Patent ID: 6961666

Claim:
A system for automatic collection and transport of readings from water, gas and electricity meters ( 4 ) comprising: at least one element to transmit the reading from the meter and at least one receiver element ( 1 ) of that reading, said at least one transmitter device including an interface subsystem ( 3 ) that adapts the signal from the meter ( 4 ) to be processed by a microcontroller subsystem ( 5 ), which executes software application and prepares the meter ( 4 ) reading to be sent from an RF transmitter subsystem ( 6 ) to at least one receiver element ( 1 ), wherein said at least one receiver element and one element to transmit ( 1 ) define an ad-hoc wireless network, self organizing in an area (A), where said readings are transmitted to the next element using multihop techniques according to a routing algorithm: a value t is assigned to the receiver elements ( 1 ), with maximum value T; if the direct neighbours of a given network node have as a maximum an assigned value t, a value t-k is assigned to this node; and every node will transmit a message to a node with t value larger than its own, if there is more than one with the same maximum value, it will transmit to one of them; and wherein the interface subsystem ( 3 ) includes an electronic interface capable of adapting signal pulses sent from a current loop or optical sensor.