Orientation monitoring system

Abstract

An orientation monitoring system is disclosed. The system comprises at least one sensor coupled to a utility meter and configured to sense an orientation of the utility meter. The system also comprises a processing system configured to: receive a sensed orientation of the utility meter from the at least one sensor; and determine a deviation of the sensed orientation from a reference orientation of the utility meter. Also disclosed is a utility meter comprising the orientation monitoring system, and an associated method of monitoring an orientation of a utility meter.

Description

[0001] ORIENTATION MONITORING SYSTEM

[0002] FIELD OF INVENTION

[0003] The present disclosure relates to a system for monitoring the orientation of a utility meter. In particular, the disclosure relates to determining a deviation in the orientation of a utility meter, such as an electricity, water or gas meter, from a reference orientation which may be its installation orientation. Also disclosed is a utility meter comprising the monitoring system, a metering system network comprising at least one utility meter, and a method of monitoring the orientation of a utility meter.

[0004] BACKGROUND

[0005] The smart electricity meter is one of the core parts of a smart grid solution. With the help of different communication technologies, it is possible to get instantaneous and stored data of the meter. However, there is currently no accurate and reliable way to precisely record and / or report the meter installation position and / or any deviation from this installation position.

[0006] The ideal field installation position for an electricity meter may be on a vertical wall at a residential, commercial, or industrial premises to which electricity is to be supplied by a utility supplier. There are certain scenarios (e.g. due to space constraints or security concerns) in which a meter may be installed high on a pole or other structure outside of the premises. In either case the meter could be dislocated from its original position e.g. if the pole on which the meter is installed is bent down, or the structure on which the meter is installed is dislocated or moved from its original location. However, the utility supplier may not be aware that the position of the meter has changed. Furthermore, there may also be scenarios where a user intentionally or unintentionally changes the meter installation position i.e. ‘tampers’ with the meter. In such cases the user may wish to conceal the change in position from the utility supplier.

[0007] It is therefore desirable to provide a system to monitor the deviation of the orientation of a utility meter from a reference orientation which may represent its installation position such that a meter dislocation or tamper event may be detected. It is therefore an aim of at least one embodiment of at least one aspect of the present disclosure to obviate or at least mitigate at least one of the above identified shortcomings of the prior art.

[0008] SUMMARY OF INVENTION

[0009] Various aspects of the present invention are defined in the independent claims. Some preferred features are defined in the dependent claims.

[0010] According to a first aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided an orientation monitoring system, the system comprising: at least one sensor coupled to a utility meter and configured to sense an orientation of the utility meter; and a processing system configured to: receive a sensed orientation of the utility meter from the at least one sensor; and determine a deviation of the sensed orientation from a reference orientation of the utility meter.

[0011] Advantageously, by sensing the orientation of the meter (for example in one, two or three axes) in space, and comparing the monitored orientation with a reference orientation, a relative deviation in orientation of the utility meter may be determined. The deviation in orientation may be due to a slow prolonged failure in the means used to mount the meter, or structure to which the meter is mounted or attached. Alternatively the deviation in orientation may be due to an intentional or unintentional displacement of the meter e.g. due to tampering. In this way by determining the deviation, such events may be detected which may improve the safety of the meter installation and protect the revenue of the utility provider (e.g. in the case of intentional tampering to bypass a meter).

[0012] By sensing the orientation of the utility meter e.g. the absolute or instantaneous orientation, and comparing it to a reference orientation, a change in the orientation of the utility meter can be detected without requiring continuous monitoring / sensing e.g. ‘real-time’ sensing. For example even if a deviation in orientation actually occurs ‘between’ two sample sensed orientations the deviation may be apparent in the later sensed orientation. Similarly a deviation which occurs over many sample sensed orientations may be monitored and tracked as required as will be appreciated by those skilled in the art. Beneficially by not requiring continuous ‘real-time’ sensing the monitoring system may require significantly less power and processing to operate effectively reducing the cost and computational burden of monitoring the orientation of the utility meter. The ‘sampling’ of sensed orientations may be randomized e.g. pseudorandomized, such that it is unpredictable and harder to overcome further increasing the security of the monitoring system.

