Self-Contained Sensor Skin for Highway Bridge Monitoring

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Abstract0529208Hoon SohnCarnegie Mellon UniversityThe proposed research goal is to develop the fundamental concepts, theoretical frameworks and implementation techniques for a self-contained sensor skin in the context of bridge structural safety monitoring. The proposed sensor skin will be composed of (1) active sensing patches for damage diagnosis, (2) RF transceivers for wireless data transmission, (3) embedded planar spirals for contact-less power delivery, and (4) unmanned robots for performing inspection routines. The proposed sensor skin will be designed so that it does not require any batteries nor have any wires for power delivery and data transmission. Therefore, the sensor skin patch can be readily mounted to the surface of a bridge structure in a noninvasive manner. Once data are retrieved at the inspection robot unit, concepts and methodologies will be developed so that damage diagnosis can be autonomously performed without relying on prior reference data in the presence of operational and environmental variations that bridges encounter. Finally, realistic environmental and operational conditions that in-service bridges are subject to will be explicitly considered through a field test of a bridge structure. The educational objective is to integrate the results of the sensor and NDT research with the educational experiences of students through integration of technology to curriculum, minority student recruitment and outreach activities.This project is supported under the sensor initiative NSF 05-526.