Advanced Structural Health Monitoring based on Collective Intelligence

该研究项目的目标是开发一种智能结构健康监测系统，用于对土木工程中的结构系统进行连续实时监测和自主安全评估，特别是公路桥梁。基于一种新的科学方法论，将无线传感器网络和多代理技术相结合，建立一种监测策略，一方面将无线传感节点视为自主的硬件代理，嵌入到被观测结构中。这些传感器负责收集、处理和协作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表示独立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、自主损伤检测和基于模型的安全评估，支持参与其中的人类专家，作为建议研究项目的核心，单个(微观)智能体行为将与全局(宏观)系统行为互联。因此，可以实现在现代计算机科学中被指定为涌现的集体智能群体行为(“整体大于其部分之和”)。因此，本文研究了两个重要的课题：(I)观测到的工程结构和(Ii)应急监测系统：通过集体智慧获得对土木工程结构复杂行为的新见解，并从整体上发现应急结构的一致性；通过激发监测系统中的应急特性来创建全面的系统自组织和容错系统行为。预计的结果是对结构健康监测作出重大贡献，并促进经济监测概念。

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.