Wireless Interrogation of Instrumented Structures

Within the past few years a number of structures have had various types of sensors either embedded into them or surface attached onto them. Regardless of the sensor type (electrical, chemical, fiber optic, etc) the measurement has, almost exclusively, entailed somehow connecting a data acquisition system to the sensor, or network of sensors. Usually this has meant developing some reasonable method of running wires or optical fibers throughout the structure. The developments in secure, inexpensive wireless communication systems provides a method of reducing, if not eliminating, the cabling burden for instrumenting a large civil structure. Wireless communication schemes applicable to this task, represented by components meeting standards 802.11 and P1451.x, as well as Bluetooth, may be configured in such a way as to provide a seamless path for acquiring the sensors' readings and (potentially) even placing them on an automated Website. These standards, as well as realistic applications of interrogating embedded sensors, are presented.