KR20170119122A - Remote checking apparatus and remote checking method thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

A remote meter-check terminal device and a remote meter-reading method are disclosed. A remote control terminal device according to an embodiment of the present invention includes a communication process that is connected to an external meter reading server through a communication network and performs meter communication with the meter and communicates with the meter reading server via the communication network, And IPC (Inter-Process Communication), periodically checking the meter, transmitting a meter reading result to the meter reading server through a communication process, receiving and processing a remote control command of the meter reading server, And a micro controller unit (MCU) in which a remote meter reading process is transmitted to the meter reading server through a communication process.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD [0001] The present invention relates to a remote meter reading terminal device and a remote meter reading method.

The present invention relates to a remote meter reading technique, and more particularly, to a remote meter reading terminal which enables communication with an external device, for example, a communication with a meter reading server or the like, Device and a remote meter reading method.

Hyundai is a world in which diverse information about daily life and activities is converted into digital information, and converted digital information is provided to people who need it without any limitation through internet. However, these are mainly applied to areas related to intellectual activities.

Information on the use of life utilities such as electricity, water, and city gas (hereinafter referred to as "life utilities"), which are closely related to people's daily lives and economic activities in homes, offices, A person manually confirms through a meter, manually inputs it into a charge system, and is transmitted to a necessary subject.

However, the system for acquiring and using such utility information needs to be more efficient. In the case of electric power, the so-called "Smart Grid" has been proposed and is being developed and tested in various countries around the world.

However, since the process (communication method, communication standard, etc.) in which the information generated from the watt-hour meter is not unified, various methods are used depending on the manufacturer, and unnecessary element devices are involved in the process.

Due to these reasons, the smart grid for electric power is used as a remote meter reading system limited to a certain region unlike the original plan, and is mainly applied to a large-capacity business / industrial user.

In the case of the capital, in a more serious situation, there is virtually no way for the weighing information to automatically enter the universal network. In the case of city gas, technologies using electromagnetic wave communication such as MOD-BUS, wired communication, ZIG-BEE, and CDMA have been developed, but they are also used for extremely short distance information transfer due to unstable communication.

In addition, the conventional remote automatic meter reading system which is used is installed in each customer, and it transmits the meter reading value information from the remote meter reading terminal device (remote meter reading terminal) which acquires the automatic meter reading value of the utility utility to the near- (E.g., ZigBee, WiFi, or Bluetooth).

However, the electromagnetic wave communication method in the remote automatic meter reading has the following problems.

(1) Power consumption is large. In electromagnetic wave communication, almost one of them must be in the reception standby state, and the consumption current is particularly large. When sending and receiving the meter reading information by electromagnetic wave communication, the consumed power consumes at least 100 mW, and the standby current for reception requires several tens of mW. This is an important issue when using the battery as a power source.

(2) The price of communication equipment is high. Devices required for ZigBee, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth using electromagnetic wave communication include a communication unit configured by separate hardware such as a large-capacity CPU, a wireless transmission / reception circuit, and the like. These devices are expensive and require a minimum of USD 5 ~ 40 for the communication part to implement a single remote meter reading terminal. The cost burden is not small.

(3) Installation work is complicated and difficult. Most of the electromagnetic wave communication methods require association by hand shaking of both parties. The configuration to satisfy the communication protocol (Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, etc.) to be followed in this process is complicated. In particular, initial setting such as sharing information about various components necessary for communication, device identification, communication speed, etc. is complicated.

In order to avoid the problem of the electromagnetic wave communication method, it may be considered to connect the wired communication method from the remote meter-measurement terminal device to the relay device. However, if the remote meter reading terminal and the repeater are connected by wire communication, the above problems will be eliminated, but the installation of the communication line is troublesome and the installation cost due to the wiring work is increased. It is not a practical and practical alternative.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been accomplished on the basis of long efforts and research and efforts to solve the above problems.

A prior art related to the present invention is Korean Patent No. 10-1592899 (registered on February 02, 2016).

There is proposed a remote meter-check terminal device that performs communication with an external device without configuring a communication portion for communication with the external device with separate hardware.

In addition, a remote meter reading method is proposed in which remote meter reading is performed through communication with an external device in a state in which a communication unit for communication with an external device is not separately configured by hardware.

On the other hand, other unanswered tasks will be further contemplated to the extent that they can be easily deduced from the following detailed description and advantages thereof.

A remote control terminal device according to one aspect of the present invention includes a communication process that is connected to an external meter reading server via a communication network and performs meter reading and communication with the meter reading server via the communication network, And IPC (Inter-Process Communication), periodically checking the meter, transmitting a meter reading result to the meter reading server through a communication process, receiving and processing a remote control command of the meter reading server, And a micro controller unit (MCU) in which a remote meter reading process is transmitted to the meter reading server through a communication process.

