The Next Wave of Automation will Transform Your Living Experience...Author- Utpal Chakraborty

Imagine coming to a home that automatically unlocks the doors for you, the coffee brewing, your favorite music on, a favorable fragrance uplifting your mood, temperature and light settings just as you like them, your dinner is laid out on the table, the rooms already vacuumed without been instructed, your lovely plants watered and laundry done and dusted in your absence. It’s not a dream, it’s almost a reality. Autonomous homes are the future as much as autonomous vehicles which are going to hit the automobile market in just few years from now and there is no denying to that. 

All of this and so much more can be achieved via smart home platforms that are becoming more and more intelligent. How is that possible one might ask? The answer lies in the effective and functional integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Internet of Things (IoT).  With its intelligent learning abilities AI can successfully go through huge volumes of data transmitted by IoT devices and offer meaningful insights to come up with the most feasible adjustments that could highly upgrade the users living experience. Autonomous homes run by AI can ‘learn’ the patterns of behavior of users and automatically readjust the settings based on the moods, choice, habits and routines of the inhabitants. Living in an autonomous home is like living with a friendly robot with a fully functional mind of its own. 

Break free from the sickening monotony of the daily chores and let your autonomous home take charge! 

How many times have you felt that the unending list of daily chores is getting on your nerves ? Have you ever wished that you could find a replacement that is reliable, efficient and intelligent ? Autonomous homes will be there to minimize human effort by making devices and appliances all the more intelligent using AI and IoT. 

From Smart garages and cars to automated gardening; smart homes have your household chores sorted. You can be anywhere in the world and still operate your garage door without even lifting a finger. So no more getting out in the rain to open up those huge and rusty garage doors. The smart garage will do it for you. Plus, it can even keep a log of the people who accessed your garage and monitor any suspicious activity. And the next time you are out of the city or your friend wants to use your garage, a few taps and job done.

In an autonomous home system home cleaning robot could be easily optimized to use smart technologies to customize their cleaning operations based on different room surfaces and making adjustments for new items or furniture. Moreover, these can be programmed to workout a time and energy effective vacuuming routine based on intelligent movement pattern that can be closely customized for each living unit. Not only this, cleaner robots working on AI can workout a schedule that doesn't interrupt user activities or working hours, hence causing minimum hassle. Plus if you have a particular cleaning pattern like twice a week at around 5pm, that could also be picked up by the ‘intelligent’ cleaner robot so that it could begin its work when cleaning is due. 

Similarly, with AI integrated thermostat systems users can preheat or cool their rooms before arrival or regulate the temperature of different house units via accessing the Wi-Fi integrated thermostat controls remotely. Further more, the thermostat solutions can even predict the optimum room temperature based on the weather conditions and adjust it accordingly. And if the users prefer a varied temperature setting during active hours and sleeping times, the smart thermostat unit can record that data and use it efficiently. All of which is essentially the embodiment of IoT integrated with AI.

Autonomous homes keeping a close Vigil for infallible security: 

Home security is a grave concern and requires utmost vigilance to avoid mishaps. But with AI and IoT integrated in your smart home for optimum security, you can sleep in peace. Through a facial recognition algorithm, an AI-powered system builds a catalogue of known individuals through your social media connections and home visits, which helps it to understand between family members, guests, and visitors. Through this technique, there will be a substantial reduction in false alarms. Moreover, these self-monitored security systems coupled with motion detectors, sensors, and security cameras will easily assess a potential break-in and even call for emergency services. This eliminates the need for human monitoring.

Efficient care systems for senior citizens: 

With a growing population of elderly people in almost all countries, family members have an added responsibility to look after them. But having a 24/7 physical presence is highly impossible. Not to fret, your autonomous home has you covered. With it's intelligent learning technology and demand forecasting features, the autonomous homes regulate temperature, humidity, oxygen supply and even connect housing units to medical care facilities so that the elders are never left unattended. Plus, with acute sensors installed in elderly’s room, house members can be immediately notified if there are no signs of movement alongside or any element of concern placing an automatic emergency call.  

Automated child care facilities:

Similarly smart homes can offer to look after your baby in the best way possible. Visual emotion detectors and mood sensors can tell if your child is happy, sad, or looks confused, and tell other smart home devices to put on a movie, turn up the lights, or check the locks. And from the moment your baby starts crying, smart systems respond by slowly turning its light on and playing a soothing lullaby. The child’s parents and caretakers are then sent a notification on their smartphones.

High grade energy Optimization:

In today's world energy conservation is of utmost importance to protect the fast depleting natural resources. And we as humans are to be blamed for the sheer wastage of valuable energy sources. However, smart homes can contribute to a greener and energy saving housing unit by effectively controlling the light, temperature, pressure sensors and managing the water and gas supplies. That means you don’t always have to look out for running taps, unattended gas tops, and electrical devices that your kids will never learn to switch off. Your AI powered home automation system will take care of it. 

Autonomous homes transforming your living experience:

An ideal ‘smart home’ fit for the 21st century combines digital technology and intelligent machine learning to provide the highest level of comfort and effortless living experience based on demand forecasting and routine habits. AI systems can flawlessly  “learn” your mood and preferences, as well as analyze your interaction with home objects. With such knowledge, it can customize your home better than yourself. This is because it takes in account both your physical bodily requirements, your habits and personalized choices to come up with the best plan of action that is both time and energy conserving. All you have to do is sit and relax while the smart AI systems will keep your house up and running every single day without fail. Isn’t it amazing !

Opportunities, Business prospects:

Knowing the fact and it’s business prospects the big players like Google, Amazon, Apple, Samsung and many others have already developed their smart home automation platforms. These platforms although provides lot many features but still there are many opportunities to take the living experience to the ideal state. All these platforms mostly acts as a smart Hub which can connect to all smart devices and appliances of your home and act as a command center which can accept command through an app or voice command to control your devices. The opportunities still lies in the areas where the platform can be made intelligent enough to know your preferences, understand your mood, can do optimization of its own, can do demand forecasting, take care of its own maintenance, can take care billing and subscription of its own  and many more. Simply the intelligent platform taking complete charge of your home. Also considering the heterogeneity and diversity of our homes and living conditions across different geographies and other socio-economic factors; a single universal product will not be sufficient neither a single business model will fit into all types of needs. Rather there’s going to be many different products and different business models at different scales that will coexist catering to the diverse need and huge opportunities. So undoubtedly it’s going to be the next big wave of automation across the globe.