A Water-Meter Reading Robot?

Why not a low flying UAV with a transponder? You could equip it with a micro strip array active antenna and a fly 10 feet above the ground reading the meters. If somebody tries to steal the UAV then equip it with a taser. Mini UAV helicopter? /Mats in sweden

Datamatic is one of the smaller mfrs, not well proven. Neptune, Sensus, Hexagram, and Elster and all larger and experienced.

Real chalenge with waterand gas meter to work without electricity, i.e. battery backup and reliability of these metering devices.
Otherwise utility will have to send highly educated technitians/engineers to the ground and have a lot of disputes about water consumption, vs simple relaible mechanical meters and anyone who can read numbers

They changed our water meter less than a year ago, but nothing electronic about it, someone still has to lift the access plate, open the cover, read, close, replace etc.... How's that for high tech here in the heart of Silicon Valley?
I like the ideas of either using the postal carrier or having the device report back via phone/cable/power lines etc.

Why read the meter? Just have the meter print out a bill every month that the customer sends in.

There is already a person driving past the meter each day, however they are busy delivering mail. Perhaps the USPS could offer a service to carry your meter reading device on their delivery rounds and dock the reader at the end of the day?

So the meter reading person is out of a job & goes on welfare. Whose money got saved?
Hard enough to find work for the under-educated as it is.

In my part of the country,Michigan Rust Belt, the water meters are inside the houses so that they don't freeze. Presently a remote display is outside. So how about a transponder that is polled by a robot radio system at the CO every few weeks. Each meter would have power supplied from the AC line, charging an ultracapacitor, so that it would not use much power. Then, when it was interogated, it could transmit it's data in a burst. Better yet, no interogations, just use a fairly accurate clock and have the meters transmit the readings and ID number on schedule. Once a week, so that if a transmission was lost the next weeks reading would make up the difference. Cheap, easy, and no expensive robot to be sued over, when it steps on somebody's toes. By the way, feel free to capitalize on this idea, just acknowledge that it came from me.

In our neighborhood they go around and read the meters from a truck or in the case of our house have to get out and actually read the meter (so far they haven't upgraded meters that haven't had user changes). Our power meters however are networked to collector stations so I haven't seen a power company meter reader in years.

I'd rather have a human being periodically coming through the neighborhood - keeps the criminals on their toes.

This guy must live in an upper class gated community. You know what would happen to a robot wandering down the street in most neighborhoods? Gone in 10 minutes or less. Get real dude. Want to save money? Lose the gas-guzzling truck and put the technician on an electric moped.

It will get there. Driving a truck down the street to read all the meters was cheaper than visiting each one. Eventually installing a mesh network will be cheaper that driving the truck and the system will be upgraded. It all comes down to money.

Why not to make the meters calling the central hub, using a cell phone technology? And, if the bill has not been paid on time, then call the meter back and tell it to shut off the valve.

Wow, this article is just too absurd. Everyone knows the Mesh network meters are coming as soon as they can work through the union details. Sorry, I was porbably politically incorrect. We can't replace the meter reader without another meaningless job replacement!

A Meter reading robot...Big deal! My wife has a mind reading robot... ME! I'm programmed to know exactly what she wants done, without her saying a word and do it with no conflicting thoughts of my own. Non sequitor, Error, error... does not compute!

Richard and TL you guys missed the point. the mesh networks are on the way and in some cities
there now, but this guy is stuck with mesh-1.
I like the drone idea, but since most of the
ppl doing the reading are union (not bashing
just are) the cost may not be any lower with
a drone driver. How about ...
- put the transponder on trash trucks ?
- trained a couple dogs, they love to stop,
sniff and .. hmm is the antenna urine proof ?
oh well just a though ;-)
-pete

To protect it from vandals and/or loose dogs, weaponry can be added, purely for self-defense purposes, of course. I'd suggest something along the lines of
media.moddb.com/images/mods/1/5/4653/hk_tank4.jpg
to deal with such real-world dangers.

I work in the Petro Chem. instrumentation field. We have transmitters that talk to a master (wireless transmission) data logger that, in turn sends the info to a centeral control room. The same could be done for large residential areas, with current tecnology.

Jon:
The most practical way to read all the meters is via WAN. However, we had a customer that read his meters via airplane. He was able to read the radio signals up in the air, so just by flying over the area he did his meter reading. It helped that he had to fly over the area anyway since he was also a pilot. Tha brings up an interesting approach -- how about a small airplane drone? Very inexpensive and can cover a large area quickly and easily.
bmelendez@hemstech.com

I've had/seen several instances of underground water leaks that didn't show up until the first "yikes" water bill showed up. It should be little challenge to monitor billing to identify spikes in usage and trigger a "heads up" to the utility and consumer.
If the truck mounted system can identify this immediately, and direct contact be initiated, more's the better!

The URL is www.datamatic.com

Try Datamatic, Ltd at www.datamtic.com and view the MOSAIC Video link on the home page. MOSAIC is a mesh network fixed-base data collection system with full two way communication that allows the utility and the customer to view almost a full year's hourly consumption data in addition to remotely controlling customer service valves to turn service on and off (especially great for seasonal homes and property sales)and the sytem may be used with leak detection systems to accurately find water distribution system leaks before thay become a danger or major water loss. Give the Robot a break or train it to do mowing, plowing or housework ;-)