IoT-Enabled Water Monitoring in Smart Cities With
Retrofit and Solar-Based Energy Harvesting
Nawel S
S7EEE, Roll No. 19
Guided by Dr. M. Rajesh
Nawel S S7EEE, Roll No. 19 Guided by Dr. M. Rajesh
IoT-Enabled Water Monitoring 1 / 20
Overview
Introduction and Background
System Architecture
Working Principle
Advantages and Innovations
Experimental Results
Conclusion and Future Work
References
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Introduction
Water scarcity is a major global issue affecting billions.
Smart water monitoring can help in conservation.
Retrofitting analog meters is cost-effective.
Solar-based energy harvesting improves sustainability.
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Problem Statement
Traditional analog meters lack real-time monitoring.
Replacing with digital meters is costly and complex.
Need for sustainable, low-power solutions.
Integration with IoT for data-driven water management.
Frequent manual readings lead to delays and errors.
Limited monitoring in remote or rural regions without grid
power.
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Objectives
Retrofit analog water meters with IoT capabilities.
Use solar power for energy autonomy.
Enable real-time data processing using edge computation.
Optimize power consumption for longer battery life.
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Literature Survey
Ali et al. (2022) [3]: Proposed IoT-based water management and
leakage detection systems, focusing on cost-effectiveness and
real-time monitoring.
Singh et al. (2023) [4]: Developed RF-energy harvesting models for
sustainable IoT networks with network-aware design.
Naim et al. (2021) [6]: Designed a fully AI-based system to automate
water meter data collection in Morocco.
Pimenta and Chaves (2021) [8]: Created a retrofitted smart water
meter solution with integrated energy harvesting capabilities.
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System Architecture
Modular design allowing easy retrofitting.
Integration of solar harvesting and battery storage.
Cloud connectivity for remote monitoring.
Edge computing to minimize cloud dependency.
Scalability to integrate future water quality sensors.
Redundant power management for uninterrupted operation.
block_diagram.png
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Components Used
Raspberry Pi Zero W
Camera Module V2.1
Solar Panel and Charge Controller
Li-Ion Battery
Nano Power Timer Module
LED Illumination
Weatherproof enclosure for outdoor installation
High-efficiency MPPT module for solar optimization
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Working Principle
Camera captures water meter dial image.
Image processed using ML model at the edge.
Extracted readings sent to cloud via Wi-Fi.
Powered by solar with battery backup.
Automatic error detection for faulty readings.
Weather-adaptive image capture scheduling.
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Edge Computation Process
1 ROI Extraction
2 Image Pre-processing
3 Digit Segmentation
4 ML-based Digit Recognition
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Communication Module
Wi-Fi IEEE 802.11 b/g/n for data transfer.
ThingSpeak cloud for storage and analysis.
API-based access for real-time monitoring.
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Power Optimization Methods
Disable unused peripherals (HDMI, Bluetooth).
Reduce startup services.
Nano Power Timer for shutdown mode.
Solar harvesting for extended lifetime.
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Experimental Setup
experimental_setup.png
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Results: Current Consumption
Reduced boot-up current by 16%.
Shutdown mode reduced from 33mA to 0.105mA.
Extended battery backup from months to years.
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Results: Field Deployment
Tested on 25+ water meters.
Reliable performance over 4 months.
Data helps identify usage patterns.
consumption_graph.png
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Advantages
Cost-effective retrofit solution.
Energy efficient and sustainable.
Minimal infrastructure changes.
Scalable for smart city deployments.
Enables predictive maintenance through analytics.
Reduces manpower costs for meter reading.
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Innovations
Low-power optimization techniques.
Solar harvesting with MPPT ready design.
Broadcast firmware updates via GitHub.
Edge-based ML for digit recognition.
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Future Work
Add water quality monitoring.
Enhance data security with encryption.
Real-time dashboards and alerts.
Integration with city-wide IoT platforms.
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Conclusion
Developed IoT-enabled retrofit smart water meter.
Solar-powered and energy efficient.
Reliable in field deployments.
Supports sustainable water management.
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References
[1] UNICEF, “Water Scarcity,” Jul. 5, 2023. Available:
https://www.unicef.org/wash/water-scarcity
UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, “UN’s Sustainable Development
Goals,” Jul. 13, 2023. Available: https://sdgs.un.org/goals
A. S. Ali et al., “A solution for water management and leakage detection problems using
IoTs based approach,” Internet of Things, vol. 18, May 2022.
A. Singh et al., “Network-aware RF-energy harvesting for designing energy efficient IoT
networks,” Internet of Things, vol. 22, Jul. 2023.
S. Gupta, “Non-functional requirements elicitation for edge computing,” Internet of
Things, vol. 18, May 2022.
A. Naim et al., “A fully AI-based system to automate water meter data collection in
Morocco country,” Array, vol. 10, Jul. 2021.
N. A. Attallah et al., “Residential water meters as edge computing nodes,” Sensors, vol.
21, no. 16, Aug. 2021.
N. Pimenta and P. Chaves, “Study and design of a retrofitted smart water meter solution
with energy harvesting integration,” Discover Internet of Things, vol. 1, no. 1, 2021.
A. Naim et al., “Design a generic framework solution for e-detecting meters
consumption,”
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