2011 International Conference on Information and Electronics Engineering
IPCSIT vol.6 (2011) © (2011) IACSIT Press, Singapore
Advanced Remote Control Infrastructure for Intelligent HEMS
Shun-Yu Chan1
Jen-Hao Teng2+
Shang-Wen Luan3 Rong-Ceng Leou1
Jin-Liang Lin3
1
2
Department of Electrical Engineering, Cheng-Shiu University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
Department of Electrical Engineering, National Sun Yat-Sen University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan,
3
Department of Electrical Engineering, I-Shou University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
Abstract: This paper designs and implements an Advanced Remote Control Infrastructure (ARCI) for
Intelligent Home Energy Management Systems (IHEMS). The deployment of the proposed ARCI is also
discussed. ZigBee has been designed to possess general-purpose protocol with low cost, low power
consumption and self networking; therefore, it is very suitable for constructing the communication network
of IHEMS. The proposed ARCI are composed of data router module, appliance control module, ZigBee-toIrDA control module, handheld control and management device, and rear-end SCADA system. All modules
are equipped with a ZigBee-based communication interface. The ZigBee-to-IrDA control module is used to
control the existing home appliances. Experimental results demonstrate the validity of the proposed ARCI
and showed that the proposed ARCI has great potential to be integrated into IHEMS.
Keywords: Advanced Remote Control Infrastructure, Intelligent Home Energy Management System,
ZigBee, IrDA
1. Introduction
Industries for intelligent building including safety monitoring, health care, convenience and comfort, and
energy conservation are becoming the principal developing technologies supported by many governments. In
the past, the first three topics gained the spotlights. However, energy conservation will dominate the future
emphases of intelligent building due to the emerging issues on energy deficiency and carbon dioxide
emission. An intelligent building with energy conservation techniques will essential to utilize the renewable
energy like solar energy and wind power. For example, by installing photovoltaic panels above and around
the building, the solar energy can be converted into electricity for daily usage. However, in addition to the
utilization of renewable energy, the more positive effort should be made and initiated is energy management,
which meters and collects energy consumption data and finds opportunities to save energy. Intelligent Home
Energy Management System (IHEMS) integrates building automation system, security system, information
system, and energy monitoring system along with environment sensors and artificial intelligence technology
to accomplish the most effective control for energy consumption of equipments and appliances and for the
optimal energy dispatch and management. It can be featured with not only avoiding inefficient energy
consumption, but also coordinating the usage of the existed energy and renewable energy alternately [1-5].
How to construct the communication network and design the remote control infrastructure are the
important issues for IHEMS. There are many kinds of wireless communication network standards, and
ZigBee, a low-speed LR-WPAN (Low-Rate Wireless Area Personal Network) based on IEEE 802.15.4
standard, is one of them. ZigBee has been designed to possess general-purpose protocol with low cost, low
power consumption and self networking; therefore, it is very suitable for constructing the communication
network of IHEMS. This paper designs and implements an Advanced Remote Control Infrastructure (ARCI)
for IHEMS. The proposed ARCI are composed of data router module, appliance control module, ZigBee-toIrDA control module, handheld control and management device, and rear-end SCADA system. All modules
are equipped with a ZigBee-based communication interface. The ZigBee-to-IrDA control module is used to
+
Corresponding author:
E-mail address: jhteng@ee.nsysu.edu.tw
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control the existing home appliances. Those modules are developed based on the microcontroller unit of
Microchip PIC18LF4620 and ZigBee chip of Microchip MRF24J40 [6-11]. Although ZigBee transmitting
range can be up to 1200 m; the transmitting range will be greatly decreased while a clement compartmented
wall or a plywood wall is located between ZigBee transceivers. Therefore, the deployment of proposed
ARCI is also discussed in this paper. Experimental results demonstrate the validity of the proposed ARCI.
