Appliance Control using Smart Ceiling Tiles and Localization of Energy Harvesting Switches

There is an emerging consensus that the future of intelligent and energy efficient homes is automation and cloud control. This paper presents a novel infrastructural concept using smart ceiling tiles and an energy-harvesting Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) switch to control home appliances. The switch location is determined using trilateration of the signals received by the tiles installed in different rooms. In this paper, we localized the switch among three rooms separated by a brick wall by analyzing the received signal strength indicator (RSSI) values captured by three tiles located in three rooms. The tiles are powered with DC power using the support rails, thus minimizing wiring for power delivery. We used different machine learning classification algorithms with the received RSSI values as features for predicting the location of the switch accurately. Through experimentation, we achieved high accuracy of 93% in classifying the switch position among the rooms. The integration of smart tiles in the false ceiling along with the use of an energy-harvesting BLE switch offers numerous advantages, such as reducing wiring complexity, enhancing user convenience, and aesthetic design.