Web-controlled wireless network sensors for structural health monitoring

Abstract

Wireless network sensors are being implemented for applications in transportation, manufacturing, security, and structural health monitoring. This paper describes an approach for data acquisition for damage detection in structures. The proposed Web-Controlled Wireless Network Sensors (WCWNS) is the integration of wireless network sensors and a web interface that allows easy remote access and operation from user-friendly HTML screens. The WCWNS is highly flexible in terms of functions and applications. Algorithms and tools for data analysis can be directly installed on and executed from the web server. This means WCWNS will have unlimited capabilities in performing data analysis. Data can be analyzed for damage detection either on site distributed amongst the intelligent sensors or off site either in the web server or at an end users location after downloading from the web server. This feature allows for a variety of health monitoring algorithms to be investigated by researchers of all backgrounds and abilities. In addition, both short-range and long-range communications devices handle data exchange and communications in WCWNS. The system can be setup to operate efficiently in any topological arrangement. Short-range communications devices facilitate fast and low-power local data transfer, while long-range communications devices support high quality long-distance data exchange. The proposed system is demonstrated on an experimental setup.