[0013] It will be appreciated that the sensor may be “coupled” to the utility meter in any way that allows the sensor to sense the orientation of said meter and provide the sensed orientation to the processing system. For example the sensor may be physically attached or mounted onto an internal or external surface of the casing or housing of the meter and then electrically coupled to the processing system e.g. via wires or other bonding means. Alternatively, the sensor may be mounted on the same circuit board (e.g. PCB) as the processing system, which may then itself be mounted to an internal surface of the casing or housing of the meter.

[0014] The term “orientation” used in the present disclosure encompasses attitude, bearing, direction, angular position (e.g. tilt angle) and / or the like, and these terms may be used interchangeably throughout this disclosure.

[0015] It will be appreciated that the expression “deviation of the sensed orientation from a reference orientation” may refer to a deviation in angle, position, angular velocity and / or the like and may depend on the number and form of the at least one sensor.

[0016] The processing system may be further configured to determine whether the deviation of the orientation of the utility meter exceeds a predetermined threshold. The processing system may be further configured to, in response to determining that the deviation of the utility meter exceeds the threshold, log a meter position deviation event and / or signal an alarm, warning, notification or the like.

[0017] By imposing (e.g. by the utility meter, utility provider or the like) a predetermined threshold of deviation of orientation before any action is taken, false logs, alarms etc. may be avoided e.g. due to an installation pole swaying in bad weather or the opening of the meter housing to read the utility meter and / or service / maintain the utility meter. The threshold may be set by the utility provider, installation engineer or the like depending on the installation location (e.g. high on a pole more likely move in the wind or on the wall of a building) and / or the capabilities of the utility meter and / or at least one sensor used to sense the orientation of the utility meter.

[0018] The value of the predetermined threshold may be set such that the deviation of the orientation exceeding the threshold indicates that an event that requires action (e.g. a tamper event or a failure of an installation mount) is occurring, about to occur or has already occurred. This may allow appropriate action to be taken before an injury occurs or substantial loss of revenue is incurred. Action may include a service disconnect (e.g. via a remote device in compatible meters) an engineer visit and / or contacting authorities local to the meter installation to investigate the event.

[0019] The expression “log a meter position deviation event and / or signal an alarm” may refer to storing characteristics of the deviation (e.g. deviation value, time, date, serial number of utility meter) within a memory within the utility meter (or a log within such a memory) for use by the utility meter or for communicating to another device i.e. a remote device. Alternatively / additionally, this may refer to an audible and / or visible alarm at the utility meter or at any device communicatively coupled to the utility meter e.g. a smart meter display, mobile phone application notification or other remote device.

[0020] The orientation monitoring system may further comprise a communication module. The communication module may be coupled to the processing system. The communication module may be configured to communicate to a remote controller at least one of: an event notification, the meter position deviation event or alarm, the orientation of the utility meter and / or the determined deviation of the orientation of the utility meter.

[0021] The communication module may be configured to communicate the meter position deviation event or alarm immediately following the meter position deviation event or alarm e.g. as a so called “interrupt” event.

[0022] A communication module which allows information regarding the orientation of the utility meter to be communicated (e.g. periodically communicated) to a remote device e.g. a central command center, Head End System (HES) or the like, may advantageously allow the utility meter to be monitored without requiring regular direct physical access to the meter e.g. when the meter is extremely remotely located or is dangerous or difficult to access (for example at height). The information may also be recorded regularly by the utility meter e.g. every second and transmitted to the remote device periodically e.g. every fifteen minutes which may provide a regular status of the orientation of the utility meter, for example to the utility provider, more often than if a manual physical check was always required. Alternatively / additionally the remote device may be immediately notified for certain events or monitoring values, e.g. if a meter position deviation event occurs, so that the required action may be expediently carried out. This may reduce costs and improve the safety, reliability and effectiveness of the orientation monitoring system.

[0023] The communication to the remote device (which may be at least partially cloud based) may be direct or via one or more intermediaries e.g. via a mesh network comprising a plurality of nodes which may comprise other similar orientation monitoring systems and / or other network equipment. The communication may be implemented using any suitable communication technology known to persons skilled in the art e.g. Radio Frequency (RF), Global System for Mobile (GSM), General Packet Radio Service (GPRS), Long Term Evolution (LTE), Power Line Communication (PLC) and / or Zigbee communication systems or the like.

[0024] In this way the orientation monitoring system may be communicatively coupled to an existing network or system and / or additional nodes e.g. additional orientation monitoring systems may be communicatively coupled to the remote device without requiring any additional network hardware, further reducing the cost and complexity of installing new systems or expanding existing systems.

[0025] The reference orientation of the utility meter may comprise the orientation of the utility meter during or immediately after installation of the utility meter.

[0026] The installation of the utility meter may typically be undertaken by an installation engineer acting on behalf of the utility supplier, government body or the like. By using the position of the meter at or immediately after installation (e.g. whilst the installation engineer is still within view of the utility meter), the reference orientation may be verified by the installer, providing a known reference orientation which may be relied on by, for example, the utility supplier to determine whether an orientation deviation requires further action e.g. an alarm, engineer visit, restriction of access to the utility or the like.

[0027] Alternatively / additionally, the reference orientation may be set / reset after or during maintenance, upgrade or repair of the utility meter which may involve moving or removing the meter from its original installation position and / or replacing or upgrading the sensor.

[0028] The at least one sensor may comprise at least one of: a single axis accelerometer; a multi axis accelerometer; a single axis gyroscopic sensor; a multi axis gyroscopic sensor; and a Micro-Electro-Mechanical systems (MEMS) sensor.

[0029] As will be understood by those skilled in the art an accelerometer (which measures linear acceleration) may ‘sense’ both the acceleration / deceleration of the sensor from one position to another in addition to sensing the gravitational pull (e.g. towards the centre of the earth), in particular ‘at rest’. Advantageously, the output from one or more single or multi axis accelerometers coupled to the utility meter may provide a measurement of the orientation of the utility meter even when the meter is ‘at rest’. If a plurality of single and / or dual axis accelerometers are utilised they may be orientated in different axis relative to one another when coupled to the utility meter to provide the same functionality as a dual or tri axis accelerometer. This may provide a relatively inexpensive means of sensing the orientation of the utility meter. Beneficially, as an accelerometer provides an orientation reading even at rest the orientation does not need to be sensed during a dislocation in order to determine that the orientation of the meter has deviated from the reference orientation as long as the orientation after the event differs sufficiently from the orientation before the event.

[0030] A gyroscopic sensor (which measures angular velocity) with a low enough noise floor may also provide a measurement reading at rest representative of the earth’s rotational velocity. Similarly to the accelerometer this may be used in addition to the accelerometer or alternatively to the accelerometer to sense the orientation of the utility meter even when at rest.

[0031] Advantageously, a MEMS sensor may be significantly smaller in size and weight when compared to other sensor technologies and as such may occupy a minimal amount of volume within the utility meter.

[0032] The orientation monitoring system may comprise a plurality of sensors coupled to the utility meter.

[0033] Coupling a plurality of sensors to the utility meter provides redundancy if one of the sensors becomes faulty or fails. Therefore, even in this case, the orientation of the utility meter can continue to be monitored until the sensor can be replaced. Additionally, a plurality of sensors comprising more than one sensor type (e.g. one accelerometer and one gyroscopic sensor) may provide an additional calibration or verification check to assess the performance status of the plurality of sensors. Additionally the use of a plurality of sensors may ensure that there is no axis of rotation or movement that would not be sensed by the orientation monitoring system. For example a single axis accelerometer rotated around its installation axis may not sense that the orientation of the sensor, and by extension the utility meter, has deviated.

[0034] According to a second aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a utility meter for metering consumption of a resource, the utility meter comprising: the orientation monitoring system of the first aspect; and a housing, wherein the at least one sensor is disposed in or on the housing.

[0035] The processing system may be further configured or configurable to, based on the determination of the deviation of the orientation of the utility meter from the reference orientation, restrict access to the resource. When a deviation in the orientation of the utility meter is determined that requires action this may include restricting access, e.g. shutting off access, to the resource. This may be due to an intentional tamper event i.e. in order to reduce lost revenue from the use of unmetered consumption of resource. Alternatively / additionally this may be due to long term dislocation of the meter or unintentional tampering i.e. to reduce a potential increase in risk to the safety of the utility consumer (e.g. risk of electrocution or fluid leaks).

[0036] Advantageously, the processing system may be configured to automatically restrict access or configurable to do so by a remote controller to which the utility meter is communicatively coupled. In this way the requirement for an engineer to physically visit the meter installation to restrict access to the utility may be reduced or removed. Additionally / alternatively access to the utility may be restricted until such time that an engineer visit can be scheduled.

[0037] The resource may comprise electrical power and / or a fluid, for example the meter may be an electricity meter, gas meter, water meter or other utility meter.

[0038] According to a third aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a metering system network comprising: at least one utility meter according to the second aspect; a remote device; and a communications module communicatively coupled to the remote device and configured to communicate with the at least one utility meter.

[0039] The term “remote device” used in the present disclosure may refer to a router, gateway, Head End System (HES) or other remote system communicatively coupled to the at least one utility meter and able to receive information from the at least one utility meter and / or transmit information and / or commands to the at least one utility meter. The remote device maybe a server, cloud based device and / or the like.

[0040] Where the metering system network comprises a plurality of utility meters they may act like a mesh network system, which may increase reliability of the interconnections of the system and / or allow particularly remote utility meters to communicate with the remote device. Arranging a plurality of utility meters into a metering system network may also provide an efficient means of monitoring numerous utility meters from a central location, further reducing costs.

[0041] The remote device may be further configured to, in response to receiving a meter position deviation event log from the at least one utility meter, trigger an alert and / or restrict access to the resource.

[0042] According to a fourth aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided A method of monitoring an orientation of a utility meter comprising: installing the utility meter according to any one of claims 8 to 10 between a utility provider and a utility consumer; sensing, using the at least one sensor at a first time, the reference orientation of the utility meter; sensing, using the at least one sensor at a second time later than the first time, the orientation of the utility meter; and determining, using the processing system, a deviation of the orientation of the utility meter from the reference orientation of the utility meter.

[0043] The at least one sensor may comprises a single or multi axis accelerometer. Sensing the reference orientation and / or the orientation of the utility meter may comprise measuring the linear acceleration vector of the accelerometer due to gravity.

[0044] Determining a deviation of the orientation of the utility meter from the reference orientation may comprise calculating the scalar product (otherwise referred to in the art as the “dot product”) of the linear acceleration vector measured at the first time and the linear acceleration vector measured at the second time.

[0045] The at least one sensor may comprise a single or multi axis gyroscopic sensor. Sensing the reference orientation and / or the orientation of the utility meter may comprise measuring the angular velocity of the gyroscopic sensor.

[0046] The above summary is intended to be merely exemplary and non-limiting. The disclosure includes one or more corresponding aspects, embodiments or features in isolation or in various combinations whether or not specifically stated (including claimed) in that combination or in isolation. It should be understood that features defined above in accordance with any aspect of the present disclosure or below relating to any specific embodiment of the disclosure may be utilized, either alone or in combination with any other defined feature, in any other aspect or embodiment or to form a further aspect or embodiment of the disclosure.

[0047] BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

[0048] These and other aspects of the present disclosure will now be described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein:

[0049] Figure 1 depicts a block diagram of an orientation monitoring system in accordance with an example embodiment of the present disclosure; Figure 2 depicts an illustration of the required rotation of the orientation monitoring system of Figure 1 to provide the plots shown in Figures 3 and 4;

[0050] Figure s depicts a plot of the acceleration from a 3-axis sensor coupled to the utility meter of Figure 1 , rotated about the X-axis as illustrated in Figure 2;

[0051] Figure 4 depicts a plot of the measured deviation angle of the utility meter of Figure 1 , rotated about the X-axis as illustrated in Figure 2;

[0052] Figure s depicts a block diagram of an example metering system network in accordance with an example embodiment of the present disclosure; and Figure s depicts a flowchart of a method of monitoring the orientation of a utility meter in accordance with an example embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0053] In the Figures, like parts are denoted by like reference numerals.

[0054] It will be appreciated that the drawings are for illustrative purposes only and are not drawn to scale.

[0055] DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

[0056] Figure 1 depicts an orientation monitoring system 100 according to an example embodiment of the present disclosure, wherein the depicted example monitors the orientation of an electricity meter 110. In other examples, the electricity meter 110 may alternatively be a fluid meter e.g. a gas meter or a water meter, or other service or utility metering device, and may be installed in, on or proximal to a residential, commercial, or industrial premises to which a utility is to be supplied between the premises and the utility source.

