploited. In this paper an interoperability framework is developed to enable vertical solutions in different and multi-functional (energy, security, comfort) domotic applications. The framework is realized with the software LabVIEW and integrates a real and a virtual environment. Following an IP-based approach and exploiting the capabilities of an open and commercial protocol (OpenWebNet), the environment provides a tool to speed up the design of a home automation system, allowing the test of different configurations. Using the developed framework, a commercial home automation system is tested with virtual devices to highlight its designing and testing opportunities.