Smart Brick - A Low Cost, Modular Wireless Sensor For Civil Structure Monitoring

We report results on the design and implementation of a low cost wireless multi-sensor system to enable the creation of smart building materials such as smart bricks. We have demonstrated a proof-of-concept device that samples both digital and analog sensor data from a number of configurable sensors, processes the data, and wirelessly transmits it to a data collection receiver with a maximum range of 101m using a tiny helical antenna. Evaluation of the effects of common civil materials on system performance is also presented. Power consumption performance is evaluated and suggestions made for future work.