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Material Type: Project; Professor: Goodman; Class: Senior Design; Subject: Electrical & Computer Egr; University: Michigan State University; Term: Spring 2009;
Typology: Study Guides, Projects, Research
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Date: 2/20/
Home automation system is an emerging trend that will soon become standard in all modern houses. In order to help Texas Instruments anticipate and take advantage of this trend, our team is going to design a sophisticated but yet very intuitive and low-cost home automation control panel system based on Texas Instruments' latest OMAP3 processor. We are going to create an interactive user interface that will allow our users to obtain and utilize real-time information collected from different devices in their house. We aim to make the interface look very presentable, aesthetic and efficient. Our design will be expandable and capable of handling different frequently used household devices such as a video door bell and a climate control system. This will all be done on a low-cost Beagle Board, which incorporates the TI OMAP3530 processor. With the help of software-hardware interfacing devices, all these various electronic modules will be working on the control panel concurrently. In addition, our system will automate the control process by applying an input-driven feedback system. For example, devices such as climate control will be controlled by our system automatically, based on current temperature in the house. All the information one needs to see and manipulate in the household can be done with just the touch of a button. Our system will demonstrate the TI OMAP3 processor's capabilities as a potential industry leader in the field of home automation due to its low cost and high performance.
An emerging trend in modern households is to have a sophisticated centralized control panel to manage all frequently used electronic modules within the house, such as climate control, security system, and lighting. While such control panels aren't a commonplace yet, they may become customary in the near future. Texas Instruments has commissioned us to develop a demonstration to show that their OMAP3 series processors are a capable, fast and cost-effective platform on which one could run such highly integrated control panels. This demonstration will allow the end users to manipulate a fully interactive display which gives information on the household's status, controls devices such as a programmable feedback driven thermostat and even uses a video camera to monitor a visitor at the front door.
Our primary objective for this project is to implement a powerful, aesthetic and user friendly interface that gives the user complete freedom to explore various functionalities provided by Texas Instruments' OMAP3 series processor. In order to do this, we will be developing our product on a platform called the Beagle Board. With the great expandability and versatility of the Beagle Board and OMAP3 processor, we will be able to interface many external devices and create a system that is capable of collecting, processing, displaying, and controlling all of the information at your fingertips just with a touch of a button.
F-A-S-T (Function Analysis System Technique) Diagram is a diagram that we use to identify some basic functions that our system will contain.
Figure 1: F-A-S-T Diagram
There is a vast array of devices we could connect to our system, some more important than others. These devices include:
Touchscreen: This would allow users to interact with the panel with only a single input/output peripheral, rather than using a mouse.
Standard DVI Monitor: Cheaper than a touchscreen, this output device easily displays menus and data.
Mouse: A commonplace input device, a mouse would allow users to click on buttons and sliders.
Keyboard: This input device would allow us to expand the possible uses of the control panel by allowing the user to enter text and numbers.
I/O Devices:
Easy to useIntuitivePortabilityFeasibilityCompatibilityPerformanceImprovementScore
Importance 5 2 4 1 6 3 Touchscreen 4 6 6 1 1 5 78 DVI Monitor 5 5 3 4 3 3 78 Mouse 6 4 2 5 4 2 81 Keyboard 2 2 1 3 2 1 36 SD Card 1 1 5 6 6 6 87 Speakers 3 3 4 2 5 4 81 Figure 2: Input/Output Device Design Rankings
Home System Demos:
SponsorImportanceEase ofImplementation ProcessorOverheadMemoryRequirementUsefulnessUser AppealCostof DevicesScore
Importance 5 1 4 3 7 6 2 Lighting 2 1 5 6 4 2 4 97 Security 3 3 6 4 2 5 3 104 Climate Control 4 6 4 5 1 1 6 82 Weather 5 4 3 3 5 3 1 105 Video 6 5 2 1 6 6 2 128 Wi-Fi 1 2 1 2 3 4 5 72 Figure 3: Sub-Systems Design Ranking
We envision that the system will be used as a platform to organize and utilize information gathered from the aforementioned devices. The challenge in this project is that we have to mainly involve collecting and presenting this information to the user. In order to manage all the communications with the peripheral devices and interact effectively with the user, we are going to use the Beagle Board. This board features a Texas Instrument OMAP 3530 microprocessor, on-board memory, and several input/output ports to which we will connect our peripheral devices. Information Collection In order to collect useful information, we will need to interface different external devices with the Beagle Board. To configure the hardware and make it work on Beagle Board will be a real challenge due to lack of support from most hardware vendors. As our time is confined, we will expect Texas Instruments to provide us with most of these external devices with supporting driver. Our task will be to utilize these devices to collect data, decode the information we get, and present it to user in a way they can easily understand and manage.
