Abstract
The engineering education and research sectors are interlinked, and there exists a need within both for readily deployable low-cost systems. Smartphones are affordable and easy to use technology available to almost everyone. Images or video frames taken with smartphone cameras, of structures subjected to loadings, can be analyzed to measure structural deformations. Such applications are very useful for university students and researchers when performing tests in laboratory environments. This paper investigates the feasibility of using smartphone technologies to measure structural deformation in the laboratory environment. Images and videos collected while structures are subjected to static, dynamic, and quasi-static loadings are analyzed with freeware and proprietary software. This study demonstrates capabilities of smartphone technologies, when coupled with suitable image processing software, for providing accurate information about structural deformations. Smartphones and open source software are affordable and available in comparison to professional cameras and proprietary software. The technology can be further developed to be used in real world environments to monitor deformation of engineering structures.
Highlights
The demand for advanced engineering education in many universities makes the use of low-cost laboratory equipment a very attractive option, in developing countries and remote colleges (Al-Habaibeh and Parkin, 2003)
This study proposes a low cost vision-based system using smartphones for monitoring deformations in the laboratory environment, and compares structural response of laboratory structures against contact sensors and expensive imagebased systems that make use of professional cameras and proprietary software
Very good agreements with structural response obtained from contact and vision-based systems are obtained for the static and dynamic tests
Summary
The demand for advanced engineering education in many universities makes the use of low-cost laboratory equipment a very attractive option, in developing countries and remote colleges (Al-Habaibeh and Parkin, 2003). Fundamental components of laboratory equipment that are used to measure deformations of test-beds include mechanical dial gauges, strain gauges, and displacement sensors with supporting data acquisition systems. Displacement sensors such as linear variable differentiation transformers (LVDTs) and strain gauges usually require careful installation/calibration and data translation (Abdel-Jaber and Glisic, 2016), for example the conversion of volts/ohms to engineering units. Low-cost and easy to use sensor technologies with supporting software are promising alternatives for students, academics and researchers (Girolami et al, 2017).
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