A multi-hop wireless sensor system for bridge health monitoring

This paper introduces a multi-hopped wireless sensor network for remote bridge health monitoring, including system architecture, transmission protocol, data acquiring and processing. This system based on detecting the three-dimension vibration or acceleration data of the bridge, which data is caused by external impacts such as a car or a truck. Comparing with traditional monitoring systems, this bridge health monitoring system has advantages in human-free, long-life, and real-time responses. Additionally, to compare data of a damaged bridge and a healthy one, an experiment of making artificial damage to a bridge is carried out with consent of related departments. Moreover, this system can be applied in any form of bridges. In the future, it is even expected to be applied in other kind of buildings more than bridges.