A localized algorithm for Structural Health Monitoring using wireless sensor networks

Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) has been proving to be a suitable application domain for wireless sensor networks, whose techniques attempt to autonomously evaluate the integrity of structures, occasionally aiming at detecting and localizing damage. In this paper, we propose a localized algorithm supported by multilevel information fusion techniques to enable detection, localization and extent determination of damage sites using the resource constrained environment of a wireless sensor network. Each node partakes in different network tasks and has a localized view of the whole situation, so collaboration mechanisms and multilevel information fusion techniques are key components of this proposal to efficiently achieve its goal. Experimental results with the MICAz mote platform showed that the algorithm performs well in terms of network resources utilization. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.