Antenna-Integrated Sensing Platforms for Material Characterisation and Intelligent IoT Environments

Recent advances in antenna-integrated sensing platforms have enabled compact and multifunctional systems for material characterization, environmental monitoring, and intelligent Internet of Things (IoT) applications. By combining sensing and communication functionalities within a unified antenna structure, these platforms improve system efficiency, reduce form factor, and support real-time data acquisition. Such integrated technologies are increasingly relevant for smart cities, autonomous systems, industrial IoT, and UAV-assisted sensing, where miniaturized and efficient solutions are needed.Despite notable progress in antenna design, sensing mechanisms, and experimental validation, ensuring the reliable and secure transmission of sensed data remains a critical and underexplored challenge. In practical scenarios, sensing data must traverse wireless channels subject to fading, blockage, atmospheric disturbances, interference, and mobility effects—challenges that intensify in UAV-enabled, cooperative, and multi-hop deployments and in hybrid architectures such as RF/FSO and RF–VLC links.This Research Topic aims to bridge advanced antenna-integrated sensing with robust communication frameworks for real-world deployment. We welcome interdisciplinary contributions jointly addressing antenna/sensor design, sensing functionality, channel-aware modeling, and communication performance analysis toward reliable, efficient, and secure sensing-enabled systems.Scope includes (but is not limited to):- Antenna-integrated sensing systems for material characterization and IoT applications- Wireless transmission of sensing data over fading- and blockage-prone channels- UAV-assisted sensing and data collection architectures- Cooperative relaying and multi-hop communication systems- Hybrid communication systems (RF/FSO, RF–VLC, RF–mmWave)- Statistical channel modeling and performance evaluation- Outage, reliability, diversity, and QoS analysis- Opportunistic user scheduling and resource allocation under uncertainty- Physical-layer security for sensing-enabled wireless systems- System-level design, simulation, and experimental validation Topic editors: Mona Aggarwal, Preet Kaur, ANTONIO CAMPOS Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/78245/antenna-integrated-sensing-platforms-for-material-characterisation-and-intelligent-iot-environments