(Case study · Public sector)
AQUASmart Water Management
A platform that lets a municipality run its water service end to end — from the registry of users and meters to the reading itself, captured on a smartphone and read by AI.
- Client
- A Sicilian municipality (pilot)
- Sector
- Public utilities · Water service
- Our role
- Concept, specification, product design, engineering, AI integration, hosting
- Platform
- Progressive web app · PHP · MySQL · Multimodal AI vision
- Status
- In field testing — version 1.3
(The challenge)
The meter reading is where the errors begin.
In many small municipalities, readings are still written down by hand and typed in later. Every transcription is a chance for an error, and every error can become a disputed bill.
The goal was not to remove people from the process, but to remove the copying: one photo, one reading, one record that anyone can check later.
(How it works)
Four steps. Two of them human.
- 01 · Person
Photograph
The field operator opens AQUA on a smartphone and photographs the meter.
- 02 · Machine
Read
A vision model reads the value on the dial and proposes it, linked to the right meter.
- 03 · Person
Validate
The operator confirms or corrects the value. Nothing is recorded without a human decision.
- 04 · System
Record
The reading is stored with its photo, author and time — a trail anyone can verify.
(Design principle)
AI reads.AQUA validates.
The model is fast; the operator is accountable. AQUA is designed so that the machine proposes and a person decides — the same principle behind everything Brainstar builds.
(Architecture)
Built to be run by a town hall, not a data centre.
- Multi-tenant by design: each municipality is a separate tenant with its own data.
- Progressive web app, installable on the staff’s existing smartphones.
- Runs on standard PHP and MySQL hosting — no special infrastructure to buy or maintain.
- Database changes only through incremental, versioned migrations: existing data is never put at risk.
- Developed in phases against a written master specification; each phase goes live only after approval and testing.
(Status & roadmap)
Where AQUA is today.
- Completed
Phase 1 — Core registry
Users, properties, meters and readings for the pilot municipality.
- October 2026
Version 1.3 — AI reading
AI meter reading installed in production and tested in the field on a smartphone.
- Online
Public demo
A separate demo environment with a fictional municipality and synthetic data only, for public bodies and partners.
- Planned
Next modules
Anomaly detection, tariffs and billing, pagoPA payments and a citizen portal.