Design of an automatic meter reading system

A microprocessor-based automatic meter reading system is implemented, which provides a cost-effective, reliable, and interference free data transfer between remote meter reading units and the utility control center. The meter reading and management processes are free from human involvement. Based on the existing telephone networks, it is very flexible for the utility companies to access, service and maintain this meter reading system. A user friendly and window based user designed which fully utilizes the personal terminate and stay resident programming technique to achieve communications between the remote meter reading units and the personal computers in the utility control center. This paper describes the hardware design of the remote reading unit and the software implementation of the communication module and user interface.