Smart Infrastructure: Wireless sensor network system for condition assessment and monitoring of infrastructure

土木工程师在21世纪世纪面临的最大挑战之一是对老化基础设施的管理。这一点在世界各地主要城市地下和上方的隧道、管道和桥梁网络中表现得最为明显。这些基础设施大部分是在半个多世纪前建造的，有广泛的证据表明其状况恶化。隧道，特别是旧隧道，容易受到邻近建筑工程的影响，例如打桩工程、深层挖掘工程及其他隧道建筑工程。过度泄漏和管道爆裂是经常发生的，通常是意料之外的。重要的是，当地下结构被火车使用时或由于其他物理限制，它们通常不能被检查。旧基础设施的脆弱性也对拥挤的城市环境中的新建筑提出了挑战。人们对这种基础设施的长期性能知之甚少。这些不确定性和安全对用户和消费者的重要性促使最近的研究项目的启动，调查损害检测和决策的前景和使用新材料来减轻损害。光纤传感器和微机电传感器（MEMS）等创新传感器的发展进步提供了有趣的可能性，可以从根本上改变现有的状态评估和监测方法的基本模式。未来的监控系统无疑将包括无线传感器网络（WSN），并将围绕自主节点的功能进行设计。网络中的每个节点将把特定的传感能力与通信、数据处理和电源集成在一起。因此，本提案的目的是展示如何将大量传感器集成到大型工程系统中，以提高性能并延长基础设施的使用寿命，同时不断评估和管理不确定性和风险。该提案是剑桥大学和伦敦帝国理工学院之间的联合项目，包括一个综合研究计划，以评估和开发原型无线传感器网络系统。该提案的主要目标是将大规模工程基础设施建模方面的进展与无线传感器网络方面的进展联系起来，并开发一种低成本的智能传感环境，用于监测老化的公共基础设施。将详细研究三个应用领域：（i）监测供水和下水道系统，（ii）监测隧道和（iii）监测桥梁。监控系统的复杂性需要探索以下研究领域：传感器系统，无线通信，自主系统，信息管理，编程和设计工具，信任安全和隐私，系统理论，人为因素和社会问题。现场试验将与伦敦地铁有限公司进行，泰晤士水务、公路局和亨伯桥。英特尔公司将为该项目提供试验硬件支持。

One of the greatest challenges facing civil engineers in the 21st century is the stewardship of ageing infrastructure. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the networks of tunnels, pipelines and bridges that lie beneath and above the major cities around the world. Much of this infrastructure was constructed more than half a century ago and there is widespread evidence of its deterioration. Tunnels, particularly old ones, are prone to being influenced by activities such as adjacent construction, for instance piling, deep excavations and other tunnel construction. Excessive leakage and pipe bursts are frequent and usually unanticipated. Importantly, underground structures often cannot be inspected when they are being used by trains or due to other physical constraints. The fragility of old infrastructure also presents a challenge for new construction in congested urban environments. Little is known of the long-term performance of such infrastructure. These uncertainties and the importance of safety to users and consumers prompted the initiation of recent research projects investigating the prospect of damage detection and decision making and the use of novel materials to mitigate damage. Advances in the development of innovative sensors such as fibre optic sensors and micro electrical mechanical sensors (MEMS) offer intriguing possibilities that can radically alter the paradigms underlying existing methods of condition assessment and monitoring. Future monitoring systems will undoubtedly comprise Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) and will be designed around the capabilities of autonomous nodes. Each node in the network will integrate specific sensing capabilities with communication, data processing and power supply. It is therefore the objective of this proposal to demonstrate how large numbers of sensors can be integrated into large-scale engineering systems to improve performance and extend the lifetime of infrastructure, while continuously evaluating and managing uncertainties and risks. This proposal is a joint project between the University of Cambridge and Imperial College London and comprises an integrated research program to evaluate and develop prototype WSN systems. The main objectives of this proposal are to bridge advances in modelling large-scale engineering infrastructure with advances in wireless sensor networks and to develop a low-cost smart sensing environment for monitoring ageing public infrastructure. Three application domains will be studied in detail: (i) monitoring water supply and sewer systems and (ii) monitoring tunnels and (iii) monitoring bridges. The complexity of the monitoring system requires the following research areas to be explored : sensor systems, wireless communications, autonomous systems, information management, programming and design tools, trust security and privacy, systems theory, human factors and social issues. Field trials will be carried out with London Underground Ltd., Thames Water, Highways Agency and Humber Bridge. Intel Corporation will support the project with hardware for the trials.