In ALMA we use ACS as a control system for the antennas in order to gather data from the sky, so in this tutorial we will explore this functionality implementing a component to control a generic smart bulb. Also we will create our component using the Component Generator tool, which simplifies this a process a lot.
Regarding IoT, there are multiple tools or standards to send instructions to a given device, for instance you can use Alexa or Google Assistant. Since we want to use ACS instead, we will use another standard called Tuya. Most devices are compatible with this interface and there is a convenient python package to use the Tuya API, but since it is a propietary standard we must have a Tuya Developer account in order to use it. Also, registering your devices in the platform is easy, as we use an app available in Android and iOS that you may already use if you happen to have IoT devices at home: Smart Life, this way there is a lot that Tuya has already done for us and we can focus in the ACS part.
As a side note, there are open source tools for controlling IoT devices, but it is difficult to find open source IoT hardware (aside from Arduino and such), so to simplify things we use Tuya which allows us to control devices from almost any manufacturer in the world, this way this tutorial can have a broader audience.