2. Basic Concepts of the Proposed ARCI
Fig. 1 shows the architecture of the proposed ARCI which is composed of data router module, appliance
control module, ZigBee-to-IrDA control module, handheld control and management device, and rear-end
SCADA system. From Fig. 1, it can be seen that a handheld device such as smart phone or personal digital
assistant embedded with the designed control, management and rear-end SCADA system is acted as the core
of the proposed ARCI and is used to monitor and control home appliances. ZigBee-to-IrDA control module
is designed to control the existing appliances which can only be controlled by IrDA. Appliance control
module is used to monitor and control smart home appliances. Data router module is used to retransmit
signals if the distance between appliance control module and handheld control and management device
exceeds the ZigBee transmitting range.
Fig. 1: Architecture of the Proposed ARCI
ZigBee Alliance defines three device types for ZigBee network, ZigBee coordinator, ZigBee router and
ZigBee end device. ZigBee coordinator and ZigBee router are Full Function Device (FFD), and ZigBee end
device is Reduced Function Device (RFD). The FFD is capable of implementing the complete protocol set.
The RFD is implemented using minimal resources and memory capacity and can only be used as end device.
ZigBee coordinator is responsible for initiating and maintaining the devices on the network, and therefore, is
integrated into handheld control and management device. ZigBee network supports star, tree and mesh
topologies. In a star topology, the network is controlled by one ZigBee coordinator and other devices, known
as end devices, directly communicate with the ZigBee coordinator. In mesh and tree topologies, the network
can be extended through the use of ZigBee routers. This paper uses the tree topology; therefore, data router
module is equipped with ZigBee router, and appliance control module and ZigBee-to-IrDA control module
are equipped with ZigBee end devices. Although ZigBee transmitting range can be up to 1200 m; the
transmitting range will be greatly decreased while a clement compartmented wall or a plywood wall is
located between ZigBee transceivers. According to the experiments conducted in this paper, the transmitting
ranges through a clement compartmented wall or a plywood wall are about 10 m and 48 m, respectively. If
the required transmitting range exceeds the transmitting range of a single ZigBee transceiver, a data router
module can be used to extend the transmitting range. Fig. 2 shows the deployment recommendation of the
proposed ARCI for a townhouse. Of course, the data router module can be excluded for a small-sized
apartment. The maximum nodes for a ZigBee network are 65536; therefore, the proposed system can also be
extended to industrial automation.
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3. Hardware and Firmware Designs
The proposed modules as shown in Fig. 1 are developed based on the microcontroller unit of Microchip
PIC18LF4620 and ZigBee chip of Microchip MRF24J40. Figs. 3(a)-(d) show the hardware architectures for
data router module, appliance control module ZigBee-to-IrDA control module, and handheld control and
management device, respectively. From Fig. 3, it can be seen that ZigBee RF transceiver and microcontroller
unit are the foundation for each module; however, note that data router module is equipped with ZigBee
router, and appliance control module and ZigBee-to-IrDA control module are equipped with ZigBee end
devices. Microcontroller unit with designed firmware is used to control and manage the module. In order to
achieve more flexible control, appliance control module is equipped with a plug-in control memory card, that
control commands can be stored, and then the I/O pins can be controlled by the commands loaded and
executed by the microcontroller unit. The hardware architectures of other modules are designed based on the
similar idea.
Fig. 2: Deployment Recommendation of the Proposed ARCI
(a) Data Router Module
(b) Appliance Control Module
(c) ZigBee-to-IrDA Control Module
(d) Handheld Control and Management Device
Fig. 3: Modules of the Proposed Infrastructure
Firmware designed in each module is used to manage the communication network and control home
appliances if required. Fig. 4 (a) shows the firmware flowchart of ZigBee device management. From Fig.
4(a), it can be seen that the initial condition of the device is in the sleep and energy saving mode. If a signal
is needed to be transmitted or received, external interrupts are trigged and the device wakes up to transmit or
receive the signal. Fig. 4(b) shows the block diagrams of the rear-end SCADA system. Control and display
HMI block is designed to communicate with microcontroller unit through USB, RS232 or Blue Booth and
then constructed the ZigBee network for the proposed ARCI. It can also be used to control appliances and
display returned data. Database block is designed to store the control commands and access codes for
appliances and record the returned data and abnormal events of appliances etc. Appliance control block is
used to identify the appliances required to control, load the necessary control commands from database and
then those commands will be delivered to control and display HMI block. Due to limited space, the detailed
design contents and firmware flowchart of each module are not shown here.
