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，用于土木工程结构系统的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，将无线传感器网络与多智能体技术相结合，建立了一种监测策略，一方面，将无线传感器节点作为自主硬件智能体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表示自包含软件实体的交互软件代理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，该系统通过独立地处理关键的监测任务来支持相关的人类专家，例如永久数据存储、自主损伤检测和基于模型的安全评估。因此，集体智慧群体行为可以实现，这在现代计算机科学中被称为涌现（“整体大于其部分之和”）。因此，两个重要的主题得到解决，关于（i）所观察到的工程结构和（ii）紧急监测系统：获得新的见解到土木工程结构的复杂行为，并发现紧急结构coherently整体通过集体智慧，创造全面的系统自组织和容错系统的行为，通过唤起紧急属性内的监测systemIn总的来说，建议的监测系统，这将最终安装在一个公路桥梁进行现场测试，被认为是提供一个稳定的，实用的和成本效益的监测。预计结果将对结构健康监测做出重大贡献，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.