Automatic power meter reading based on Arduino micro-controller unit: case of the Kenya power and Lighting Company

Thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Science in Information Technology (MSIT) at Strathmore UniversityAutomatic Meter Reading (AMR), is the technology of automatically collecting data from metering devices (electric, water, gas) and transferring that data to a central database for billing and/or further analysis. Power utility firms have an obligation to bill their customers based on actual meter readings taken. However, provision of these services have had challenges. This leads to the issue of estimated readings and an inconvenient billing method that is based on incorrect readings. This is normally evident during the power meter-reading period when some power consumers influence clerks to evade paying their power bills. A common phenomenon in some cases is either where the same field clerks take wrong readings or end up over/underestimating the customer’s consumption. This ends up inconveniencing customers budgeting. In a bid to address this issue, Kenya Power Company has resorted to retrofitting the existing conventional post-paid meters with prepaid meters. This is however expensive and would take a long time to implement. This study proposes a solution for automatic meter reading by use of an ATmega328P MCU. This will entail an ACS712 current sensor that will be connected onto a power meter coupled to a LoRa gateway through a LPWAN for transmission of data to a cloud server for subsequent upload and analysis. Agile software methodology was used which allowed faster iteration and more frequent release with subsequent user feedback. This solution would not require replacement of the existing meters, making it cost effective and fast to implement. This study provides a solution that can enable the users have information on their readings, rate of billing and be able to report on any power issues affecting them. This will also help the power providers have their customers’ advice, which would aid in decision-making processes

Information handling: Concepts which emerged in practical situations and are analysed cybernetically

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University

Real-World Choreographies

Choreographies are a relatively new tool for designing distributed systems from a global viewpoint. Moreover, choreographies are also free from deadlocks and race conditions by design. Recent theoretical results defined proper Endpoint Projection (EPP) functions to compile choreographic specifications into their single components. Since EPPs are behavioural preserving, projected systems also enjoy freedom from deadlocks and races by construction. Aim of this PhD is to formalise non-trivial features of distributed systems with choreographies and to translate our theoretical results into the practice of implemented systems. To this purpose, we provide two main contributions. The first contribution tackles one of the most challenging features of distributed development: programming correct and consistent runtime updates of distributed systems. Our solution is a theoretical model of dynamic choreographies that provides a clear definition of which components and behaviours can be updated. We prove that compiled choreographic specifications are correct and consistent after any update. We also refine our theoretical model to provide a finer control over updates. On this refinement, we develop a framework for programming adaptable distributed systems. The second contribution covers one of the main issues of implementing theoretical results on choreographies: formalising the compilation from choreographies to executable programs. There is a sensible departure between the present choreographic frameworks and their theoretical models because their theories abstract communications with synchronisation on names (a la CCS/π-calculus) yet they compile to Jolie programs, an executable language that uses correlation — a renown technology of Service-Oriented Computing — for message routing. Our solution is a theory of Applied Choreographies (AC) that models correlation-based message passing. We pinpoint the key theoretical problems and formalise the principles that developers should follow to obtain correct implementations. Finally, we prove our approach by defining a correct compiler from AC to the calculus behind the Jolie language