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Recent Advances in Wireless Smart Sensors for Multi-scale Monitoring and

Control of Civil Infrastructure

Article  in  Journal of Civil Structural Health Monitoring · May 2015

DOI: 10.1007/s13349-015-0111-1

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J Civil Struct Health Monit
DOI 10.1007/s13349-015-0111-1

ORIGINAL PAPER

Recent advances in wireless smart sensors for multi-scale

monitoring and control of civil infrastructure
Billie F. Spencer Jr.1 • Hongki Jo2 • Kirill A. Mechitov3 • Jian Li4 •
Sung-Han Sim5 • Robin E. Kim1 • Soojin Cho5 • Lauren E. Linderman6 •

Parya Moinzadeh7 • Ryan K. Giles8 • Gul Agha3

Received: 21 October 2014 / Accepted: 8 April 2015

Ó Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2015

Abstract While much of the technology associated with successful implementations at full-scale for SHM of the 2nd
wireless smart sensors (WSS) has been available for over a Jindo Bridge in South Korea and the Government Bridge at
decade, only a limited number of full-scale implementa- the Rock Island Arsenal in Illinois, USA, as well as for
tions have been realized for civil infrastructure, primarily wireless control of a lab-scale structure are presented.
due to the lack of critical hardware and software elements.
Using the Imote2, a flexible WSS framework has been de- Keywords Structural health monitoring
Wireless smart
veloped for full-scale, autonomous structural health sensors
Full-scale bridge implementations
Service-
monitoring (SHM) that integrates the necessary software oriented architecture
and hardware elements, while addressing key implementa-
tion requirements for civil infrastructure. This paper dis-
cusses the recent advances in the development of this WSS 1 Introduction
framework and extensions to structural control. Their
The declining condition and performance of civil infras-
tructure, as well as its potential vulnerabilities to natural
& Billie F. Spencer Jr.
bfs@illinois.edu hazards, are critical issues in both the US and most indus-
trialized nations. Accordingly, the efforts for maintaining
1
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, and enhancing such civil systems can consume a significant
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, portion of a nation’s capital investment. For example, the
IL 61801, USA
U.S. Department of Transportation [46] has reported that
2
Department of Civil Engineering and Engineering $46.6 billion was used for rehabilitating highways and
Mechanics, The University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721,
USA
bridges and $11.0 billion for system enhancements in 2008;
3
this expenditure amounts to about 63.2 % of the total $91.1
Department of Computer Science, University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, USA
billion capital outlay by all levels of government; on the
4
other hand, only $33.6 billion (36.8 %) was used for system
Department of Civil, Environmental and Architectural
Engineering, The University of Kansas, Lawrence,
expansion. Improving and modernizing infrastructure is an
KS 66045, USA important part of current government policy on ensuring
5
School of Urban and Environmental Engineering, UNIST,
homeland security and maintaining economic vitality.
Ulsan 689-798, South Korea The ability to assess the performance of such civil in-
6
Department of Civil, Environmental, and Geo-Engineering,
frastructure in a timely manner and detect damage at an early
University of Minnesota Twin Cities, Minneapolis, state can potentially reduce the cost, as well as the downtime
MN 55455, USA associated with repairing or rehabilitating systems, all while
7
Google, Kirkland, WA 98033, USA providing increased public safety. Visual inspection has
8 been a current practice in monitoring the safety of civil in-
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Civil Engineering
Program, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY 11794, frastructure. However, high cost often limits the use of visual
USA inspection to infrequent occurrences. Moreover, the Federal

123

Highway Administration (FHWA) in the US reported sig-
nificant variability in the ratings assigned by a cohort of
highly trained inspectors [30]. As a result, failure of bridges
in the US is not as rare of an event as the public may believe.
For example, between 1989 and 2000, a total of 134 bridges
are reported to have partially or totally collapsed in the US
due to triggering events (e.g., earthquake or vehicle colli-
sion), design and construction error, and undetected struc-
tural deterioration (e.g., scour, fatigue) [50]. Visual
inspection would benefit by supplementing it with con-
tinuous, autonomous, impartial, data driven monitoring.
Structural health monitoring that combines various
sensing technologies with embedded measurements pro-
vides an essential tool for assessing the status of structures.
Moreover, the principles of SHM and its application will
aid not only in the inspection of existing infrastructure, but
allow rapid assessment on the safety of emergency fa-
cilities and evacuation routes, including bridges and high-
ways, after natural disasters. Continuous and autonomous
structural health monitoring can facilitate these goals.
Conventional systems based on wired sensors and data
acquisition systems have long been the standard for SHM;
however, realizations of such wired systems are limited by
high cost, as structures become larger and more complex,
scalability is essential. For example, the total cost of the
monitoring system on the Bill Emerson Memorial Bridge
in Cape Girardeau, Missouri is approximately $1.3 million
for 86 accelerometers, which makes the average installed
cost per sensor a little more than $15,000; this cost is not
atypical of today’s wired SHM systems [3]. Considering
that a large portion of the cost results from the cabling
between the sensors and the data acquisition system,
wireless sensors are an attractive alternative to such wired
systems, especially for large civil structures, offering the
potential for low-cost, continuous, and reliable SHM.
While wireless sensors have been commercially avail-
able for over a decade, only a limited number of full-scale
implementations have been realized, primarily due to the
lack of critical hardware and software elements. An ex-
ample of one such critical issue is network scalability. A
wireless sensor network implemented on the Golden Gate
Bridge in 2008 took approximately 10 h to collect 80 s of
data (sampled at 1000 Hz) from 56 sensor nodes to a
central location [36]. To assist in dealing with the large
amount of data generated by a monitoring system, on-board
processing can be performed locally on the sensor’s em-
bedded microprocessor. This strategy is a radical departure
from the conventional approach to monitoring structures.
This paper discusses recent advances in the development
of a low-cost, wireless smart sensor framework for con-
tinuous and reliable structural health monitoring, as well as
its successful deployment at full scale on the 2nd Jindo
Bridge in South Korea and Rock Island Government
123
J Civil Struct Health Monit
Bridge in Illinois. In addition, efforts toward structural
control applications of the framework are introduced, fo-
cusing on the real-time performance improvements of
hardware and software developed herein. The wireless
SHM system on the Jindo Bridge constitutes the largest
deployment of a wireless smart sensor network (WSSN) for
long-term monitoring civil infrastructure, and the wireless
SHM system on the Rock Island Bridge exhibits a great
compensation of existing, but incomplete, wired SHM
system. These wireless SHM examples, as well as the lab-
scale implementation for wireless feedback control,
demonstrate the tremendous potential of this technology.
2 Wireless smart sensors for SHM
Wireless smart sensors differ from traditional wired sensors
in significant ways. Each sensor has an on-board micro-
processor that can be used for digital signal processing,
self-diagnosis, self-calibration, self-identification, and self-
adaptation functions. Furthermore, all WSS platforms are
employed with wireless communication technology.
Numerous WSS platforms have been developed in acade-
mia and industry [28], and they have experienced sub-
stantial progress through interdisciplinary research efforts
to address issues in sensors, networks, and application-
specific algorithms.
The Imote2 (see Fig. 1), developed by Intel Research, is
a wireless sensor platform designed for data-intensive ap-
plications such as SHM, and thus selected for this research.
The Imote2 includes a high-performance X-scale processor
(PXA27x), whose clock speed can be varied according to
application demands and power management, ranging from
13 to 416 MHz. It has 256 K SRAM, 32 MB FLASH, and
32 MB SDRAM, which enables the on-board computations
required for data-intensive applications, as well as storage
of long-term measurements. Sensing with the Imote2 is
facilitated by sensor board(s) stacked on the Imote2 via two
advanced board-to-board connectors.
This section briefly reports the previous achievements
using the Imote2 for SHM, in terms of both hardware and
software.
2.1 Enabling hardware for SHM
Intel provided a reference Basic Sensor Board (ITS400)
that can interface with the Imote2. Although the ITS400
can measure 3-axes of acceleration, light (TSL2561),
temperature, and relative humidity (SHTx), its application
to SHM has been limited due to low (12-bit) analog-to-
digital conversion (ADC) fidelity, poor flexibility in se-
lecting sampling rate, inconsistent sampling rate, and
inadequate anti-aliasing filters [31].
J Civil Struct Health Monit
Fig. 1 Imote2: top (left), right (middle), and ITS400 board stacked on Imote2 (right)
Fig. 2 SHM-A board: perspective (left), top (middle), and bottom (right)
To address the shortcomings of the ITS400 sensor board,
a versatile accelerometer sensor board, designated SHM-A
(see Fig. 2), was developed for SHM applications of civil
infrastructure [38]. The key component of the SHM-A
board is the 16-bit 4-channel QuickFilter ADC (QF4A512)
that provides the anti-aliasing filter, programmable gain
amplifier (PGA), user-selectable sampling rates and cus-
tomizable digital FIR filters. The SMH-A board contains the
ST Microelectronics LIS344ALH accelerometer for 3-axis
acceleration sensing (ranging ±2 g), in addition to the
Sensirion STH11 for temperature and humidity measure-
ment, and the TAOS 2561 for light intensity sensing.
2.2 Enabling software for SHM
SHM applications for WSSNs require complex program-
ming, ranging from network functionality to embedded al-
gorithm implementation. Software development is made
very difficult by the fact that many smart sensor platforms
are employed with their own special-purpose operating
systems out of common programming environments. Fur-
thermore, the extensive expertise required for developing
SHM applications has severely limited the use of smart
sensing technology for monitoring civil infrastructure. For
example, application development on the Imote2 requires
knowledge and expertise on TinyOS, an operating system of
the Imote2 developed by University of California at
Berkeley, and its associated programming language nesC
[22].
2.2.1 Illinois SHM services toolsuite
To address the complexity associated with creating WSSN
applications, a software framework has been developed
based on the design principles of Service Oriented Archi-
tecture. The software framework aims to provide con-
tinuous and reliable monitoring of civil infrastructure using
a dense network of the Imote2 smart sensors and was de-
veloped under the Illinois Structural Health Monitoring
Project (ISHMP), a collaborative effort between re-
searchers in civil and environmental engineering and
computer science departments at the University of Illinois
at Urbana-Champaign. This framework provides a suite of
services, called the Illinois SHM Services Toolsuite, im-
plementing the key middleware infrastructure necessary to
provide high-quality sensor data and to reliably commu-
nicate it within the sensor network, as well as number of
commonly used numerical algorithms for SHM. Intended
to allow researchers and engineers to focus their attention
on the advancement of SHM approaches without the
headaches of low-level programming, the software is
available for public use at http://shm.cs.illinois.edu/
123

software.html. Some of the key foundation service modules
include: time synchronization (TimeSync1), reliable
wireless communication of both short messages and long
data records (ReliableComm), flexible network-wide
synchronized sensing service (SensingUnit), a service
that supports the reliable dissemination of network and
utility commands (RemoteCommand). Application ser-
vices provide the numerical algorithms for easy imple-
mentation of SHM applications include, but are not limited
to: correlation function estimation (CFE), Eigensystem
Realization Algorithm (ERA), Stochastic Subspace Identi-
fication (SSI), and Stochastic Damage Locating Vector
method (SDLV). More detailed information about the
software can also be found in Rice and Spencer [38], Rice
et al. [39], and Sim and Spencer [41].
2.2.2 Autonomous network operation
Continuous and autonomous operation is another key issue
in developing a large-scale WSSN for SHM. One of the
services in the Illinois SHM Services Toolsuite, called
AutoMonitor,2 was designed to facilitate autonomous
operation of all of the necessary functions in a full-scale
WSSN deployment. To minimize power usage in the
WSSN, AutoMonitor incorporates with power-efficient
management services for sensor nodes, called Snoo-
zeAlarm and ThresholdSentry. The Imote2 allows
the processor to be put into a sleep mode with minimal
power consumption by keeping only the real-time clock
powered on. The SnoozeAlarm service implements low-
power listening (LPL) functionality: it places sensor nodes
into a deep-sleep state (for 10 s by default), waking peri-
odically for a brief time (0.6–0.75 s by default) to listen for
beacon signals sent from the gateway node; should a signal
be heard, the node becomes fully active [38]. To monitor
activities in the network, a threshold triggering strategy is
utilized. ThresholdSentry service runs on several
designated sentry nodes periodically execute sentry task,
i.e., collecting data for given period of time and checking if
the threshold value is exceeded. If this threshold is ex-
ceeded, the sentry nodes send notification to the gateway
node, which subsequently wakes up the entire network and
initiates designated network-wide sensing tasks. The
carefully designed scheduler embodied in AutoMonitor
enables power-efficient and continuous management of the
WSSN, as well as a combined operation of the other
functionalities such as decentralized analysis, sensor di-
agnosis, and multi-hop communications [38].
1 The Ad hoc On-demand Distance Vector (AODV)
A courier new font indicates the name of a service in the Illinois
SHM Services Toolsuite.
2
A consolas font indicates the name of an application in the
Illinois SHM Services Toolsuite.
123
J Civil Struct Health Monit
2.2.3 Energy harvesting for sustainable operation
Availability of a sustainable power supply is one of the
biggest concerns when large numbers of wireless sensors
are distributed in the field. Though the battery life of a
WSS node can be prolonged by efficient power manage-
ment software, data compression, and in-network pro-
cessing, the use of ordinary batteries still requires regular
replacement. The Imote2 has a power management inte-
grated circuit (PMIC) that facilitates sustainable energy
harvesting. The PMIC interfaces directly with a recharge-
able battery pack and handles unregulated power from
energy harvesters up to 10 V. The PMIC charger ma-
nipulates voltage and current from energy sources for faster
and more stable charging at the rechargeable battery.
Among various available energy sources, solar energy
appears to be the best sustainable power source sufficient to
reliably operate Imote2s [29]. Validation of solar energy
harvesting has been successfully carried out in the Jindo
Bridge deployment using solar panels [SCM-3.3W from
SolarCenter (9 V–370 mA)] and lithium-polymer
rechargeable batteries (the Ainsys 3.7 V–10,000 mAh; [16,
17]). In addition, a prototype wind turbine (HR-W35V,
Hankukrelay) can be used to power Imote2 in a windy area
such as the Jindo Bridge [35] (Fig. 3).
To enable energy harvesting during the SnoozeAlarm
mode, a software service called ChargerControl, is
additionally developed [29]. Enabling ChargerCon-
trol, the Imote2 determines whether it will continue in
sleep mode or initiate charging mode by assessing the
battery voltage and charging current. If the battery voltage
is low and the charging current is sufficient, the Imote2 will
start charging until the battery voltage achieves the target
value of 4.2 V.
2.2.4 Multi-hop communication
Large-scale deployment of a WSSN gives rise to the need
for multi-hop communication to provide adequate wireless
coverage. The limited radio range of general WSS using
IEEE802.11 or IEEE802.15 wireless protocols [14], com-
bined with the impact of various environmental effects on
radio transmission, makes direct communication between
all nodes impractical. On the other hand, an important re-
quirement of any communication scheme is data transfer
reliability. Multi-hop communication, together with ap-
propriate packet-loss compensation, addresses these issues
by allowing sensors to cooperate to deliver data reliably
between nodes outside of direct communication range.
protocol is a widely used routing method to discover op-
timal routes for multi-hop communication [37]. Figure 4
illustrates the AODV method. The route request (RREQ)
J Civil Struct Health Monit
Fig. 3 Rechargeable battery (middle) and energy harvesters: solar panel (left) and wind turbine (right)
Fig. 4 Example of AODV route discovery [33]
message initiated from a source node is rebroadcasted by
neighbor nodes until it reaches the destination node. Then,
a route reply (RREP) message originating at the destination
or intermediate nodes knowing a path to the destination is
sent back to the source node, establishing the route in the
reverse order. Among the received routes, the one with the
minimum hop count is selected.
The modified AODV protocol, termed General Purpose
Multi-hop (GPMH), is developed to support diverse data
flow patterns such as central data collection, dissemination,
as well as decentralized communication that are possible in
SHM applications [33]. The standard AODV protocol uses
periodic probe messages to update routing information
frequently between mobile nodes, which consumes sig-
nificant power. GPMH omits the periodic probe messages,
because sensor mobility is not an issue in the SHM system.
To reduce the delay caused by route formation, GPMH
does not regenerate route request (RREQ) messages when
route discovery is unsuccessful; instead, the task is handled
by the reliable data transfer service in the Illinois SHM
Services Toolsuite. GPMH employs an alternative to the
standard hop-count routing metric used for evaluating
different paths. The hop-count routing metric may lead to
construction of long-distance, unreliable links, which may
result in significant radio loss and increased power con-
sumption. The new metric uses a combination of the link
quality indicator (LQI) and received signal strength indi-
cator (RSSI), calculated by the radio upon packet recep-
tion. Additional details can be found in the next section and
in Nagayama et al. [33].
3 Recent advances for improved SHM and control
using WSS
Many recent hardware and software advances have been
achieved toward improved SHM of civil structures and
extension to structural control, including new develop-
ments of multi-metric sensor and control boards, decen-
tralized computing strategies, multi-hop communication
protocols, real-time streaming data transmission, and more
fault-tolerant features in the Illinois SHM Services Tool-
suite. These advances, detailed in this section, are expected
to increase the robustness of WSSNs, broaden the field of
application, and support comprehensive monitoring and
control of civil infrastructure.
3.1 Hardware improvements
3.1.1 Multi-metric sensor boards for SHM
3.1.1.1 High-sensitivity accelerometer board (SHM-H
board) A high-sensitivity sensor board (designated SHM-
H; see Fig. 5) has been developed for measuring low-level
ambient vibration (i.e., less than 1.0 mg), which is a
common phenomenon for large civil structures, such as
123

Fig. 5 SHM-H board: perspective (left), top (middle), bottom (right) [19]
Fig. 6 SHM-DAQ board: perspective (left), top (middle), and bottom (right)
high-rise buildings and long-span bridges [19]. The SHM-
H board employs a single-axis low-noise accelerometer
(Silicon Designs, SD1221-002L) having noise density of
5.0 lg/HHz for normal direction (i.e., z-axis), and the ST
Microelectronics LIS344ALH, same as the SHM-A board,
for tangential acceleration (i.e., x- and y-axis). The typical
RMS noise levels of the SHM-H board at 20 Hz bandwidth
are 0.05 mg (z-axis using SD1221), which is low enough to
measure the ambient vibration of most civil infrastructure,
and 0.3 mg (x- and y-axes using LIS344ALH). This high-
sensitivity sensor board is found to be exceptionally ef-
fective when used as a reference sensor for decentralized
data aggregation strategies employed in large WSSNs [19].
3.1.1.2 Data acquisition board (SHM-DAQ board) The
SHM-DAQ board (see Fig. 6), which is another Quickfil-
ter-based sensor board, opens all 4 channels of the ADC for
external analog inputs (0–5 V or -5 to 5 V range se-
lectable). The SHM-DAQ has terminal blocks (wire to
board) and advanced connectors (board to board) for direct
interface between external sensors or sensor boards. Digital
sensors using the I2C or SPI interface can also be accom-
modated in the same way. In addition, the SHM-DAQ
board provides various regulated power options (1.8, 3.3,
and 5.0 V) for external sensors. The SHM-DAQ board was
initially developed to accommodate a 3D ultra-sonic
anemometer for wind environment monitoring [18], but it
has been extended subsequently to interface with generic
analog and digital sensors.
123
J Civil Struct Health Monit
3.1.1.3 High-precision strain sensor board (SHM-S
board) Strain provides another important measure of a
structure’s behavior. A new strain sensor board for the
Imote2, designated SHM-S board (see Fig. 7), has been
developed which includes an autonomously controllable
Wheatstone bridge circuit. In the SHM-S board, the
Wheatstone bridge is precisely balanced prior to the am-
plification of the signal so that the ADC is not saturated due
to the amplified offset. To this end, digital potentiometers
are used, connected to the two arms of the Wheatstone
bridge in parallel, and autonomously controlled by soft-
ware services RemoteCommand, SHMSAutoBalance
in the Illinois SHM Services Toolsuite [20]. The SHM-S
board supports up to 2500 times signal amplification, re-
sulting in 0.3 le resolution below 20 Hz bandwidth, as
well as temperature compensation and on-board shunt
calibration capabilities. In addition, any analog signal from
other types of sensors can be amplified with this sensor
board, as long as the signal is in the range of the ADC. The
SHM-S board has been designed to be used with SHM-
DAQ or SHM-A board in combination, because the strain
board includes only signal conditioning circuits without the
ADC for the sake of simplicity.
3.1.1.4 Wind pressure sensor board (SHM-P board) The
measurement of wind pressure occurring at the surface of
bridges or buildings provides the distribution of wind for-
ces surrounding the structures. Such measurement has
generally been carried out through wind tunnel tests
J Civil Struct Health Monit
Fig. 7 SHM-S board: top (left), stacked on SHM-A (middle), and stacked on SHM-DAQ (right) [20]
Fig. 8 SHM-P board: bottom
(left), and stacked on SHM-
DAQ (right)
simulating the wind environment of the structure [34]. To
enable direct wind pressure measurement on full-scale
structures along with wireless smart sensor, a sensor board
to measure wind pressure (SHM-P board) has been devel-
oped under the ISHMP. The SHM-P board provides wind
pressure measurements using the AMSYS 5812 high-pre-
cision analog pressure sensor and appropriate signal con-
ditioning for quality pressure measurement. This board is a
simplified sensor board without an ADC, as the SHM-S
board is; it can be stacked on the SHM-DAQ board to be
compatible with the Imote2 as shown in Fig. 8.
3.1.1.5 24-bit data acquisition board (SHM-DAQ24
board) Many issues in measuring low-level ambient vi-
brations using existing wireless smart sensors are caused by
the limited resolution of the ADC on existing sensor
boards. The use of 24-bits ADC can resolve most of these
concerns. However, such 24-bits ADC was not efficient to
be used in wireless sensing system due to the high cost and
high power consumption. Recent noise shaping technology
using delta-sigma modulation [2] has significantly en-
hanced the ADC. Unlike most quantizers, the delta-sigma
modulator includes an integrator before the actual com-
parator process, which consequently acts as a high-pass
filter for the quantization noise [48], pushing the noise to
higher-frequency area (see Fig. 9). Therefore, a much
Fig. 9 Principle of delta-sigma analog-to-digital conversion [48]
lower rate of oversampling is required to obtain the level of
quantization power for 24-bits, resulting in lower-cost and
lower-power 24-bit ADCs.
A new 24-bit data acquisition board for Imote2 has been
developed, employing the Texas Instruments (TI)
ADS1274 delta-sigma type 24-bit ADC. In addition to the
ADS1274, a 27 MHz crystal oscillator (CTS CB3LV-5I-
27M0000) is used as the master clock of the ADS1274. The
accuracy in the sampling rate of the output signal depends
on the accuracy of the external crystal, of which frequency
stability is specified as ±25 ppm with this CTS crystal. A
voltage regulator (MAXIM 8878_5V) is used to provide a
clean 5 V power to the ADS1274. The other 1.8 and 3.0 V
power required for the ADS1274 are provided by Imote2
with its own regulator. For the reference voltage to be used
in the comparator process, which directly affects the ADC
performance, a low-noise low-drift voltage reference (TI
REF5025) is used. Additional flip-flop (TI
123