Information Display
The information we get will be wrapped into a Graphical User Interface (GUI) that we will need to design with the help of graphical icons and visual indicators. The display will provide basic controls, such as buttons, tabs, and sliders, which will allow the user to manipulate commands in order to change the state of the control panel, activate household features, and request for more information. The OMAP3 processor will then retrieve that information from the appropriate external device and display them to the user in an organized and conceivable manner.
We will use a two phase approach to design and implement the project. The break down of our tasks is as follows:
In this phase we make sure that the information that is gathered is decoded and displayed in an extremely presentable and organized appearance.
GUI Design: The GUI (Graphical User Interface) design is one of our most important priorities. Since appearance is the first thing that attracts a customer to any product, we aim on designing an interface that is both easy to use and looks impressive to potential customers.
Install Operating System: Having a correctly configured, flexible and usable operating system on the Beagle Board is the starting point for this project. We decided to install Angstrom Linux after careful review and comparison of its functionalities and cost with other embedded operating systems.
Add Demonstrative HVAC system: We want to demonstrate the functionality of our climate control system, so we will connect a USB fan that will turn on whenever heating or cooling is needed in the home.
As mentioned before, our central platform for handling the software and external devices is the Beagle Board. In order to get all of our software to run, we will install Angstrom Linux with Kernel version 2.6.28 and Java Virtual Machine to handle the operating system and GUI interface roles of the control panel. Using the Java Virtual Machine, we will design and implement our user interface and program the various devices we will connect to the Beagle Board. These devices include the video doorbell, a radio receiver/decoder to receive weather data from the National Weather Service, and a thermostat system. The control panel will feature a monitor, which allows us to display information to the user, and a computer mouse, which will provide an intuitive input mechanism. If time permits, we will port the mouse-based input mechanism to a touchscreen-based input system. In addition, we will add a stereo speaker system, which will allow the option of adding sound effects.
Touchscreen Support: Our initial development stage involves the GUI display and control on a monitor screen. We have to make sure that as soon as the GUI design is finalized, conversion from monitor screen to touch screen is accomplished without any complications. Unfortunately, restrictions and complications during this transition are inevitable.
Weather Band Receiver: Synchronization with the Beagle Board on Angstrom Linux is a big challenge. Silicon Labs provides C8051F321 microcontroller to form a USB radio using Si470x products. The current driver for this product is Linux kernel version 2.6, which is same as Angstrom Linux. However, the chance of incompatibility with Angstrom Linux may exist.
Video Camera: We assume that the video camera that we are going to use for the security system will be provided by TI. We also anticipate that the hardware driver for our Beagle Board will be shipped with the camera. Our task is to embed the video output into our GUI.
Java Virtual Machine: The Java Virtual Machine that we are going to use in this project is JamVM. JamVM is a compact and open source implementation of Sun Microsystem's Java Runtime Environment. It is designed to use GNU Classpath Java class library. Due to incomplete compatibility of the GNU Classpath, there might be some function calls that we intend to use that won't be fully supported by JamVM.
Conform to Specification Cost Crucial to Project Difficulty Alternative
Touch Screen Low High
Medium: We can use Keyboard and Mouse instead.
High: Depend on weather driver will be provided by the vendor.
Mouse and Keyboard
Weather Band Receiver
High Medium Medium High
Get weather information from Internet
Video Camera High
Low: Will be provide by TI
High Medium None
JamVM High
Low: Freely available online.
High: Foundation to our software implementation
Low (^) OpenJDKCacao,
Beagle Board $ 149.
SD Card (8G) $ 14.
SD Card Reader $ 7.
USB 2.0 3-Port Hub with Ethernet Adapter $ 40.
USB to 5.5mm Barrel Jack Adapter $ 2.
Acrylic Case for Beagle rev B5 $ 29.
Monitor Cable(HDMI A to DVI-D) $ 8.
USB Std-A-Female to mini-A-Male Adapter $ 9.
DB9M to 1DC10F AT/Everex Serial Adapter $ 2.
DVI-D 7" Touch Screen Monitor $ 399.
Total $ 662.
In order to stay ahead of this emerging trend of home automation, we need to develop a prototype that will establish the OMAP3 series processor as an optimal platform for a control panel. We will develop a full GUI and configure a subset of representative peripherals to demonstrate the processor's capabilities as a potential industry leader in the field of home automation.
BeagleBoard.org Information and support on the features and operation of the Beagle Board
Beagle Board Shopping List - Google Code List of items needed to configure and run the Beagle Board
CVS (Concurrent Version System)
Angstrom Linux operating system More info on Angstrom Linux
Eclipse IDE
Netbeans IDE
SVN
SI474X Weather Band Receiver Linux Driver Information:
