A drone-based movable smart remote control for household appliances

Abstract

As various Internet of Things (IoT) devices have been developed, “smart remote control” products are attracting attention. A smart remote control enables controlling multiple conventional household appliances, i.e., controllable by an infrared remote control but incapable of WiFi/Bluetooth connectivity, from mobile devices like smartphones. One of the drawbacks is the difficulty of covering a whole indoor space with one smart remote control since infrared signals could be sheltered by physical obstacles such as walls, pillars, and furniture. Consequently, users are forced to control manually or install multiple smart remote controls. To solve this issue, we propose a drone-based movable smart remote control. The proposed system enables covering a broader space with a single smart remote control and makes it easy to adapt to the change in the position of household appliances. As a proof of concept, we conducted an experiment with actual devices and confirmed that the drone-based smart remote control makes infrared signals reach a wider area than placing a smart remote control on the wall.