Embedded Systems Application and Network in Water Utility Systems

Abstract

Utility systems form part of everyday life. We use them directly or indirectly as we carry on with daily activities. These systems can simply be our home appliances such as washing machine, Microwave oven and so on. Utility supplies such as electricity, pipe-borne water and cooking gas also have significant influence in our daily lives. The quest to build and manage highly efficient utility systems fueled the development and evolution of control technologies, from classical interwork of mechanical and analog electronics to digital electronic control with programmability. Such functionalities have facilitated utility device automation, versatility and reliability. Today, these digital control capabilities are built into computer-based subsystems referred to as embedded systems (ES). Depending on stringency of requirements in the area of application, a wide range of embedded systems are used to drive operation of utility systems. Some are run by simply miniaturized microcomputers running specific operating systems while others are based on microcontrollers running firmware programs incorporated as part of a larger machine or device. This paper aims to leverage insights from previous research works on ES to proffer costeffective solution to the problem of pipeline leakages in water supply infrastructure.