Low Cost Internet of Things Platform for Structural Health Monitoring

Structural Health Monitoring, as an emerging discipline unifies different engineering disciplines such as civil engineering and systems/software engineering to monitor integrity of civil structures. Structural Health Monitoring can be employed for timely identification, detection and intensity of damages and weaknesses in civil structures such as dams, bridges and buildings due to weather, aging, and natural phenomena. In this paper, Internet of Things-based approach has been employed to design a low cost, reliable, secure and efficient Structural Health Monitoring system. The proposed system has integrated multiple sensors for different parameters such as vibration, tilt, shock, strain, temperature and humidity for monitoring structural health. Sensor readings are transmitted to an open source cloud platform for processing, storage and analysis. The proposed solution that is drive by Internet of Things platform was field tested on an indoor pedestrian steel bridge with high accuracy.