SN74LVC2G74) and single inverter gate (TI
SN74LVC1G04) components are used to re-clock the data
output to accurately interface with SPI of Imote2, which
can potentially reduce the possible timing errors between
the data output from the ADC and SPI clock of the Imote2.
As the ADS1274 provides a fixed data rate of 10,574 Hz
for the low-speed mode (lowest power consumption,
7 mW/ch), additional real-time digital filtering and
decimation software have been designed to obtain the de-
sired data rate as well as better effective number of bits
(ENOB) using the Illinois SHM Services Toolsuite. Fig-
ure 10 shows the SHM-DAQ24 board and a block diagram
of the on-board FIR filtering and decimation process.
3.1.2 Structural control boards
3.1.2.1 SAR-type data acquisition board (SHM-SAR
board) While the QuickFilter QF4A512 and TI ADS1274
ADCs, described above with SHM boards, are well-suited
for SHM applications where high-throughput and high-
resolution data acquisition is important, the pipeline ar-
chitecture of the QF4A512 and Delta-sigma modulation
technique of ADS1274 introduce inherent latency issues,
which is critical for structural control application. To
achieve low-latency data acquisition while maintaining
good resolution, the SHM-SAR board has been developed
around a SAR-type ADC. A Successive Approximation
Resister (SAR) type ADC is a single-shot converter that
completes the conversion within one sampling interval.
The SHM-SAR board, shown in Fig. 11, offers an on-board
3-axis MEMS accelerometer or four channels of analog
input, which can be selected with a switch. At an Imote2
processor speed of 416 MHz, the maximum rate for sam-
pling a single channel or multiple channels are 3700 and
2700 Hz, respectively. The RMS noise floor is 2.9 mg
when unfiltered, but can be limited to 1.8 mg with a simple
analog filter [27]. Overall, the latency due to the SHM-
SAR is 200 ls, which is significantly lower than over-
sampling type architectures. Thus, the latency due to the
data- acquisition hardware alone can be neglected.
Signal
41.2 Hz ~ 10,547 Hz
Output
Fig. 10 SHM-DAQ24 board (left) and block diagram of on-board FIR filtering and decimation process (right)
123
J Civil Struct Health Monit
3.1.2.2 DAC board A digital-to-analog converter (DAC)
in combination with a wireless smart sensor can enable
both sensing and actuation in the WSSN, such as structural
control or active sensing [49]. The SHM-D2A board (see
Fig. 12) has a DAC to support output of analog signals.
The four channels of digital inputs delivered from the I2C
interface of the Imote2 are converted to external analog
outputs ranging 0–2.5 V using the TI-DAC8565. The TI-
DAC8565 offers comparable performance to the SHM-
SAR, so no performance is lost with the SHM-D2A. This
DAC functionality provides an effective tool for wireless
control.
3.2 Software improvements
3.2.1 Effective network power management
As effective management of power consumption is critical
in the long-term and autonomous operation of the WSSNs,
substantial improvements have been made for (1) power
saving, (2) energy harvesting, and (3) network power
monitoring. Essential improvements include:
3.2.1.1 Data storage in non-volatile memory Non-vola-
tile flash memory is available to store measured data sets.
This feature enables sensor nodes to sleep after data col-
lection without waiting for subsequent transmission to the
gateway node. The waiting time for each sensor node in-
creases proportionally to the network size, which causes
significant energy consumption in the large-scale WSSN.
The data in the flash memory does not go away due to the
sleep function, and data can then be retrieved when the
each sensor node is requested to wake up and send data
sequentially.
3.2.1.2 Leaf node-operated ThresholdSentry In the
previous approach, when the gateway node wants to wake
up the sentry nodes in multi-hop communication, it first
broadcasts wake-up messages to all sensor nodes in the
network, which are subsequently transmitted to sentry
ADS1274
Modulator
Digital FIR filter
(Oversampling, up
/decimaon
to 675KHz)
10,547 Hz
Digital FIR filter
/decimaon
Imote2
J Civil Struct Health Monit
Fig. 11 SHM-SAR board: top
(left) and bottom (right) [27]
Fig. 12 SHM-D2A board:
perspective (left) and bottom
(right) [26]
nodes. Then, the sensor nodes hearing the message stay
awake for multi-hop route establishment to the sentry
nodes, consuming too much energy while waiting for the
route to be established. In the current implementation, the
sentry tasks are scheduled from sentry nodes themselves,
which are autonomously checking the vibration threshold
periodically based on the parameters received from the
gateway and stored in flash memory at the beginning,
without the need to be woken up by gateway node every
time they perform the sentry task.
3.2.1.3 Long-term sleep mode If a sensor node has
relatively low battery power, the long-term sleep mode is
enabled to power off during, or after, sensing. Since the
Imote2 uses internal PMIC, it is impossible to rerun the
energy harvesting once a sensor node is turned off by in-
sufficient power supply. In the current implementation,
sensor nodes whose battery voltage is lower than a preset
threshold autonomously enter the long-term sleep mode
where only charging is performed in the sensor nodes.
Naturally, they are excluded from the measurement before
entering long-term sleep and integrated back into the net-
work again after the battery has recharged beyond another
preset threshold.
3.2.1.4 Autonomous monitoring of network power The
utility commands Vbat and ChargeStatus of the
Illinois SHM Services Toolsuite provide information about
power supply for the Imote2, such as battery voltage,
charging voltage, and current. AutoUtilsCommand
enables autonomous tracking of battery voltage and
charging status of the entire sensor network and is sched-
uled within AutoMonitor.
3.2.2 Reliable network operation
WSSNs can be exposed to various unexpected conditions
that can possibly cause the network to malfunction. To
minimize network malfunctions and to operate the network
more reliably, fault-tolerance features have been
implemented.
3.2.2.1 Unresponsive nodes With AutoMonitor, each
sensor node is requested to wake up when the WSSN starts
measurement. However, some sensor nodes, after they
notified the gateway node that they were awake at the
beginning, can become unresponsive due to low battery
power, casual radio communication block, or an unex-
pected hardware malfunction before or after sensing. In the
current implementation of the software, the radio response
is checked before data retrieval to avoid any unnecessary
waiting time and excessive power use. The unresponsive
nodes are set to be excluded in the network until it responds
again.
123

