Dissertation for receiving the master's degree "M.Sc."
Mechatronic Engineering
Abstract
Given the reduction of potable water resources as well as the increasing population of cities, the increase in the number of subscribers, the need to increase speed and accuracy in meter reading and reduce costs In addition, in order to achieve modern technologies, extensive research has been conducted in the field of AMR (Automatic Meter Reading) in the companies that manufacture and provide these services in different countries. Activities have also taken place in Iran. Most of this research has been focused on the detection of the number of hand rotations connected to the gear system of mechanical meters, which necessarily requires the hand movement detection system to be continuously active as soon as there is even a temporary failure in the electronic part, a power cut or a disruption in the power source (battery) and despite the correct functioning of the mechanical counting part of the water meter, revealing and extracting the actual operating numbers after re-establishing the power supply system or fixing the temporary malfunction will not be possible without the intervention of the technical operator on site. It is important to realize the automatic reading system of AMR meters in the mentioned way. In this way and considering the challenging consequences of the existence of differences or gradual errors in the electronic reading and the display of the mechanical counter, the ideal state is to unify the numbers read electronically and the mechanical display, despite any possible temporary or permanent defects that will be addressed in this thesis. In order to achieve the above goal, the design of a sample electronic water meter reading system without the need for a continuous power supply, in other words, with a silent and accompanying method With the possibility of sending the extracted information with GSM to the software system of the center, it is one of the expected main results of this research. In this research, a system for reading home meters and sending them to the hypothetical server of the central regional water distribution organization and processing the received information numerically for a consumer has been designed. The main difference of the proposed method in off-line reading is its very low power consumption and its compatibility with the indigenous technologies of mass production of water meters in the country and the ability to upgrade the current installed mechanical meters without the need for a pulse counter based on the hand rotation detector. The proposed system, the simpler examples of which have already been commercialized by some foreign companies, has been improved based on the mechanical display of the counter's operation by taking a single-shot image (once per each reading request) and using digital codes (4-bit binary) of numbers, and its laboratory sample and practical electronic board have been implemented in order to verify the feasibility of the proposed method, and its test results have been reported, which indicate the successful operation of the proposed method.
Key Keywords: water meter reading system, silent reading, sending information, automatic AMR reading, image processing style="direction: rtl;">
1-1 Introduction
By examining the water situation in the world, we realize its crisis and, as a result, the necessity of proper water consumption. In special geographical situations, this crisis can have a greater manifestation, and our country can be considered a part of these special geographical situations due to its location in a dry and semi-arid region.
On the other hand, since the proper and sufficient distribution of water in the domestic, industrial and agricultural sectors is one of the pillars of the economy of our dear country, Iran, looking at the per capita water consumption, which is higher than the world level, we realize that we must continue to strive to observe the correct pattern of water consumption. which has a long way to go. In other words, observing a proper consumption pattern and conscious management of water resources is one of the current and future priorities of our developing society, and everyone, especially those in charge of water affairs, are aware and responsible for its scientific, correct and fast implementation..
Of course, other things should be taken into consideration, including the health of water for various uses and especially the drinking water of the community members. An arrangement should be made so that in different places, a healthy society and away from seasonal and chronic diseases can make a superior effort in its work and development.
The provision of healthy water for the governments entails a lot of cost and energy expenditure, which clearly explains the mutual mission of the consumer and the distributor to observe the culture of correct water consumption. As the veterans of water resource management also believe, the modification of the water consumption pattern should be interpreted in the direction of producing national wealth. A person may ask himself what the modification of the consumption pattern means. It should be said that the pattern of water consumption is defined in such a way that each person consumes water in such a way and only in the required amount to meet their needs in drinking, health and green space, so that water and life are available to everyone in all periods. Therefore, in the control and management of water consumption, it is not possible to give priority to coercive measures and collective deprivation, which does not allow anyone to bear the thirst of a minor. According to this description, efforts should be made to create maximum facilities in the cultural sector in the optimal use of water and its mechanized management, which may be a little too late, and therefore a double effort is needed.
If we look a little at the actual conditions of the families of the subscribers, charging a higher price for water consumption from the head of the household is not very effective, but the sublime culture of avoiding extravagance and contentment with the amount that does not meet the needs of others should be institutionalized in each family member and society. In other words, this issue should be considered as a common challenge between the parties receiving and paying the water price.
The consumption of drinking water should be much lower than what is in our country, for example, water consumption should be reduced from 350 liters to less than 150 liters, while this amount has reached 90 liters per day in some neighboring countries of Iran.
It seems that perhaps one of the ways to institutionalize the culture of improving water consumption is accurate and timely information on the amount of consumption to consumers and distributors, so that the parties can apply proper management in the amount of water consumption. Taking advantage of the industrial advances of the present era has provided more facilities to define and implement this plan.
Most of the meters that have been built and installed so far do not help the consumer in applying correct management, but may also have shortcomings that add to its complexity. The construction and installation of new meters, which work well in laboratory samples, is not a suitable solution for the issue, and the reason for this claim is the lack of success in global implementation and in our country. On the other hand, the construction and replacement of such meters will bring heavy costs and side effects, which may not be feasible or affordable. The statistics of the Ministry of Energy show that more than 98.8% of the country's meters, whose number reaches 14,384,059 by the end of 2012, are of the common mechanical type, and this trend continues. (Country water statistical yearbook, 1392)
So, taking into account these statistics, we will understand that we should not think of using new electric meters to replace the installed meters of the country. To clarify this issue, it should be known that most of the countries of the world have not tried to change and replace their meters with mind-based systems such as ultrasonic or magnetic meters. The reason that electronic water (and gas) meters have been built, but they still use mechanical and mechanical-magnetic meters, should be looked for in the lack of easy access to a continuous source of electricity in the place where the water or gas meter is installed, contrary to the conditions governing electricity meters (which transmit the electric source and measure it at the same time). which practically do not provide trust and assurance of the continuity of its performance in real conditions