Infrastructure Structural Health Monitoring Using Wireless Sensor Networks

It previously reported on highly miniaturized, wireless strain, acceleration, and inclination sensing systems capable of providing high speed data update rates. Wireless sensors can improve our ability to monitor critical civil infrastructure, including highways & bridges. A benefit of wireless structural monitoring systems is that they are inexpensive to install because extensive wiring is no longer required between sensors and the data acquisition system. Signal conditioning, multiplexing, AID conversion, processing, amplifying, data logging, and bi-directional wireless communications are fully integrated. Each node includes a unique address (RFID), allowing a single base station to orchestrate data collection from thousands of distinct sensing nodes.