3.2.2.2 Autonomous resumption of Au-
toMonitor During the long-term operation, the Au-
toMonitor service running on the gateway node may
experience unexpected resets due to casual malfunctioning
or disconnection to the base station of the gateway node.
AutoMonitor is resumed after unexpected resets by
creating a checkpoint which saves into flash memory the
parameters defining the current state of AutoMonitor
after the completion of each scheduled task. If the gateway
node experiences an unexpected reset, the parameters
saved in flash memory are reloaded to restart Au-
toMonitor from the last saved checkpoint.
3.2.2.3 E-mail notification of structure and network
anomalies To cope with any anomalies in the WSSN,
such as outlying responses, unresponsive nodes, poor
wireless communication, and recharging inability, e-mail
notification service has been added. This e-mail notification
is based on parsing log messages from gateway node
during operation. If any anomalies are found in the log
messages, they are automatically forwarded to a predefined
group of individuals responsible to take proper actions.
This service has significantly contributed to debugging the
WSSN and developing fault-tolerance features.
3.2.3 Multi-hop communication with an advanced protocol
The initial development of a multi-hop network identified
multiple shortcomings and inadequacies of commonly used
protocols, such as AODV [37] and CTP [12], for data-
intensive applications needing reliable multi-hop commu-
nication under real-world deployment conditions including
sparse, predominantly poor-quality radio links and bursty
traffic patterns. In particular, the metrics used for link
quality estimation, such as ETX [8], are not capable of
quickly and accurately estimating end-to-end route quality
during short data bursts.
The empirical measurements collected during the first
deployment were used to identify critical factors affecting
the performance of multi-hop routing in data-intensive
WSSN applications and were employed in the design of an
improved multi-hop communication and reliable data
transfer protocol. As discussed in Sect. 2, the General
Purpose Multi-hop (GPMH) protocol is developed to sup-
port diverse data flow patterns, including intermittent
bursty traffic, such as centralized data aggregation, dis-
semination, as well as decentralized communication that
are possible in SHM applications [33].
Under AODV, route request messages are first flooded
from the source node, and then route reply messages are
flooded back from the destination node. The ‘‘next hop’’ at
each node in the route is selected using the minimum hop
count metric among the received route reply messages. In
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WSSNs, link quality metrics provided by radio hardware,
such as received signal strength (RSSI) and link quality
indication (LQI), are often used in addition to minimum
hop count to select the most reliable links. Unfortunately,
both LQI and RSSI are extremely noisy and cannot reliably
predict link quality on the basis of a single measurement,
particularly when differentiating among several poor-
quality links.
The GPMH protocol employs an alternative routing
metric specifically designed to rapidly (on the basis of a
single measurement) provide an accurate assessment of link
quality, which is a desirable feature for the short, bursty
communication patterns often found in data-intensive ap-
plications such as SHM. The metric combines RSSI and
LQI measurements into a regression tree, a decision tree
data structure automatically generated using least-squares
regression, to sort links into quality buckets based on prior
on-site measurement. In this way, it combines the long-term
link measurements suitable for high-throughput data
transfer, as in ETX, with instantaneous, single-packet link
quality estimation using RSSI or LQI, which is needed for
quickly building reliable routes for bursty traffic. Figure 13
demonstrates that the regression tree metric performs better
than either LQI or RSSI at estimating the packet reception
rate (PRR) for bursty traffic and is especially good at
identifying and distinguishing poor-quality links, which
were very common on the Jindo Bridge deployment.
3.2.4 Decentralized in-network processing
Centralized data acquisition and processing schemes (see
Fig. 14a) that are commonly used in traditional wired
sensor systems are not tractable in WSSNs, because
bringing all data to a centralized location will result in
severe data congestion in the WSSN [41]. Decentralized
processing schemes significantly reduce the amount of data
transferred through wireless communication, so that it en-
sures the scalability of WSSNs required to enable a dense
array of sensors deployed on full-scale civil infrastructure
[31]. Two decentralized processing software services have
been developed; one uses independent data processing to
estimate the tension in stay cables (see Fig. 14b) and the
other is based on coordinated computing to aggregate
cross-correlation data (see Fig. 14c).
CableTensionEstimation [44] is an independent
processing-based service that autonomously interrogates
cable tensions using the vibration-based method developed
by Shimada [40]. Stay cables are the main load carrying
members of a cable-stayed bridge, and tension forces of
cables are direct indicators of a cable’s integrity as well as
overall structural health of the cable-stayed structure.
Previously, Cho et al. [4] implemented a vibration-based
tension estimation method proposed by Zui et al. [51] on an
J Civil Struct Health Monit
Fig. 13 Estimation of link
packet reception rate (PRR)
using LQI, RSSI, and
Regression Tree methods
Fig. 14 Data acquisition and processing schemes: a centralized data
collection, b independent processing, and c coordinated computing
strategy [31]
academic WSS platform. In CableTensionEstima-
tion, a closed form relationship between multiple natural
frequencies and the tension force [40] is implemented as a
practical alternative of Zui’s method, because Zui’s
method uses lower natural frequencies that are easily
contaminated by cable-deck interaction on cable-stayed
bridges. CableTensionEstimation performs unsyn-
chronized sensing, estimates the power spectrum density
(PSD), and picks peaks of PSD in the automated manner
[44] to estimate cable tensions.
Built based on the coordinate processing, Decen-
tralizedDataAggregation [41] implements the
decentralized calculation of cross-correlations (CC) for the
natural excitation technique [15] and the random decre-
ment (RD) technique [7] (see Fig. 9c). As opposed to the
independent processing used in CableTensionEsti-
mation, DecentralizedDataAggregation al-
lows sensor nodes to communicate with each other and
share information. The sensor network is divided into local
sensor communities where data communication and pro-
cessing are taking place to estimate either CC or RD
function, depending on the user-specified input. The CC or
RD functions can be either collected at the base station or
retained at the cluster-heads for further analysis such as in-
network system identification and damage detection. De-
centralizedDataAggregation can be used as a
foundation for other application development that requires
the coordinated processing such as decentralized modal
analysis [42, 43], decentralized system identification [41],
and decentralized damage detection [17].
3.2.5 Autonomous operation of multi-task network
Long-term autonomous SHM with WSSNs requires a
high level software manager to handle the overall net-
work activities. The major goal of the software manager
is to ensure that all the tasks of the network are properly
scheduled. Especially the trigger-based tasks are
executed without interrupting the on-going or other
scheduled tasks. An application called AutoMonitor
[39] was developed for the Imote2 WSSNs as described
earlier.
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One issue with AutoMonitor is that the operations of
the timers for scheduling tasks and the actual code for
executing the tasks are all lumped in the same file, making
the maintenance and expansion of AutoMonitor ex-
tremely difficult—especially when a large number of tasks
are involved. For example, all execution of tasks is im-
plemented in the single SnoozeAlarm.awake event.
Therefore, many different flags need to be carefully
checked before a task can be executed. A better design
would be separating the task scheduling (timer) component
from the task execution component.
To make the AutoMonitor easier to maintain and
expand, a new service module called AutoScheduler
[23] has been developed in the ISHMP Services Toolsuite
which takes care of the scheduling timers and the initiation
of task execution after the timers are fired. In the Au-
toScheduler module, a parametric interface Sched-
uleApp provides a command
ScheduleApp.registerApp to register different
network-wide tasks and a command Sched-
uleApp.executeApp to execute these tasks. The reg-
istration involves assigning a scheduling timer to each task,
defining the name of the task, execution period, priority,
and the name of the function which will be executed once
the command ScheduleApp.executeApp is called.
Meanwhile, another interface called AutoScheduler
provides two commands, AutoScheduler.start and
AutoScheduler.stop, to start and stop the scheduling
Fig. 15 Block diagram of the
new AutoMonitor and
embedded AutoScheduler
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timers. AutoScheduler provides a self-contained con-
trol center for scheduling all network tasks and can avoid
any potential conflict between tasks in order to facilitate
smooth operation of autonomous monitoring. Figure 15
shows the block diagram of the new AutoMonitor and
embedded AutoScheduler.
3.2.6 Multi-scale time synchronization
As in many other WSSN applications, synchronization of
the network is highly desirable in SHM applications.
However, due to the specific features in SHM, such as high
sampling frequency, extended sensing duration, and
uncertainties in the software and hardware, synchronization
of data is not automatically guaranteed even with accu-
rately synchronized clocks [24, 31]. The time synchro-
nization strategy implemented in the Illinois SHM Services
Toolsuite was composed of a two-stage synchronized
sensing; The Flooding Time Synchronization Protocol
(FTSP) was adapted to provide clock synchrony in the first
stage, then the data is resampled after sensing is finished to
remove the errors due to uncertainties in hardware and
software in the second stage. Particularly, before sensing, a
30-s period is used to broadcast beacon messages for es-
timating the clock drift rates at the sensing units through
linear regression. The linear clock drift rates are then used
to correct the clocks so that the samples can be accurately
time-stamped during sensing.
J Civil Struct Health Monit
Fig. 16 Implementation of the
improved synchronized sensing
Clock Sync without
drift estimation (3 sec)
Fig. 17 Clock synchronization of multiple sub-networks using PPS signals of GPS
3.2.6.1 Nonlinear clock drift compensation The limita-
tion of the assumption of linear clock drift is that during
long-duration sensing, nonlinearity in clock drift may be-
come significant due to temperature effects. When the
temperature changes, the resonant frequency of the clock
crystal oscillators will change, leading to nonlinear clock
drift. In addition, the 30-s period for broadcasting beacon
messages before sensing delays the start of sensing and is
therefore undesirable in SHM.
To address the issue of nonlinear clock drift due to
temperature change, an improved time synchronization
strategy is proposed and implemented in the ISHMP Ser-
vices Toolsuite. The strategy aims to capture the full pic-
ture of nonlinear clock drift during the sensing period so as
to fully compensate for the nonlinear clock drift in data
timestamps. As illustrated in Fig. 16, a single synchro-
nization message/beacon is used to synchronize the clocks
and then all leaf nodes in the network can start sensing at
roughly the same time. During sensing, the gateway node
continues to broadcast beacons periodically with its global
time. Upon receiving the beacons, the leaf nodes time-
stamp the beacons and compute the offsets. Once sensing is
finished, the recorded local timestamps and offsets are used
to depict the complete history of clock drift during the
sensing period through nonlinear regression analysis.
Subsequently, the data timestamps can be corrected using
the fitted nonlinear curve of the clock drift. Finally, re-
sampling is performed based on the drift-compensated
timestamps to achieve data synchronization. In order to
take into account potential beacon loss due to packet col-
lision during broadcast, multiple beacons are transmitted
during sensing to ensure the accuracy and robustness of the
nonlinear regression analysis. Using the nonlinear clock
drift compensation method, controlled lab experiments
Sensing
Nonlinear drift Data Sync
+
compensation (Resampling)
100 Beacons
showed great improvement of synchronization accuracy,
less than 50 ls maximum error over an extended mea-
surement period [24].
3.2.6.2 GPS-based synchronization of multiple sub-net-
works While compensating the nonlinear clock drift, to
achieve synchronized sensing among multiple sub-net-
works, a GPS-based synchronization feature has been
added to the Illinois SHM Services Toolsuite. This new
stand-alone application periodically adjusts the gateway
nodes’ clocks using Pulse Per Seconds (PPS) signals from
GPS receivers and the corrected clock information is
shared within a sub-network. This protocol aims to enable
precise synchronized sensing for multiple networks, pro-
viding scalability by removing communication overhead
among sub-networks.
The clocks on multiple gateway nodes are synchronized
through the hardware interrupt and the Coordinated
Universal Time (UTC) information. As the application
PPS_based_RemoteSensing starts, PPS signals from
a GPS receiver interrupt the general purpose input output
(GPIO) pin on the gateway Imote2. The interrupt handler
passes the signals until time reaches the input UTC time.
As shown in Fig. 17, at the desired UTC time, all gateway
nodes adjust their local clocks to a common value (for
example, zero as implemented in the application). Once the
local clocks are adjusted to a common value, the gateway
nodes broadcast the synchronized time stamps and the
calculated sensing start time to the leaf nodes in their sub-
network. Because the timestamps on the gateway nodes are
synchronized, leaf nodes in multiple networks are expected
to synchronize their clock based on the same timestamps
without requiring message exchanges among sub-networks.
Once all the gateway nodes of multiple sub-networks are
123

