Development of Home Management System Using Arduino and AppInventor

A prototype of home management system (HMS) controlled by mobile device was developed by project teams at Computing Education Academy (CEA) at Fairfield University by integrating Arduino with AppInventor. CEA was established at Fairfield University in 2013 to expose high school students to key computing concepts and basic computer programming through hands-on activities and to motivate students to enter post-secondary education and career opportunities in computing. CEA class modules include Scratch, AppInventor, Circuit Design, Arduino, and final team project of developing home management system under the guidance of graduate assistants and faculty of Fairfield University. Home management system consists of several modules to remotely control the lamp, central light, air conditioner, door lock, and other electronic devices in the room using mobile app. Each team created one module which controls and displays the current status of each component through user interface from home screen of the system on mobile device. Various sensors, receivers, motors, relays are used and integrated with the Arduino GSM Shield. Details of implementation and future direction are discussed.