In-Network Algorithm for Passive Sensors in Structural Health Monitoring

Structural health monitoring (SHM) using wireless sensor networks (WSN) has become a popular implementation, due to low maintenance and installation costs. These networks commonly use a centralized approach and battery-powered sensors, leading to energy consumption limitations, in both the central unit and the sensors. Therefore, it is of interest to consider the use of passive sensors and distributed processing in the network. In this letter, we present a distributed algorithm for SHM using wireless passive sensor networks (WPSNs) that allows any passive sensor in the network to obtain the distance to its neighbours via backscattering, and hence to detect and signal changes in the monitored structure.