Distributed structural health monitoring system based on smart wireless sensor and multi-agent technology

Abstract

This paper presents a new parallel distributed structural health monitoring technology based on the wireless sensor network and multi-agent system for large scale engineering structures. The basic idea of this new technology is that of adopting the smart wireless sensor with on-board microprocessor to form the monitoring sensor network and the multi-agent technology to manage the whole health monitoring system. Using this technology, the health monitoring system becomes a distributing parallel system instead of a serial system with all processing work done by the central computer. The functions, the reliability, the flexibility and the speed of the whole system will be greatly improved. In addition, with wireless communication links instead of wires, the system weight and complexity will be lowered. In this paper, the distributed smart wireless sensor network is designed first based on the Berkeley Mote Mica wireless sensor platform. Two kinds of sensor have been adopted: piezoelectric sensors and electric resistance wires. They are connected to a Mica MPR board though a designed charge amplifier circuit or bridge circuit and MTS101 board. Seven kinds of agents are defined for the structural health monitoring system. A distributed health monitoring architecture based on the defined agents is proposed. Finally, a composite structural health monitoring system based on a Mica wireless platform and multi-agent technology is developed to evaluate the efficacy of the new technology. The developed system can successfully monitor the concentrated load position or a loose bolt position.

Evaluation of Multi-agent Architecture for Structural Damage Detection and Location

“…Most applications of MAS are focused on solving distributed problems. Data distribution can be done more efficiently by a multi-agent architecture than a sensor network [20]. Concurrent task execution is a multi-agent architecture characteristic used to improve efficiency in distributed systems [21].…”

Estado del arte en monitorización de salud estructural: Un enfoque basado en agentes inteligentes

“…sin embargo, se han planteado varias alternativas a este tipo de coordinación, debido a que según Yuan, et al [5], un sistema centralizado posee menos velocidad, confiabilidad y diversidad de funciones que un sistema distribuido.…”

“…Yuan, et al [5], explican una tecnología de monitorización paralela basada en redes de sensores inalámbricos y arquitecturas multiagentes para grandes estructuras. la idea principal es utilizar la red de sensores inalámbricos inteligentes como agentes inteligentes individuales y programar la arquitectura multiagente para realizar todo el trabajo ya que de esta manera, se descentraliza la monitorización y se mejora la confiabilidad, velocidad, flexibilidad y funciones de todo el sistema, a la vez que se reduce peso y costo de cableado, debido al uso de tecnología inalámbrica.…”

“…también deben poseer las técnicas de detección de daños incorporadas, lo mismo que un sistema de alerta en caso de una falla de energía y una base de datos que permita revisar los antecedentes de cualquier falla [3] [4]. los agentes inteligentes son algoritmos que pueden proveer un sistema descentralizado, automático y autónomo, con operación remota y a la vez realizar sHm en línea [5]. el reto de esta técnica es decidir adecuadamente sobre variables tales como el tipo de interconexión, orden jerárquico, tipo de agentes para utilizar, la conexión física entre los agentes, su función especifica, entre otros, de tal manera que su aplicación resulte efectiva [6].…”

Wireless Power Transmission to a Buried Sensor in Concrete

“…Currently, the health monitoring of infrastructures is done by expensive and labor-intensive procedures such as spot checking [1] and ground penetrating radar (GPR) [2]. An alternative is to use distributed wireless sensors to perform structural health monitoring [3]- [5]. Researchers have also proposed the use of wireless embeddable sensors for infrastructure health monitoring [6], [7].…”