synchronized, the two-stage approach with nonlinear clock
drift compensation, described above, is followed for clock
and data synchronization among leaf nodes in each sub-
network. The application achieved precise synchronized
sensing with less than 50 ls maximum error among mul-
tiple sub-networks requiring only a single GPS receiver in
each sub-network.
3.2.7 Wireless structural control
3.2.7.1 Real-time data streaming Real-time wireless data
acquisition expands the applications of WSS, allowing
wired data acquisition systems to be mimicked and offering
real-time visualization of structural response. Also, this
approach is critical when real-time state knowledge is re-
quired (i.e., feedback for structural control). Thus, high-
throughput, real-time, wireless data acquisition service for
the Imote2 is developed [25].
Real-time data acquisition using WSS is challenging due
to operating system limitations, tight timing requirements,
sharing of transmission bandwidth, and unreliable radio
communication. In the case of the Imote2, TinyOS com-
pletes tasks in a first-in-first-out (FIFO) manner along with
interrupts to facilitate interaction with hardware [22]. To
realize real-time data acquisition under the FIFO data
handling, any processing of a data sample (i.e., temperature
correction, time stamping, and data transmission) should be
completed before the next data sample is acquired; as a
result, the maximum sampling rate is limited by the time
required for each of these steps. Furthermore, the clear
channel assessment used with the Chipcon CC2420 radio
can increase the communication time when multiple nodes
transmit at the same time [21]. For time synchronization of
a WSSN, the random offset in the sensing initiation time,
which is inevitable due to hardware variability, requires the
timestamps to be transmitted with the data sample; this
additional transmission increases the overhead for each
sample [32].
To achieve real-time data acquisition in light of these
constraints, a tightly coordinated scheduling (TCS) ap-
proach is proposed. The TCS approach requires limiting
the time of each processing and sending step to achieve
high data throughput. First, the data payload is limited to
one packet to reduce the communication time. The max-
imum packet payload is 112 bytes, which corresponds to
nine samples of four channels of 16-bit data and a 32-bit
timestamp [45]. Thus, nine samples can be buffered prior
to sending. Second, a staggered time division multiple
access (TDMA) scheme, which only allows each node to
communicate with the gateway node during a specified
timeslot, is used to limit the variability in communication
time due to contention and back-off delays and reduce
packet loss due to collisions. The number of nodes and
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Table 1 Real-time wireless data acquisition performance
Number of nodes Sampling rate Max. data throughput
(Hz) (Kbps)
1–9 75 43.2
10–18 40 46
19–27 25 43.2
sending/processing times are accounted for in the TDMA
approach making this approach different from other MAC-
layer protocols, which cannot account for these variables
[13, 47].
The complete application combines accurate time syn-
chronization, reliably broadcasted commands to initialize
sensing and compute the TDMA send time, and the sched-
uled communication protocol to achieve high-throughput
near-real-time data acquisition. The scheduled communi-
cation approach leads to a tradeoff between network size and
maximum sampling rate. The communication and process-
ing protocols allow for near-real-time sensing of 108 chan-
nels across 27 nodes at up to 25 Hz with minimal data loss as
shown in Table 1. As the network size increases, the corre-
sponding maximum sampling rate decreases and the data
throughput remains relatively unchanged due to the in-
creased number of sensor nodes.
3.2.7.2 Centralized and decentralized control Essential
for wireless control implementation are consistent sensing
and actuation times among nodes, accurate computation,
and flexibility for a variety of feedback architectures. The
tight scheduling and communication protocol insights de-
veloped from streaming data are applied to achieve these
goals [25]. Two wireless control implementations are
available: centralized and fully decentralized. In fully de-
centralized control, there is no sensor communication be-
tween nodes. The controller node processes the sensor data,
calculates the control command based on the embedded
controller, and commands the SHM-D2A. The current
control implementation uses a predictor–corrector form of
the discrete-time Kalman filter and a constant gain feed-
back. The maximum sampling rate possible depends on the
number of states in the calculation. For a system with four
states, the maximum sampling of the fully decentralized
control system is 950 Hz.
The control node framework developed for fully de-
centralized control is extended with real-time data acqui-
sition (data streaming) for centralized control applications.
The TDMA protocol uses tight timing to achieve good
sampling performance while limiting data loss. In this case,
the timeslot length is 7.8 ms. If all samples are received,
the command is calculated based on the designed feedback
controller. On the other hand, if all samples are not
J Civil Struct Health Monit
received, the previous command is held constant. The
overall sampling rate is a function of the number of nodes
in the network and the states in the control calculation. For
four remote nodes, the maximum sampling rate is about
31 Hz.
4 Implementation and validation
The majority of hardware and software developments and
advances mentioned in the previous section were validated
through full-scale deployments on a cable-stayed bridge
(the 2nd Jindo Bridge) test-bed in Korea and on a historic
truss bridge (the Government Bridge at Rock Island
Arsenal) test-bed in the US and through lab-scale ex-
periments on a shear building (structural control). This
section describes these deployments and experiments.
4.1 Full-scale deployment for monitoring
a cable-stayed bridge in Korea
Deployment of the WSSN on the Jindo Bridge was carried
out as an international collaborative research effort be-
tween the US (University of Illinois at Urbana-Cham-
paign), South Korea (KAIST), and Japan (University of
Tokyo). The collaborative project resulted in the first long-
term and the world’s largest deployment of WSSs for
monitoring civil infrastructure.
The Jindo Bridges are twin cable-stayed bridges. The
bridges connect Jindo Island and Haenam located at the
southwestern tip of Korean Peninsula. The 1st Jindo Bridge
(right of Fig. 18) was constructed in 1984 with the design
live load of DB-18 (similar to AASHTO HS-20). The 2nd
Jindo Bridge (left of Fig. 18) was constructed in 2006 with
the enhanced design live load of DB-24 (about 30 % larger
than AASHTO HS-20) due to the increased volume and
weight of the traffic between Jindo and Haenam. The 2nd
Jindo Bridge has a three-span streamlined steel-box girder
with 344 m of main span and 70 m of two side spans. The
girder is supported by the 60 stay cables connecting the two
Fig. 18 The Jindo Twin Bridges
A-shape steel pylons on concrete piers. The 2nd Jindo Bridge
was selected as the test-bed with the allowance of unfettered
access by the bridge authority.
4.1.1 Initial deployment efforts
The initial deployment on the bridge test-bed was carried
out in 2009. The 70 sensor nodes in the network were
divided into two subnets: one on the Jindo-side and the
other on the Haenam-side. The Jindo subnet consists of 33
nodes (22 deck nodes, 3 pylon nodes, 8 cable nodes). The
Haenam subnet consists of 37 nodes (26 deck nodes, 3
pylon nodes, 7 cable nodes). Two base stations were in-
stalled on the piers of both pylons of the first Jindo Bridge
in charge of each subnet. Each base station consists of an
industrial-grade PC (AAEON AEC-6905) running Window
XP Embedded OS, an uninterruptable backup power sup-
ply (APC ES550), and a gateway node. Each gateway
node, consisting of an Imote2, interface board, antenna,
and environmentally hardened enclosure, interfaces with
the respective subnets. Each leaf node is composed of an
Imote2, battery board, sensor board, antenna and environ-
mentally hardened enclosure. Three D-cell batteries were
used to power most of the leaf nodes, except 8 nodes self-
powered using solar panels and rechargeable batteries.
SHM-A boards were used to measure acceleration, tem-
perature, humidity, and light for most of nodes; the SHM-
W sensor board (an early version of the SHM-DAQ) was
used to measure the signal from a 3D ultra-sonic
anemometer. The deployment details, evaluation, and data
analysis can be found out in Jang et al. [16, 17] and Cho
et al. [5].
4.1.2 2010–2011 deployments
Advanced hardware and software were implemented on the
test-bed bridge in the 2010 deployment. Energy harvesting
strategies using solar panels and rechargeable batteries
were employed for all sensor nodes based on the satisfac-
tory performance during 2009; additionally, a mini wind
turbine was installed on one node to assess the potential for
wind energy harvesting [35]. The network size was also
increased to a total of 659 channels on 113 sensor nodes;
which is currently the world’s largest WSSN established
for SHM. To better understand the wind conditions on
the bridge, three 3D ultra-sonic anemometers were in-
stalled with SHM-DAQ boards. Ten SHM-H boards were
implemented as cluster heads for Decentral-
izedDataAggregation to increase the accuracy of
decentralized modal analysis of the deck and pylons
[18]. Figures 19 and 20 show example sensor nodes in-
stalled on the deck and cable, enclosure assembly detail,
and energy harvesters.
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Fig. 19 Enclosure assembly (left), sensor module mounting (middle) and installation using magnet (right)

Fig. 20 Solar panel on cable node (left), mini wind turbine (middle) and 3D ultra-sonic anemometer (right)

70m 344m 70m

72 24
24
72

Jindo side Haenam side

(South) (North)
133 87 104 104 87 133
T
118 34 120 24 51 81 81 51 24 120 34 37 101
69 53 88 37 88 53 69

East West East West

Jindo deck network (Ch20) Haenam deck network (Ch15)
113 WT
East West

2 9 3 7 69 66 53 41 39 64 100 56 8 20 3 23 6 20 152 33 35 53 83 54 69 114 S T

118 70 101

104 80 25 88 136 145 121 135 102 144 133 86 98 71 96 116 144 81 18 135 150 132 39 129 85 52 32
H 151 H H146 ST
19 H T H 149 H H H
W W W
East West

52 132 6 170 145 35 21 105 86 23 3 41 70 7 150 151 56 135 119 4 40 20 133 65

69 53 88 37 133 34 87 120 104 24 51 81 85 113 51 32 24 73 23 89 48 2 34 64

Jindo side Haenam side
Jindo Cable network (Ch26) Haenam Cable network (Ch25)
Pylon Pylon
T : Temperature H : High-sensivity (SHM-H) S : Strain sensor (SHM-S1)
W : Anemometer (SHM-DAQ) WT : Wind Turbine power ST : Strain + Temp correcon (SHM-S2)

Fig. 21 Sensor topology with node IDs (2010–2011 deployment on the 2nd Jindo Bridge)

To efficiently operate such a large sensor network, the
WSSN was divided into four subnets, considering the
functionalities, network size, communication range, and
communication protocol of each network. The sensor
topology of the 2010–2011 deployment is shown in Fig. 21.
The four subnets share a common software configuration
that includes reliable data acquisition (RemoteSensing),
autonomous operation (AutoMonitor), power harvesting
(ChargerControl), sleep-cycling (SnoozeAlarm),
and monitoring of the network status (AutoUtilsCom-
mand). In addition to the common software, each sub-
net was designed to have its own unique software

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Haenam
(Inland)

Jindo

(a) (b)

wind speed wind direction (horizontal)

30
220
speed(m/s)