[0057] The example orientation monitoring system 100 comprises a tri-axis accelerometer 120 (i.e. a sensor operable to measure linear acceleration in up to three measurement axis) coupled to the electricity meter 110. The tri-axis accelerometer 120 may provide a three-dimensional (3D) linear vector based on the gravitational pull on the tri-axis accelerometer 120 towards the center of the earth in its three measurement axis. When the tri-axis accelerometer 120 is at rest, this 3D linear vector may therefore be representative of the angular orientation of the tri-axis accelerometer 120 in 3D space. As the tri-axis accelerometer 120 is coupled to the electricity meter 110, the 3D linear vector is also representative of the orientation of the electricity meter 110 in 3D space.

[0058] If the orientation of the tri-axis accelerometer 120 coupled to the electricity meter 110 and, by extension, the electricity meter 110 changes (e g. the electricity meter 110 is moved or otherwise dislocated from its original position), the contribution of gravitational pull on each measurement axis and therefore the 3D linear vector provided by the tri-axis accelerometer 120 also changes. When the electricity meter 110 is at rest again, the difference between the 3D linear vector before and after the change is representative of the deviation in orientation of the electricity meter 110 from the original (e.g. a reference) orientation. This change / deviation may be calculated as discussed in more detail below.

[0059] In other examples instead of a single tri-axis accelerometer 120 a plurality of the tri-axis accelerometers 120 and / or one or more single-axis or dual-axis accelerometers may be coupled to the electricity meter 110. The installed orientation of each accelerometer may be arranged to allow the linear acceleration in multiple axis to be measured and / or to provide redundancy and / or to allow measurements of each accelerometer to be checked against each other. In further examples one or more or all of the accelerometers may alternatively be gyroscopic sensors and the orientation of the electricity meter 110 may be sensed based on the angular velocity of the sensor or sensors.

[0060] Referring again to Figure 1 , the orientation monitoring system 100 further comprises a processing system 130, a communication module 140 and a storage device 150.

[0061] The processing system 130 may be used when the orientation monitoring system 100 perform computations or calculations and / or to record data relevant to those computation or calculations e.g. determining a deviation of the orientation of the electricity meter 110. For example, the processing system 130 may include a microprocessor, an application processor (AP), a central processing unit (CPU), a digital signal processor (DSP), a graphic processing unit (GPU) and / or the like. The processing system 130 may additionally control other features of the electricity meter 110 e.g. recording consumption of electricity by the electricity consumer and / or a service disconnect functionality. The processing system 130 may include a plurality of processors. In addition, the processing system 130 may include cache memories to increase computation capacity. The storage device 150, which may be for example a storage medium, may include any non-transitory computer-readable storage medium used to provide commands and / or data to orientation monitoring system 100. For example, the non- transitory computer-readable storage medium may include a volatile memory such as a static random access memory (SRAM), a dynamic random access memory (DRAM), or the like, and a non-volatile memory such as a flash memory, a magnetic random access memory (MRAM), a phase-change random access memory (PRAM), a resistive random access memory (RRAM), or the like. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium may be integrated into the orientation monitoring system 100, or alternatively may be coupled to the orientation monitoring system 100 through a communication medium such as the communication module 140 which may be a physical link and / or a wireless link. The storage device 150 may store data, which is to be processed by the processing system 130, or data obtained through processing by the processing system 130.

[0062] In use, the example processing system 130 is configured to receive a sensed orientation of the electricity meter 110 from the tri-axis accelerometer 120 at a first time. The processing system 130 may also be configured to store the sensed orientation in the storage device 150 as a reference orientation of the electricity meter 110 and / or communicate the sensed orientation to a remote device 160 communicatively coupled to communication module 140 of the orientation monitoring system 100. In examples, the reference orientation may be the orientation of the electricity meter 110 during, or immediately following, installation of the electricity meter 110 such that it is recorded in the presence of the installation engineer and can therefore be relied upon by the utility provider as a valid unadulterated reference. Alternatively, the reference orientation may be the sensed orientation following routine or emergency maintenance, servicing or the like which may involve dislocation of the electricity meter 110 from its previous reference orientation.

