Advanced Structural Health Monitoring based on Collective Intelligence

本课题的研究目标是开发一种智能结构健康监测系统，用于土木工程，特别是公路桥梁结构系统的连续实时监测和自主安全评估。基于一种新颖的科学方法，将无线传感器网络与多智能体技术相结合，建立一种监测策略。一方面，被视为自主硬件代理的无线传感节点将嵌入到观察到的结构中。这些传感器负责收集、处理和协同分析结构和环境数据。另一方面，连接到无线传感器网络的交互软件代理代表自包含的软件实体将位于不同的计算机上。这些智能体之间的联系形成了一个分布式的多智能体系统，通过独立处理关键的监测任务，如永久数据存储、自主损伤检测和利用计算力学的基于模型的安全评估，为相关的人类专家提供支持。作为拟议研究项目的核心，单个（微观）代理行为将与全局（宏观）系统行为相互关联。因此，可以实现集体智能群体行为，这在现代计算机科学中被称为涌现（“整体大于部分之和”）。因此，两个重要的主题被处理，涉及(i)观察到的工程结构和（ii）紧急监测系统：获得对土木工程结构复杂行为的新见解，并通过集体智慧从整体上发现紧急结构的一致性；通过调用监测系统内的紧急属性来创建全面的系统自组织和容错系统行为。拟议的监测系统最终将安装在一座公路桥梁上进行实地试验，预计将提供稳定、实用和成本效益高的监测。估计结果将对结构健康监测作出重大贡献，并推广经济监测概念。

Goal of the research project is to develop an intelligent structural health monitoring system for continuous real-time monitoring and autonomous safety assessment of structural systems in civil engineering, in particular highway bridges. Based on a novel scientific methodology, a monitoring strategy will be established couplingwireless sensor networks andmulti-agent technology.On the one hand, wireless sensing nodes, seen as autonomous hardware agents, are to be embedded in the observed structure. These sensors are responsible for collecting, processing and collaboratively analyzing structural as well as environmental data. On the other hand, connected to the wireless sensor network interacting software agents representing self-contained software entities are to be situated on different computers. The linkages of such agents form a distributed multi-agent system which supports the involved human experts by processing crucial monitoring tasks independently, such as permanent data storage, autonomous damage detection and model-based safety assessment utilizing computational mechanics.As a nucleus of the proposed research project, single (microscopic) agent behavior will be interconnected to a global (macroscopic) system behavior. As a result, collective intelligent group behavior can be achieved that is designated as emergence in modern computer science (“The whole is greater than the sum of its parts”). Accordingly, two important subjects are addressed, concerning (i) the observed engineering structure and (ii) the emergent monitoring system:to gain novel insights into the complex behavior of civil engineering structures and to discover emergent structural coherences holistically by means of collective intelligenceto create comprehensive system self-organization and fault-tolerant system behavior by evoking emergent properties within the monitoring systemIn total, the proposed monitoring system, which will finally be mounted on a highway bridge for field tests, is assumed to provide a stable, practical and cost-efficient monitoring. The estimated outcome is to make a significant contribution to structural health monitoring and to promote economic monitoring concepts.