20 200
degree

180
10 160
140
0
0 200 400 600 800 1000 0 200 400 600 800 1000
time(s) time(s)
(c)
Fig. 22 Typhoon Kompasu a path on Sep. 1st, 2010, b measured wind direction, and c measured data at 21:00 using 3D ultra-sonic anemometer
with SHM-DAQ board

application. For example, deck subnets employed De-
centralizedDataAggregation for decentralized
modal analysis, while cable subnets employed
CableTensionEstimation to estimate tension forces
of cables in the automated manner. The Jindo-side cable
subnet featured multi-hop communication for the purpose of
evaluating the newly developed multi-hop protocol.
In the 2011 deployment, several hardware and software
features were updated from the 2010 deployment.
ThresholdSentry in multi-hop communication em-
ployed in the Jindo-side cable subnet was updated to op-
erate autonomously without having to receive commands
from the gateway node to prevent energy consumption by
frequent re-routing. Additionally, a long-term sleep mode
was implemented to enhance the long-term survival of the
WSSN. The e-mail notification function enabled the gate-
way nodes to notify the network manager when abnor-
malities are detected in the WSSN. An improved multi-hop
protocol was deployed which includes a better optimized
routing algorithm. The newly developed strain sensor
boards (SHM-S) were installed and validated on the bridge
(see Fig. 7).
4.1.3 Example analysis of measured data during Typhoon
Kompasu
The Jindo Bridge experienced Typhoon Kompasu, having
the 960 hPa of central pressure and 40 m/s of max wind
speed just after the 2010 deployment (Aug. 31st–Sep. 2nd,
2010). The typhoon passed quite close to the bridge, as
shown in Fig. 22a. According to the Korea Meteorological
Administration (KMA) records, the wind was coming from
the SSE (see the dashed arrow in Fig. 22b) with the speed
of 14–20 m/s in the Jindo area at 21:00 on Sep. 1st, 2010.
The measured wind data at the same time using a 3D ultra-
sonic anemometer interfaced with the SHM-DAQ board is

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20 20

acc(mg)

acc(mg)
0 0

-20 -20
0 200 400 600 800 1000 0 100 200 300 400 500
time(s) time(s)
(a) (b)
Fig. 23 Example vertical acceleration measured from center of main span. a Excited by a typhoon. b Excited by a heavy truck

Table 2 Identified natural

Mode NExT/ERA (Haenam) NExT/ERA (Jindo) NExT/ERA (mean) Wired SHM Change (%)
frequencies and comparisons
DV 1 0.4462 0.4462 0.4462 0.4395 1.52
DV 2 0.6454 0.6471 0.6463 0.6592 -1.96
DV 3 1.0331 1.0326 1.0329 1.0498 -1.61
DV 4 1.3559 1.3421 1.3490 1.3672 -1.33
DV 5 1.5549 1.5490 1.5520 1.5869 -2.20
DV 6 1.6528 1.6346 1.6437 1.6602 -0.99
DT 1 1.7977 1.8022 1.8000 –
DV 7 1.8710 1.8704 1.8707 1.8555 0.82
DV 8 2.2594 2.2609 2.2602 2.3193 -2.55
DV 9 2.8121 2.8133 2.8127 2.8076 0.18

shown in Fig. 22c. It indicates 15–25 m/s of wind speed
and 170°–200° (from SE direction) of wind direction (see
the solid arrow in Fig. 22b).
Each sensor node equipped with an SHM-A or SHM-H
sensor board provided 3-axes accelerations at the sampling
rate of 25 Hz (which is user-selectable). Figure 23 shows
the example vertical (z-axis) acceleration excited by the
Typhoon Kompasu and heavy truck passage on the bridge,
measured at the center of main span. The acceleration level
by the Typhoon is consistently around 20 mg, which is
comparable with a continuous heavy truck loading.
The acceleration responses collected from the two deck
subnets were utilized to identify modal properties of the
bridge, which are compared with those obtained before the
typhoon. For the output-only modal identification tech-
nique, the Natural Excitation Technique in conjunction
with Eigensystem Realization Algorithm (NExT/ERA) was
implemented resulting in Table 2. The estimated modal
properties are found to be consistent with those obtained
from the wired sensor system before the typhoon [5].
4.2 Full-scale deployment for monitoring a historic
truss bridge at Rock Island
Currently, much of the national bridge stock of the United
States has reached or is reaching the end of its design life.
SHM of the old and deteriorated structures is important in
ensuring that they are still functional and safe for their
intended uses. The continued monitoring and use of these
structures represents a sustainable approach to meeting the
transportation needs of today. An implementation of an
integrated fiber optic and wireless SHM system on the
115-year-old steel truss Government Bridge at the Rock
Island Arsenal illustrates this important use of SHM
technology.
Located over the Mississippi River between Rock Island
in the state of Illinois and Davenport in the state of Iowa,
the Government Bridge is one of over two hundred steel
bridges owned and operated by the US Army and the Army
Corps of Engineers. The Government Bridge is an eight-
span, double decker, steel truss bridge, as shown in
Fig. 24a, where the upper deck carries rail traffic and the
lower deck carries vehicular traffic and pedestrians. The
second span of the bridge, shown in Fig. 24b, is a draw
span that can swing 360° in either direction to allow boats
to pass and has been in near continual operation since its
construction. The Government Bridge is still a relevant and
vital link in the national transportation network, and its
importance has increased in the last few years due to a
large portion of the nation’s ethanol and bio-diesel crossing
the Mississippi over this bridge [9].
Unlike conventional bridges, the rotational position of
the swing span must be identified prior to the analysis of
the measured data. Because the bridge is symmetric, the
only distinguishing feature of the draw span position is a
staircase used to access the operator’s house. When the
bridge is locked to allow cars to cross and these stairs face
upstream of the river (original position), the structural

123
J Civil Struct Health Monit
responses differ from those when the stairs face down-
stream (opposite position). The bridge response is also
different when it opens to allow boats to go by and acts as
two cantilevers. These three positions will be designated as
‘closed-upstream’, ‘closed-downstream’, and ‘swing’.
4.2.1 Integrated SHM system
To supplement the traditional visual inspections, the Army
Corps of Engineers installed a fiber optic SHM system with
34 FBG strain sensors on the draw span of the Government
Bridge [10]. To enable comprehensive structural health
monitoring, a wireless SHM system, mainly containing tri-
axial MEMS accelerometers, was also installed in July,
Monitored Draw Span
(a)
(b)
Fig. 24 Government Bridge. a Full spans. b Monitored draw span
Fig. 25 Installed sensors on
Government Bridge. a FOS
stain gauges (diamond), digital
compass (square), and WSS
(circle). b WSS on top chord.
c WSS on railway deck
(b)
2011. A wired digital compass was also installed to help
determine the bridge position.
The measurements obtained from the integrated SHM
system provide a comprehensive view of the bridge con-
dition. The strain data from the fiber optic system is pro-
cessed to provide information on when train and swing
events occur on the bridge along with the raw strain
measurement. The change in strain due to the bridge
swinging is found to be constant, within statistical limita-
tions, when compensation for temperature and sun expo-
sure is performed. The acceleration data from the wireless
system is first segmented, based on the detected events, and
then processed to determine the modal properties of the
structure. Both the modal properties of the bridge and
change in strain due to swing events can be fed into a
model updating algorithm to determine likely locations of
changes to the health of the structure. The acceleration data
also can be used in damage detection algorithms to deter-
mine damage indices for the members in the system [10].
4.2.2 Installation of wireless SHM system
In July 2011, a WSSN consisting of 22 sensor nodes was
deployed on the Government Bridge at the Rock Island
Arsenal as shown in Fig. 25 [6]. The sensor nodes are
composed of the Imote2, battery board, sensor board, an-
tenna, and environmentally hardened enclosure, similar to
those deployed on the Jindo Bridge. Only SHM-A sensor
boards measuring 3-axis acceleration are employed in the
WSS nodes. The sensor nodes were distributed optimally in
a pattern designed to capture appropriate modal data, based
on a previously conducted finite element model analysis.
All the sensor nodes are equipped with solar panels and
rechargeable batteries. The solar panels for the sensor
Digital
Operator’s
Compass Base Sta
House PC
Gateway
(a)
(c)
123