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4. Experimental Results
The smart home appliances are still not popular due to the standard uncertainties; therefore, some
existing home appliances are used to verify the proposed ARCI. Fig. 5(a) shows the hardware prototype of
ZigBee-to-IrDA control module. Fig. 5(b) shows a binary code “01010101” received by the IrDA transceiver
of existing home appliance which is transmitted by the handheld device and received by ZigBee transceiver
and retransmitted by IrDA transceiver of ZigBee-to-IrDA control module. Note that according to IrDA
protocol the carrier wave frequency is 38 kHz and logic 1 and logic 0 are 2.25 ms composed of 560 μ s
PWM and 1690 μ s space, and 1.12 ms composed of 560 μ s PWM and 560 μ s space, respectively. From
Fig. 5(b), it can be seen that the capability of ZigBee-to-IrDA control module can be confirmed.
(b) Block Diagrams of the Rear-end SCADA System
(a) Firmware Flowchart of ZigBee Device Management
Fig. 4: Firmware Design for the Proposed ARCI
(b) IrDA Code
(a) Hardware Prototype
Fig. 5: ZigBee-to-IrDA Control Module
Table 1: Part of IrDA Control Codes for Air-Conditioner Manufactured by Hitachi
On/Off
25Î26
26Î27
27Î28
25Î26
26Î27
27Î28
0x4D, 0x75, 0xB2, 0x8A,0x0F,0x26,0x27,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x08,0x19
Temperature Adjustment (C)
0x4D, 0x75, 0xB2, 0x8A,0x0F,0x16,0x27,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x10
0x4D, 0x75, 0xB2, 0x8A,0x0F,0x16,0x29,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x12
0x4D, 0x75, 0xB2, 0x8A,0x0F,0x26,0x2B,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x15
Fan Speed (H: High, M: Medium, L: Low)
0x4D, 0x75, 0xB2, 0x8A,0x0F,0x26,0x2B,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x15
0x4D, 0x75, 0xB2, 0x8A,0x0F,0x16,0x2B,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x14
0x4D, 0x75, 0xB2, 0x8A,0x0F,0x46,0x2B,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x17
In the following experiments, the air conditioners manufactured by Hitachi are used. Table 1 shows part
of the IrDA control codes for Hitachi’s air conditioner. In order to make sure that the proposed ARCI can
control the air conditioners effectively, ZigBee network analyzer named ZENA designed by Microchip is
used. Many experiments are conducted; however, only some cases are shown. The short addresses of the
handheld device equipped with a ZigBee coordinator and the ZigBee-to-IrDA control module equipped with
a ZigBee end device are 0x0000 and 0x796, respectively. ZigBee-to-IrDA control module can control
several existing home appliances and the appliances are numbered from nodes 0x00 to 0x16. Fig. 6 shows
the data frames received by ZigBee-to-IrDA control module and analyzed by ZENA to turn on the air
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condition (node 0x16), adjust the temperature form 25 C to 26 C, and change fan speed from high to medium.
From Fig. 5 and Table 1, it can be seen that AF data (control codes) are the same as the control codes shown
in Table 1; therefore, the validity of proposed ARCI can be demonstrated.
Fig. 6: Data Frames by ZigBee-to-IrDA Control Module
5. Conclusions
This paper designed and implemented an ARCI for IHEMS. The deployment of the proposed system was
also discussed. The proposed ARCI are composed of data router module, appliance control module, ZigBeeto-IrDA control module, handheld control and management device, and rear-end SCADA system. The
ZigBee-to-IrDA control module is used to control the existing home appliances. Experimental results
demonstrated the validity of the proposed system and showed that the proposed system has great potential to
be integrated into IHEMS. This paper only focused on the hardware implementation and firmware design of
the proposed ARCI, the utilization of the proposed ARCI to achieve optimal energy dispatch and
management for IHEMS will be discussed in the future research.
6. Acknowledgements
This work was sponsored by National Science Council, Taiwan, under research grant NSC 99-2221-E230 -021.
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