Augmented Reality-Enhanced Microwave-Based Wireless Monitoring System for Smart Coating Applications

The critical impact of coating wear on structural stability and safety has initiated extensive research in the development of real-time coating health monitoring systems for aircraft, naval vessels, and infrastructure. Among various developed systems, microwave-based systems have garnered significant interest for their real-time and remote operability but struggle with poor localization capabilities over large surfaces. This work presents and investigates the wear detection and localization capabilities of a smart coating system that leverages embedded microwave-based passive split ring resonator (SRR) sensors. The system performance is validated by observing its resonant response during the erosion of the coating through both mechanical and chemical erosion. Furthermore, the work examines the potential of the developed SRR array to localize the region of coating damage through artificial intelligence (AI)-based postprocessing techniques, enabling real-time wear localization over extensive surfaces including aircraft and pipelines. In addition, a cloud-based augmented reality (AR) system is integrated for out-of-sight monitoring of coating wear, thereby enhancing visual identification, ease of system data interpretation, and faster decision-making, promising their robust application in harsh industrial environments.