nodes were placed to ensure maximum sunlight and to keep
them out of reach of curious pedestrians. The recently
developed AutoMonitor with its fault-tolerant features
was employed for both the gateway and sensor nodes for
autonomous, but reliable, operation of the monitoring
system.
4.2.3 Example analysis of measured data
Three types of measured data worked together to monitor
activities on the bridge. The compass reading gave the
heading of the bridge indicating when the bridge is turning.
Figure 22a shows the compass heading plotted with an ac-
celeration measurement when the bridge swings. The com-
pass reading indicates the bridge has left its initial heading
close to 270° and begun to turn counter clockwise indicated
by approximately 90° reduction; the wireless system
recorded the vibration of the bridge caused by its rotation
with a lag of approximately 3 min due to time synchro-
nization of the whole sensor network. The bridge stopped for
a period of time half-way through its swing while the boats
were passing; subsequently, the bridge began to rotate and
the vibration started again. When the bridge was closed after
the swing, locking of the roller jacks on both ends of the span
caused a large impulse in the acceleration record. After the
pulse, normal traffic crossed the bridge. The figure shows
how the compass reading can help interpret the data with
regards to the position and state of the bridge.
Strain data recorded by the fiber optic system can also
help interpret the accelerations recorded by the wireless
Fig. 26 Example measured acceleration (by WSS), heading (by digital compass), and strain (by FOS strain gauge). a Acceleration and heading
when bridge swings. b Acceleration, heading, and strain when a train passes with a pause
123
J Civil Struct Health Monit
SHM system. Figure 26b shows a vertical acceleration
from a sensor node plotted with a compass heading and the
strain from the FO sensor closest to the WSS. The compass
heading remains constant, indicating the bridge did not
swing. Instead, a train entered the bridge at about 17:28, as
indicated by the increase in the strain, and the wireless
node began recording acceleration after time synchro-
nization. Just before 17:34, the train stopped moving on the
bridge. During the train’s pause, the acceleration level
became very small while the strain level remained elevated
with no dynamic amplification. After the train movement
resumed, acceleration and strain levels returned to the
levels before the pause. The example shows how strain data
can be used to analyze the traffic patterns from the accel-
eration measurement [11].
With the help of complementary data (i.e., compass
heading and strain), the acceleration measurements were
divided according to the traffic condition and bridge posi-
tions. Separating the data based on traffic is necessary as the
weight of trains will greatly affect the modal properties of
the bridge. Therefore, the acceleration data excited by au-
tomobile traffic at closed bridge positions and ambient vi-
bration during swings was used to identify the bridge’s
modal properties. An output-only modal identification
method, frequency domain decomposition (FDD) [1], was
employed for the modal analysis. Figure 27 shows an ex-
ample of the modal properties (i.e., natural frequencies and
mode shapes) identified by the FDD method. Acceleration
was measured for 10 min at 100 Hz when the bridge swung.
Figure 27b–e shows the first four mode shapes of the bridge
J Civil Struct Health Monit

Fig. 27 Example modal Result for Singluar Value Decomposition

analysis result of Government -2
10
Bridge: swing position.
1st sv
a Singular values from FDD.

Singular Values
2nd sv
b 1st vertical mode (rocking): -4
10 3rd sv
0.391 Hz. c 1st lateral mode:
1.074 Hz. d 2nd lateral mode:
1.831 Hz. e 2nd vertical mode:
2.075 Hz -6
10

-8
10
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Frequency (Hz)
(a)

(b) (c)

(d) (e)

in the open position. The 1st mode that appears at 0.391 Hz
is a rocking/vertical mode because of the cantilever nature of
the bridge in the swung position. The other experimental
mode shapes are consistent with the bridge’s shape, ge-
ometry, and boundary conditions. The identified modal
properties were successfully verified using a detailed FE
model of the bridge reported in Cho et al. [6] and Giles [11].
Using the modal information, many vibration-based system
identification techniques, such as FE model updating, modal
strain energy method, and damage locating vector method,
can be employed in assessing the bridge’s integrity.
4.3 Lab-scale implementation of wireless feedback
control
Prior to full-scale implementation, the use of WSSN for
structural control needs to be tested in a laboratory envi-
ronment to evaluate control performance and ensure
stability in the presence of data loss, sampling rate
limitations, and time delay. The previously discussed WSS
developments for control are implemented on an ex-
perimental system to evaluate the performance of two
wireless structural control strategies: centralized and fully
decentralized. The four-story small-scale structure is fitted
with two active mass driver (AMD) control systems on the
2nd and 4th stories, respectively (Fig. 28). The combina-
tion of the two AMDs allows for reduction of the response
in the higher modes and different decentralized control
strategies. A comparison of single AMD and multiple
AMD performance can be found in Linderman [26], which
considers failures in controller nodes. The overall height of
the structure is about 2.2 m and has a first natural fre-
quency of 0.68 Hz. In addition, a small, single-axis shake
table is used to excite the structure.
Overall, three strategies are implemented on the system to
evaluate the wireless control performance. The three

123
 J Civil Struct Health Monit

Fig. 28 4-story experimental structure (left) and three control configurations (right): wired, centralized wireless, and fully decentralized wireless

El Centro Northridge Kobe Chi Chi

4 4 4 4

3.5 3.5 3.5 3.5

3 3 3 3

2.5 2.5 2.5 2.5

Story

2 2 2 2

1.5 1.5 1.5 1.5

1 1 1 1

Zeroed
0.5 0.5 0.5 0.5 Wired
Centralized
Decentralized
0 0 0 0
0 1 2 3 0 1 2 0 1 2 0 1 2
Ratio of Peak Acceleration to Uncontrolled

Fig. 29 Comparison of normalized peak responses under earthquake excitation

123
J Civil Struct Health Monit
El Centro Northridge
4 4
3.5 3.5
3 3
2.5 2.5
2 2
1.5 1.5
1 1
0.5 0.5
0 0
0 0.5 1 0 0.5
Ratio of RMS Acceleration to Uncontrolled
Fig. 30 Comparison of normalized RMS acceleration responses under earthquake excitation
strategies are illustrated in Fig. 28. The traditional wired
system operates at 1000 Hz and can be approximated as
continuous in the control design. The centralized wireless
control system operates at 30 Hz due to the time required for
feedback. A discrete-time control approach is used to ac-
count for the slow rate in the design. The fully decentralized
control system uses two subsystems that operate at 725 Hz.
There is no communication between the two subsystems.
These are all compared to a ‘zeroed’ control case where a
zero command is issued to the AMD.
The control strategies are evaluated under several
earthquake excitations: El Centro, Northridge, Kobe, and
Chi Chi. The peak and RMS responses normalized to the
uncontrolled are presented in Figs. 29 and 30, respectively.
Overall, both wireless control strategies are able to control
the response of the structure and no instability results.
However, the peak responses of the wireless centralized
surpass the uncontrolled at the 2nd and 4th stories due to
the ‘jumpier’ control performance. The fully decentralized
system outperforms the wireless centralized controller de-
spite having less system knowledge. This improvement is
likely due the higher sampling rate, which improves the
estimator performance. In addition, both wireless systems
have more trouble with the Chi Chi and Kobe ground
Kobe Chi Chi
4 4
3.5 3.5
3 3
2.5 2.5
Story
2 2
1.5 1.5
1 1
Zeroed
0.5 0.5 Wired
Centralized
Decentralized
0 0
1 0 1 2 0 1 2
motions because of their cyclic, impulsive load and asso-
ciated saturation of the SHM-SAR measurements. How-
ever, in general, the fully decentralized wireless controller
results in good performance.
5 Conclusions
This paper discussed recent advances and laboratory and
field validation of a state-of-the-art smart sensor frame-
work developed for SHM and control applications. Various
hardware and software issues are taken into account based
on the lessons learned from recent efforts to develop, sta-
bilize, and operate full-scale wireless smart sensor net-
works for SHM and control of civil infrastructure. High-
fidelity, multi-scale responses can now be captured using a
variety of sensor boards that were recently developed.
Time synchronization algorithms assure that not only the
clocks on each Imote2 in the network but data collected
from those sensors are accurately synchronized for ex-
tended measurement periods. Time synchronization among
multiple networks is available using GPS receivers. De-
centralized computing is realized for decentralized data
aggregation and autonomous cable tension estimation by
123

fully utilizing computing capabilities and wireless com-
munication. Routing in multi-hop communication is ad-
vanced to minimize the data loss and energy consumption.
Data streaming is available for mimicking wired sensors
and real-time wireless control. Centralized and decentral-
ized control schemes have been developed. The Illinois
SHM Services Toolsuite is updated with more services and
fault-tolerance features. Using new (the 2nd Jindo Bridge)
and historic bridges (the Government Bridge), full-scale
WSSNs are realized for the purpose of SHM. Wireless
active control has successfully been implemented at lab
scale using the WSSN developed herein. The evaluation of
the WSSNs as well as the data analysis shows the practi-
cality of wireless SHM and control systems for civil in-
frastructure. Indeed, wireless smart sensor technology has
reached a level of maturity that makes it an important tool
for management of civil infrastructure.
Acknowledgments This study was supported by the National Sci-
ence Foundation (CMS 06-00433, CMMI 07-24172, CMS 09-28886,
and CPS 10-35773), the Korea Research Foundation (NRF-2008-220-
D00117), Smart Infrastructure Technology Center (SISTeC) at
KAIST, and the US Army Corps of Engineers (MEC W9132T-ILL-
006). This support is gratefully acknowledged.
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