This report is from the Food agility CRC project, Farm-wide WiFi, that built connectivity infrastructure to provide farmers farm-wide access to the internet, so they can access digital tools (e.g. dashboards, IoT systems etc). The team worked to address the specific challenges to providing connectivity to passenger vehicles in rural areas. The project research objective was to develop custom antenna arrays and RF systems for vehicles, enabling long-range rural communications, tackling inadequate rural connectivity for Australian primary producers. The developed cost-effective solution aims to address social, economic, and safety challenges while facilitating research commercialisation in digital agriculture technologies.The technology has undergone laboratory testing and field trials in regional Australia, with the support of industry partner, Zetifi. The developed vehicular communication system meets real-world requirements: reliability, modularity, compact size, antenna isolation, low power consumption, low cost, and easy manufacturing. Simple installation on vehicles has potential for future commercial success. This project provided a unique solution that simplifies RF/antenna systems, reducing personnel and benefiting the industry by streamlining implementation and maintenance for non-specialized users. The unique solution caters to various applications, providing a family product with enhanced versatility.
