Design and Implementation of Scalable Wireless Sensor Network for Structural Monitoring
Publication: Journal of Infrastructure Systems
Volume 14, Issue 1
Abstract
An integrated hardware and software system for a scalable wireless sensor network (WSN) is designed and developed for structural health monitoring. An accelerometer sensor node is designed, developed, and calibrated to meet the requirements for structural vibration monitoring and modal identification. The nodes have four channels of accelerometers in two directions and a microcontroller for processing and wireless communication in a multihop network. Software components have been implemented within the TinyOS operating system to provide a flexible software platform and scalable performance for structural health monitoring applications. These components include a protocol for reliable command dissemination through the network and data collection, and improvements to software components for data pipelining, jitter control, and high-frequency sampling. The prototype WSN was deployed on a long-span bridge with 64 nodes. The data acquired from the testbed were used to examine the scalability of the network and the data quality. Robust and scalable performance was demonstrated even with a large number of hops required for communication. The results showed that the WSN provides spatially dense and accurate ambient vibration data for identifying vibration modes of a bridge.
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Acknowledgments
This paper reflects the advice and guidance of Professor James Demmel and Professor Steven Glaser, who participated and supported the research. The writers provide special thanks to the staff and management of Golden Gate Bridge District, in particular Dennis Mulligan and Jerry Kao, for their close cooperation in every step of the project. Jorge Lee provided extraordinary help in the deployment, which made this project possible. Thanks to Tom Oberheim who helped design and develop the sensor board. This research is supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. NSFEIA-0122599 and by the Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society (CITRIS) at the University of California, Berkeley.
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Infrastructure Systems
Volume 14 • Issue 1 • March 2008
Pages: 89 - 101
Copyright
© 2008 ASCE.
History
Received: Apr 9, 2007
Accepted: Jun 8, 2007
Published online: Mar 1, 2008
Published in print: Mar 2008
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