And a Universal Asynchronous Receiver / Transmitter (UART) that is responsible for communication between the meter reading process and the meter.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided an automatic meter reading method performed by a remote meter-reading terminal device including a microcontroller unit in which a communication process and an automatic meter-reading process are executed, wherein the communication process periodically acquires a communication network for connection with an external meter- ; Wherein the remote meter reading process comprises: metering an external meter; Transmitting the inspection result to a communication process using IPC (Inter-Process Communication); And the communication process transmitting the inspection result to the inspection server through a communication network.

The remote inspection method according to another aspect is characterized in that the communication process includes receiving a response to the inspection result through the communication network from the inspection server; The communication process transmitting a response to the meter reading result to the remote meter reading process using the IPC; And the remote metering process may process the response to the metering result.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided an automatic meter reading method performed by a remote meter-reading terminal device including a microcontroller unit in which a communication process and an automatic meter-reading process are executed, ; Transmitting the remote control command to the remote meter-reading process using Inter-Process Communication (IPC); Processing the remote control command by the remote meter reading process; The remote meter reading process transmitting the processing result of the remote control command to the communication process using the IPC; And the communication process transmitting the processing result of the remote control command to the meter reading server through a communication network.

According to the embodiment of the present invention, the communication process and the remote meter-reading process are built in the microcontroller unit without communicating with the external device, so that the communication with the external device is performed and the meter is inspected , The implementation complexity of the remote meter probe terminal device is reduced, the processing speed is improved, the power consumption is minimized, and the design cost can be reduced.

On the other hand, it is noted that the effects described in the following specification, which are expected by the technical characteristics of the present invention, and the provisional effects thereof are handled as described in the specification of the present invention even if the effects are not explicitly mentioned here.

1 is a diagram showing the configuration of a remote meter-check terminal device according to an embodiment of the present invention.
2 is a flowchart of a remote meter reading method according to an embodiment of the present invention.
3 is a flowchart of a remote meter reading method according to another embodiment of the present invention.

Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Embodiments of the present invention are provided to more fully describe the present invention to those skilled in the art, and the following embodiments may be modified in various other forms, The present invention is not limited to the following embodiments. Rather, these embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will be more thorough and complete, and will fully convey the concept of the invention to those skilled in the art.

The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of the invention. As used herein, the singular forms "a", "an," and "the" include plural forms unless the context clearly dictates otherwise. Also, " comprise "and / or" comprising "when used herein should be interpreted as specifying the presence of stated shapes, numbers, steps, operations, elements, elements, and / And does not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers, operations, elements, elements, and / or groups. As used herein, the term "and / or" includes any and all combinations of one or more of the listed items.

Although the terms first, second, etc. are used herein to describe various elements, regions and / or regions, it should be understood that these elements, components, regions, layers and / Do. These terms do not imply any particular order, top, bottom, or top row, and are used only to distinguish one member, region, or region from another member, region, or region. Thus, the first member, region or region described below may refer to a second member, region or region without departing from the teachings of the present invention.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings schematically showing embodiments of the present invention. In the figures, for example, variations in the shape shown may be expected, depending on manufacturing techniques and / or tolerances. Accordingly, embodiments of the present invention should not be construed as limited to any particular shape of the regions illustrated herein, including, for example, variations in shape resulting from manufacturing.

1 is a diagram showing the configuration of a remote meter-check terminal device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 1, the remote meter-check terminal device 30 is connected to an external meter-reading server 10 through a communication network and measures the meter 20.

The communication network may be a wired communication network or a wireless communication network.

The meter (20) may be an electric meter, water meter or city gas meter.

The remote meter probe terminal device 30 includes a microcontroller unit (MCU) 31, a universal asynchronous receiver / transmitter (UART) 34, and a power supply unit 35.

A remote meter reading process 33 for communicating with the communication process 32, the communication process 32 and the IPC (Inter-Process Communication) is executed in the microcontroller unit 31. [

The communication process 32 communicates with the meter reading server 10 through the communication network and communicates with the remote meter reading process 33 using the IPC.

The remote meter reading process 33 communicates with the communication process 32 using the IPC and communicates with the meter 20 via the universal asynchronous transceiver 34. [

In this case, IPC refers to inter-process communication, and refers to communication between processes, which is a work unit of software. It is a process of exchanging messages (or data) among individual processes to be simultaneously performed in one or a plurality of operating systems It means a method or a route to it.

 In the early days of using the computer, data was processed in most process units, and the processed data was stored in the form of a file and delivered to other processes. As program functions become increasingly complex and bigger today, the detailed functions are implemented as separate processes or threads, and various processes are executed in order to process a single user's request. To this end, considering the many connections and communication between processes It is important to design and implement a program. Various interprocess communication methods performed in the system include a shared memory, a signal, a pipe, a socket, and the like.

If shared memory, signals, and pipes are the way to communicate between processes in the same system, the socket-based communication method is not fast, but between processes that enable communication between processes in the same system as well as between processes in different systems Communication method. Sockets are the most commonly used method for interprocess communication. They are abstracted at a higher level than other IPC methods and are implemented for more general use, so that IPC can be implemented more intuitively and very universally. Can be used.

