US Patent 9894852 Monitoring and control systems for the agricultural industry

A mesh-based wireless network 10 of sensor/actuator devices I, D, T for an agricultural production area involves battery-powered sensors and actuators deployed under or within the foliage for broadcast communication with at least one repeater R according to broadcast time slots. The repeaters R are mounted above the vegetation canopy so as to be powered by solar panels. The repeaters R form a mesh network for routing data and commands to and from the sensors and actuators and at least one gateway GW. The gateway communicates over a cellular network with a remote agricultural management server 14 and database 16.