Circular economy meets building automation

TL;DR

This paper explores reusing discarded smartphones in smart buildings, demonstrating technical feasibility through experiments and highlighting potential for improved performance as smartphone technology advances.

Contribution

It introduces a novel approach of integrating end-of-life smartphones into building automation systems, combining control and communication case studies.

Findings

Smartphones can be effectively reused for building control tasks.

Communication with external agents is sufficient for practical applications.

Proof-of-concept experiments show satisfactory performance.

Abstract

This paper demonstrates the concept of reusing discarded smartphones to connect the end-of-life of e-wastes with the start-of-life of smart buildings. Two control-related and one communication-related case studies have been conducted experimentally to evaluate applicability. Diverse controlled systems, control tasks, and algorithms have been considered. In addition, the sufficiency of communication with external agents has been quantified. The proof-of-concept experiments indicate technical feasibility and applicability to typical tasks with satisfactory performance. As smartphones improve over time, higher computing performance and lower communication latency can be expected, enhancing the prospect of the proposed reuse concept.