A socket contains information about the IP (Internet Protocol) address and port number of the process, and is connected to the socket of the opponent process to exchange data. So, once a socket is created and the desired information is connected to the socket, you can read or write the message through the socket, just like reading or writing data to a file. Sockets do not send and receive messages using the kernel's help or the file system, but rather send and receive messages over a network device. Communication using most sockets is chosen for interprocess communication in different systems. In this communication method, when a new process is added to the system, or when a running process is removed, there is a problem that the process remains in the system to restart the running processes. To solve such a problem, the IPC manager To manage inter-process communication.

On the other hand, the universal asynchronous transceiver 34 is a device for converting parallel data into serial data and transmitting it, and is responsible for communication between the remote meter reading process 33 and the meter 20. [ This universal asynchronous transceiver 34 is used in conjunction with communication standards such as EIA RS-232, RS-422, and RS-485.

The remote meter reading process 33 periodically measures the meter 20 and transmits the meter reading result to the meter reading server 10 through the communication process 32. [

The remote meter reading process 33 receives and processes the remote control command of the meter reading server 10 and then transmits the processing result to the meter reading server 10 through the communication process 32.

The power supply unit 35 serves to supply driving power to the remote meter-check terminal device 30. [

2 is a flowchart of a remote meter reading method according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Figure 2 relates to a method in which the remote meter terminal unit 30 including the microcontroller unit 31 in which the communication process 32 and the remote meter reading process 33 are executed periodically meters the meter 20. [

Periodically, the communication process 32 obtains a communication network for connecting with the external meter reading server 10 (S10).

The remote meter reading process 33 checks the external meter 20 through the universal asynchronous transceiver 34 (S11).

The remote meter reading process 33 transmits the meter reading result to the communication process 32 using Inter-Process Communication (IPC) (S12).

The communication process 32 transmits the result of the inspection to the meter reading server 10 via the communication network (S13).

Thereafter, the communication process 32 receives a response to the inspection result through the communication network from the inspection server 10 (S14).

The communication process 32 transmits a response to the meter reading result to the remote meter reading process 33 using the IPC (S15).

The remote meter reading process 33 processes the response to the meter reading result (S16).

3 is a flowchart of a remote meter reading method according to another embodiment of the present invention.

3 is a flowchart of a method of processing a remote control command received from the meter reading server 10 by the remote meter-reading terminal device in which the communication process 32 and the remote meter-reading process 33 are executed.

The communication process 32 receives the remote control command from the external meter reading server 10 through the communication network (S20).

The communication process 32 transmits a remote control command to the remote meter reading process 33 using Inter-Process Communication (IPC) (S21).

The remote meter reading process 33 processes the remote control command (S22).

The remote meter reading process 33 transmits the processing result of the remote control command to the communication process 32 using the IPC (S23).

The communication process 32 transfers the processing result of the remote control command to the meter reading server 10 via the communication network (S24).

The present invention has been described above with reference to the embodiments. It will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes in form and details may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims. Therefore, the disclosed embodiments should be considered in an illustrative rather than a restrictive sense. Therefore, the scope of the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, but should be construed to include various embodiments within the scope of the claims and equivalents thereof.

10: meter reading server
20: Meter
30: remote meter-check terminal device
31: Microcontroller unit
32: Communication Process
33: Remote meter reading process
34: Universal Asynchronous Transceiver
35:

Claims (5)

1. A remote meter-check terminal device connected to an external meter-reading server via a communication network to meter the meter,
A communication process for communicating with the meter reading server through the communication network,
Communicates with the communication process using IPC (Inter-Process Communication), periodically meter the meter, transmit a meter reading result to the meter reading server through a communication process, receive and process a remote control command of the meter reading server, And a micro controller unit (MCU) in which a remote meter reading process for transmitting a result to the meter reading server via the communication process is executed.
The method according to claim 1,
Further comprising a Universal Asynchronous Receiver / Transmitter (UART) responsible for communicating between the meter reading process and the meter.
A remote meter reading method performed by a remote meter-reading terminal device including a microcontroller unit in which a communication process and a remote meter-reading process are executed,
Periodically acquiring a communication network for communicating with an external meter reading server;
Wherein the remote meter reading process comprises: metering an external meter;
Transmitting the inspection result to a communication process using IPC (Inter-Process Communication); And
And the communication process transmitting the metering result to the metering server via a communication network.
The method of claim 3,
Wherein the communication between the remote meter reading process and the meter is performed by a Universal Asynchronous Receiver / Transmitter (UART) included in the remote meter-check terminal device.
A remote meter reading method performed by a remote meter-reading terminal device including a microcontroller unit in which a communication process and a remote meter-reading process are executed,
The communication process receiving a remote control command from an external meter reading server through a communication network;
Transmitting the remote control command to the remote meter-reading process using Inter-Process Communication (IPC);
Processing the remote control command by the remote meter reading process;
The remote meter reading process transmitting the processing result of the remote control command to the communication process using the IPC; And
And the communication process transmitting the processing result of the remote control command to the meter reading server via a communication network.

Images