Industrial utility meter reading
A typical plant has water, gas, steam, compressed air and electricity meters from different decades and makers. Camera reading brings them into one system, with each meter type assessed and validated before it is added.
THE PROBLEM
Every meter speaks a different language
Utility and energy managers want one view of consumption per building, line or tenant. What they have is a mix: mechanical water meters, gas registers, a steam flow totaliser, some digital electricity meters with pulse outputs and many without.
An automatic meter reading project usually stalls on that mix. Each meter type needs a different interface, some need replacing, and the cost of the odd ones holds up the whole programme. The monthly spreadsheet survives.
Reading the meter face works across types, because every meter has a register a person can read. The work shifts to assessing each meter type once, then rolling it out across the site.
HOW WE SET IT UP
A meter-by-meter rollout plan
Meter inventory
We list every meter you want read, with photos, location and utility. That becomes the rollout plan and the asset register in the platform.
Type-by-type validation
Each meter type is checked against the model in a pilot before it is rolled out. New types are added by training on sample images from your meters.
Mixed data, one dashboard
Camera readings sit alongside data from meters that already have Modbus or pulse outputs, so the energy manager has a single consumption view.
Reports with evidence
Monthly utility reports export to PDF and Excel with audit trails, and every value can be traced back to the image it was read from.
AT A GLANCE
Utility meter reading in brief
- What is measured
- Meter register values for water, gas, steam, air and electricity
- Hardware
- Vision AI optical meter reader per meter
- Meter types
- Analog dials, odometer registers, seven-segment and LCD displays, each type validated
- Power
- Battery, target at least one year at one reading a day, or external power
- Data
- MQTT over TLS 1.2 to RIOD Live or your own server, AI access to the data via MCP
- Integration
- Combined with Modbus and pulse-output meters in one view
- Rollout
- Meter type-by-type validation before scaling
FAQ
Questions buyers ask us
Can one system read different types of utility meters?
Yes. Camera reading works on analog dials, odometer registers and digital displays, so water, gas, steam and electricity meters can share one platform. Each type is validated before rollout.
How is a new meter type added?
We collect sample images of the meter and train the model on them, then validate the readings in a pilot. The time this takes depends on how different the meter is from those already supported.
Can we combine camera readings with our existing smart meters?
Yes. Meters with Modbus or pulse outputs can report into the same platform through a gateway, alongside the camera readings.
Where is the data kept?
In RIOD Live, our cloud platform, or on a server you own. Reports export to PDF and Excel with audit trails, and AI tools can query the data through MCP.
Planning meter reading across a whole site?
Send us your meter list or a few photos of each type. We will plan the validation and the rollout with you.