An Architectural Framework for Facebook Messenger Chatbot Enabled Home Appliance Control System

Abstract

The need to remotely control home appliances is an important aspect of home automation and is now receiving lot of attentions in the literature. The works so far are still at a development level making further research necessary. This article presents a framework for chatbot-controlled home appliance control system and was implemented by programming a Raspberry Pi using the Python language while the chatbot server was also implemented using a Node.js on JavaScript. The Raspberry Pi was connected to the chatbot server via Wi-Fi using a websockets protocol. The chatbot server is linked to Facebook Messenger using the Messenger Application Protocol Interface. Messages received at the chatbot server are analyzed with RasaNLU to classify the user's intention and extract necessary information which are sent over websocket to the connected Raspberry pi. The system was evaluated using control precision and percentage correct classification with both producing a significant level of acceptance. This work produced a Facebook Messenger chatbot-based framework capable of controlling Home Appliances remotely.