[0063] The example processing system 130 is further configured to compare the received sensed orientation of the electricity meter 110 to the reference orientation of the electricity meter 110 (which may be stored in the storage device 150) in order to determine a deviation of the sensed orientation from the reference orientation. Additionally, the received sensed orientation may also be stored in the storage device 150 and / or communicated to the remote device 160 communicatively coupled to communication module 140 of the orientation monitoring system 100. The example processing system 130 is further configured to determine whether the determined deviation of the orientation of the electricity meter 110 exceeds a predetermined threshold. In examples the predetermined threshold is set by the utility provider, electricity meter 110 installer, manufacturer or the like, and may be stored locally in storage device 150 and / or communicated to electricity meter 110 from remote device 160.

[0064] If the processing system 130 determines that the deviation of the orientation exceeds the threshold an alarm or notification may be created and / or logged, for example a meter position deviation event may be logged in the storage device 150 and / or communicated to the remote device 160 via the communications module 140. The meter position deviation event may include, but is not limited to, characteristics of the event (e.g. time, date, deviation value, deviation trends) and of the electricity meter 110. Alternatively / additionally the predetermined threshold may be set on the remote device 160 and the remote device 160 may determine that the deviation in the orientation has exceeded the threshold and take appropriate action e.g. log an event, signal an alarm and / or disconnect the electricity meter 110 from the electricity supply. In examples, the level of the threshold may be set such that false alarms (e.g. due to wind effects on installation structures) are minimised or eliminated entirely.

[0065] In examples, a position deviation event may indicate that the structure to which the electricity meter 110 in mounted to, or the mounting means itself, has failed and requires repair, or replacement. Alternatively a position deviation event may indicate that the electricity meter has been intentionally or unintentionally tampered with dislocating the electricity meter 110 from its reference orientation. In such cases the processing system 130 and / or the remote device 160 may alert a user, the electricity provider, a utility engineer or the like. This may result in a physical visit to confirm the event and rectify the issue and / or temporarily or permanently disconnect the electricity meter from the electricity supplier. Alternatively the processing system 130 and / or the remote device 160 may be operable to temporarily or permanently disconnect the electricity meter from the electricity supplier; commonly known in the field as a “service disconnect”.

[0066] Referring now to Figure 2, a 3D illustration of an example orientation monitoring system 200 comprising a utility meter 210 is depicted. The utility meter 210 (which may be the electricity meter 110 of Figure 1 ) comprises a housing 215. A three-axis sensor 220 (which may hereinafter be referred to as the “sensor 220”) e.g. the tri-axis accelerometer 120 of Figure 1 , is mounted onto an inner surface of the housing 215. Also depicted are the three measurement axis X, Y and Z of the sensor 220 originating from the center of the sensor 220. A rotation R about the X axis, which was used to produce the example plots of Figures 3 and 4 described below, is also illustrated. In this example, the utility meter is orientated such that the X and Y axis are substantially parallel to the surface of the earth and consequentially the Z axis is substantially perpendicular to the surface of the earth, however the invention is not limited by this installation arrangement.

[0067] In examples, the sensor 220 may be coupled to an external surface of the housing 215 e.g. mounted in a recess in the back surface of the housing 215, or on a mounting frame which is itself coupled to an internal or external surface of the housing 215. Alternatively, a plurality of sensors 220 e.g. a plurality of single axis sensors may be coupled in a distributional manner in and / or on the housing 215; one or more or all of the plurality of sensors may be used to sense the orientation of the utility meter 210.

[0068] As will be appreciated by those skilled in the art in examples where the three axis sensor 220 is a tri-axis accelerometer the sensor 220 measures linear acceleration in the X, Y and Z axis and outputs a 3D vector quantity based on these measurements. The 3D vector quantity output when the reference orientation is recorded is stored in memory e.g. storage device 150 of Figure 1 and, as described above, this reference orientation is the value against which the deviation of the utility meter 210 may be determined.

