Abstract:
Smart Home is a term introduced to describe modern homes which, through the in- stallment of smart devices such as smart power outlets or sensors, are being made into energy-aware homes that can be controlled using end devices like smartphones, tablets or computers. It opens up new possibilities for automating parts of the everyday lives of private individuals, which could be a great solution for supporting the sick or elderly in living their lives in the comfort of their own home.
Automation has already been a part of the way big corporations and businesses handle their daily business processes, simplifying tasks and minimizing organisational overhead. Business Process Management has evolved as the corresponding organisational strategy, and BPMN (Business Process Model and Notation) serves as the standard for modeling the business processes in question.
In order to potentially benefit from an already established, proved system such as BPM, this thesis aims to investigate whether Smart Home Automation could be modelled and implemented with the same techniques and technology as Business Processes. It does this by creating a Smart Home Process Management System prototype application using the BPMN framework Activiti and its API in a Spring Application written in Java, with Smart Home Processes modelled in the BPMN2.0 standard. The processes are executed using the Activiti application, on a Raspberry Pi 3 serving as the Control Unit for the SHPMS.
The successful execution of all steps defined in the Process Definitions of the Smart Home Processes proves that a Raspberry Pi can support an Activiti Process Engine and therefore has potential to be used in a more sophisticated Smart Home Process Management System.
