University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Decentralized Strategies for Monitoring Structures using Wireless Smart Sensor Networks

Sim, Sung-Han; Spencer, Billie F., Jr.

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/14280

Description

Title
Decentralized Strategies for Monitoring Structures using Wireless Smart Sensor Networks
Author(s)
  • Sim, Sung-Han
  • Spencer, Billie F., Jr.
Issue Date
2009-11
Keyword(s)
  • structural health monitoring
  • wireless smart sensor
  • wireless smart sensor network
  • decentralized processing
  • ISHMP Services Toolsuite
  • Imote2
Abstract
Driven by the needs to address problems with our rapidly aging civil infrastructure, structural health monitoring (SHM) has arisen as an important tool to improve maintenance and operation. Introduced as a promising alternative to the traditional wired sensors, wireless smart sensors offer unique features (low cost, wireless communication, onboard computation, and small size) that enable deployment of dense array of sensors essential for assessing structural damage. The centralized data collection approach, which the wired sensor system commonly employs, is not suitable to wireless smart sensor networks (WSSNs) due to limitations in the wireless communication; decentralized data aggregation and processing is required in the WSSNs. Rather than collecting uncondensed raw sensor data at a centralized location, in-network data processing, made possible by the onboard computational capability of smart sensors, is utilized to condense the raw data and extract meaningful information. By transferring only the condensed data to the centralized location, data communication over the wireless links can be greatly reduced. Decentralized data aggregation approaches can be placed in two broad categories: (a) independent processing (each node processes sensor data independently), and (b) coordinated processing (sensor nodes collaborate to process sensor data by sharing information). This report outlines the implementation of both decentralized data aggregation approaches for the WSSNs employing Crossbow’s Imote2 smart sensor platform. Design considerations for developing WSSN applications are described herein, including network-wide flow and timing, fault-tolerant feature, and network topology to account for the decentralized data aggregation. WSSN applications introduced in this report can be downloaded at the Illinois SHM Project website (http://shm.cs.uiuc.edu).
Publisher
Newmark Structural Engineering Laboratory. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Series/Report Name or Number
Newmark Structural Engineering Laboratory Report Series 019
ISSN
1940-9826
Type of Resource
text
Language
en
Permalink
http://hdl.handle.net/2142/14280
Copyright and License Information
Copyright held by the authors. All rights reserved.

Owning Collections

Newmark Structural Laboratory Report Series (NSEL Report Series ISSN 1940-9826) PRIMARY
Report series highlights research conducted at the Newmark Structural Engineering Laboratory