[0069] Figure 3 shows a plot of the linear acceleration in each axis X, Y and Z output from sensor 220 of Figure 2 as rotation R is applied about the X axis. In this example, the orientation of the utility meter 210 is sampled once every second. However, the invention is not limited to this sampling rate, and the sampling rate may be higher or lower depending on the utility meter 120 (e.g. the processing power, storage size, sensor type) the installation means and location and / or the type of utility and / or the like. The deviation of the orientation from the reference orientation may be calculated from these measured acceleration values using vector algebra as described below. As will be appreciated by those skilled in the art, other suitable methods of calculating deviation angle between vector quantitates and / or using measured acceleration values may be used.

[0070] The scalar (dot) product a ■ b between two vectors a and b allows the determination of the angle a between the two vectors e.g. the reference orientation vector and the subsequent sensed orientation vector: where ax, ayand azis the acceleration measured on the x, y and z axis respectively with the meter in its installation position, bx, byand bzis the present position acceleration measured on the x, y and z axis respectively, and a is the deviation angle between vectors a and b, which in this example represents the deviation of the utility meter 210 from one (e.g. reference) orientation to another.

[0071] Figure 4 shows a plot of the calculated angular deviation of the utility meter 210 of Figure 2 as rotation R is applied about the X axis, determined based on equations (1) and (2) above. In use, a predetermined threshold deviation angle e.g. 10° may be set such that when the determined deviation angle exceeds this value an action is taken or an event is recorded or logged e.g. an alarm is signalled and / or a meter position deviation event is logged.

[0072] Although in this example the utility meter 210 is only rotated about the X axis, a similar determination may be made if / when the utility meter 210 is rotated about any other axis or simultaneously about a plurality of axis (as would be likely in a real world deviation event). In examples a similar determination may be made by a plurality of single or multi axis sensors 220 coupled to the utility meter 210, provided that the relative installation orientations of the sensors 220 are known e.g. during design and / or manufacture of the utility meter 210.

[0073] Figure 5 depicts a metering system network 500, according to an example embodiment of the present disclosure. The described elements of the network may communicate using a combination of any suitable communication technology known to persons skilled in the art e.g. Radio Frequency (RF), Global System for Mobile (GSM), General Packet Radio Service (GPRS), Long Term Evolution (LTE), Power Line Communication (PLC) and / or Zigbee communication systems and / or the like.

[0074] The example metering system network 500 comprises a plurality of utility meters 510a-c. Each utility meter 510a-c may be an electricity meter 110 as described above or alternatively one or more or all of the plurality of utility meters 510a-c may be other utility meter devices e.g. gas meters. In this example, only three utility meters 510a-c. However, it will be understood that the metering system network 500 may comprise fewer than or greater than three utility meters 510a-c. For example, the metering system network 500 may comprise clusters of utility meters 510a-c.

[0075] The example metering system network 500 comprises a remote device 560 in the form of a Head End System HES, communicably coupled to the utility meters 510a-c. In some embodiments, remote device 560 may be at least partially cloudbased and / or based on a remote server and / or the like. In some embodiments, at least a portion of the remote device 560 may be comprised, e.g. integrated into, at least one of the utility meters 510a-c.

[0076] In this example, utility meter 510a is communicatively coupled to the remote device 560 exclusively via the cloud 570, utility meter 510c is communicatively coupled to the remote device 560 ‘directly’ and utility meter 510b is communicatively coupled to the remote device 560 both via the cloud 570 and directly. It will be appreciated that any combination of communicative coupling may be utilised depending on the available infrastructure and number of utility meters 510a-c or clusters of utility meters 510a-c.

[0077] In use, the example remote device 560 may be configured to receive data regarding the orientation of each utility meter 510a-c, the determined deviation of each utility meter 510a-c, a meter deviation event or alarm from each utility meter 510a-c if the orientation of the utility meter 510a-c exceeds a predetermined threshold (which may be communicated to the utility meters 510a-c from the remote device 560) and / or the like. The example remote device 560 may be configured to control e.g. restrict or remove, the supply of utility to the utility consumer using utility meters 510a-c, in response to the meter deviation event or alarm or the determination by the remote device 560 that a the orientation of a utility meter 510a-c has exceeded its predetermined threshold.

[0078] Figure 6 depicts a method 600 of monitoring an orientation of a utility meter, according to an example embodiment of the present disclosure. In examples, the method 600 of Figure 6 may be implemented on the utility meter 110 of Figure 1 or the metering system network 500 of Figure 5.

