Wireless Sensing Technologies for Civil Infrastructure Monitoring and Management

Ensuring the safety of civil infrastructures is of utmost importance to society. Research and developments in Structural health monitoring (SHM) systems aim to monitor and to diagnose the conditions of a structure. With recent advances in wireless communication technology, wireless networks can potentially offer a low-cost alternative to traditional cable-based structural monitoring systems. Another advantage of a wireless system is the ease of relocating structural sensors, thus providing a flexible and reconfigurable system architecture. This paper describes the development of a prototype wireless structural sensing system. This integrated hardware and software system is designed and implemented using low-cost off-the-shelf electronic components. Hardware drivers, data streaming protocols, and computational algorithms are embedded in the wireless sensor nodes to provide the basic functionalities for structural monitoring applications. Laboratory and field validation tests have been conducted to illustrate the acquisition, management and processing of high quality sensor data collected by the wireless system.