[0079] In a first step S610 a utility meter is installed between a utility provider and corresponding utility consumer. The utility meter comprises at least one sensor coupled to the utility meter and configured to sense the orientation of the utility meter. In a second step S620 a reference orientation of the utility meter is sensed by the at least one sensor at a first time, which may be during or immediately following the installation of the utility meter at step S610.

[0080] In a third step S630 a further orientation of the utility meter is sensed by the at least one sensor at a second time, later than the first time and at a fourth step S640 a deviation of the sensed orientation from the reference orientation is determined.

[0081] Although the present disclosure has been described in terms of particular embodiments as set forth above, it should be understood that these embodiments are illustrative only and that the claims are not limited to those embodiments. Those skilled in the art will be able to make modifications and alternatives in view of the present disclosure, which are contemplated as falling within the scope of the appended claims. Each feature disclosed or illustrated in the present specification may be incorporated in any embodiments, whether alone or in any appropriate combination with any other feature disclosed or illustrated herein.

Claims

CLAIMS:1 . An orientation monitoring system, the system comprising: at least one sensor coupled to a utility meter and configured to sense an orientation of the utility meter; and a processing system configured to: receive a sensed orientation of the utility meter from the at least one sensor; and determine a deviation of the sensed orientation from a reference orientation of the utility meter.

2. The orientation monitoring system of claim 1 wherein the processing system is further configured to: determine whether the deviation of the orientation of the utility meter exceeds a predetermined threshold; and in response to determining that the deviation of the utility meter exceeds the threshold, log a meter position deviation event and / or signal an alarm.

3. The orientation monitoring system of claim 2 further comprising a communication module coupled to the processing system and configured to communicate to a remote controller at least one of: an event notification, the meter position deviation event or alarm, the orientation of the utility meter and / or the determined deviation of the orientation of the utility meter.

4. The orientation monitoring system of claim 2 or claim 3 wherein the communication module is configured to communicate the meter position deviation event or alarm immediately following the meter position deviation event or alarm.

5. The orientation monitoring system of any preceding claim wherein the reference orientation of the utility meter comprises the orientation of the utility meter during or immediately after installation of the utility meter.

6. The orientation monitoring system of any preceding claim wherein the at least one sensor comprises at least one of: a single axis accelerometer;a multi axis accelerometer; a single axis gyroscopic sensor; a multi axis gyroscopic sensor; and a Micro-Electro-Mechanical systems (MEMS) sensor.

7. The orientation monitoring system of any preceding claim comprising a plurality of sensors coupled to the utility meter.

8. A utility meter for metering consumption of a resource, the utility meter comprising: the orientation monitoring system of any preceding claim; and a housing, wherein the at least one sensor is disposed in or on the housing.

9. The utility meter of claim 8 wherein the processing system is further configured or configurable to, based on the determination of the deviation of the orientation of the utility meter from the reference orientation, restrict access to the resource.

10. The utility meter of claim 8 or claim 9 wherein the resource comprises electrical power and / or a fluid.11 . A metering system network comprising: at least one utility meter according to any one of claims 8 to 10; a remote device: and a communications module communicatively coupled to the remote device and configured to communicate with the at least one utility meter.

12. The metering system network of claim 11 , wherein the remote device is further configured to, in response to receiving a meter position deviation event log from the at least one utility meter, trigger an alert and / or restrict access to the resource.

13. A method of monitoring an orientation of a utility meter comprising: installing a utility meter comprising the orientation monitoring system according to any one of claims 1 to 7 between a utility provider and a utility consumer; sensing, using the at least one sensor at a first time, the reference orientation of the utility meter;sensing, using the at least one sensor at a second time later than the first time, the orientation of the utility meter; and determining, using the processing system, a deviation of the orientation of the utility meter from the reference orientation of the utility meter.

14. The method of claim 13 wherein the at least one sensor comprises a single or multi axis accelerometer and wherein sensing the reference orientation and / or the orientation of the utility meter comprises measuring the linear acceleration vector of the accelerometer due to gravity.

15. The method of claim 14 wherein determining a deviation of the orientation of the utility meter from the reference orientation comprises calculating the scalar product of the linear acceleration vector measured at the first time and the linear acceleration vector measured at the second time.

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