System to monitor the health of a structure, sensor nodes, program product, and related methods
First Claim
1. A multi-node sensor system to monitor the structural health of a structure, the system comprising:
- a structure to be monitored having a body;
a plurality of separate and spaced apart health monitoring sensor nodes each connected to or embedded within the body of the structure to monitor data related to parameters of a portion of the body of the structure, each node having a sensor element positioned to sense parameters of a respective portion of the body of the structure to define sensed parameters, a processor coupled to the sensor to receive sensed parameters to define raw sensor data, and memory coupled to the processor to store operating instructions therein;
an interrogator having a transceiver positioned to request data from each of the plurality of health monitoring sensor nodes and to receive requested data therefrom; and
parameter processing program product separately stored in the memory of each of the plurality of health monitoring sensor nodes and including instructions that when executed by the respective processor performs the operations of reducing the raw sensor data to define reduced data, detecting an interrogation signal, and providing the reduced data to the interrogator.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A system to monitor the health of a structure, health monitoring sensor nodes, program product, and associated methods are provided. The system includes an array of health monitoring sensor nodes connected to or embedded within a structure to monitor the health of the structure. Each health monitoring sensor node includes sensor elements positioned to sense parameters of the structure and to provide data related to the parameters to a health monitoring sensor node interrogator. Each health monitoring sensor node includes a processor or other means reducing raw sensor data to thereby reduce communication bandwidth requirements, and can include memory or other storage for storing the reduced data and an antenna arrangement for providing the reduced data to the health monitoring sensor node interrogator.
106 Citations
23 Claims
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1. A multi-node sensor system to monitor the structural health of a structure, the system comprising:
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a structure to be monitored having a body;
a plurality of separate and spaced apart health monitoring sensor nodes each connected to or embedded within the body of the structure to monitor data related to parameters of a portion of the body of the structure, each node having a sensor element positioned to sense parameters of a respective portion of the body of the structure to define sensed parameters, a processor coupled to the sensor to receive sensed parameters to define raw sensor data, and memory coupled to the processor to store operating instructions therein;
an interrogator having a transceiver positioned to request data from each of the plurality of health monitoring sensor nodes and to receive requested data therefrom; and
parameter processing program product separately stored in the memory of each of the plurality of health monitoring sensor nodes and including instructions that when executed by the respective processor performs the operations of reducing the raw sensor data to define reduced data, detecting an interrogation signal, and providing the reduced data to the interrogator. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17)
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11. A method to monitor the structural health of a structure, the method comprising the steps of:
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positioning a health monitoring sensor node on or within a body of a structure to be monitored;
sensing parameters of the body of the structure by the health monitoring sensor node to define sensed parameters;
processing the sensed parameters by the health monitoring sensor node to define raw sensor data;
reducing the raw sensor data by the health monitoring sensor node to define reduced data to thereby reduce data transmission bandwidth requirements;
receiving by the health monitoring sensor node an interrogation signal from an interrogator; and
providing to the interrogator the reduced data responsive to receiving the interrogation signal. - View Dependent Claims (12, 18, 19, 20)
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21. A method to monitor the structural health of a structure, the method comprising the steps of:
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positioning a health monitoring sensor node including a sensor element on or within a body of a structure to be monitored;
sampling sensor output by the health monitoring sensor node from the associated sensor element to thereby form raw sensor data;
comparing a value of the raw sensor data to a threshold value by the health monitoring sensor node, to thereby determine if the threshold value is exceeded;
incrementing an event count by the health monitoring sensor node responsive to determining that the threshold value is exceeded;
adaptively resetting by the health monitoring sensor node the threshold value to define an adaptive threshold responsive to the event count exceeding at least one predetermined value;
receiving by the health monitoring sensor node an interrogation signal from an interrogator; and
providing to the interrogator responsive to receiving the interrogation signal, one of the following forms of reduced raw sensor data;
data indicating a number of threshold crossings, data indicating a number of threshold crossings for each respective threshold value, data indicating a final state of the adaptive threshold, and data indicating a time history of the adaptive threshold, the reduced raw sensor data having a reduced transmission bandwidth requirement.
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22. A method to monitor the structural health of a structure, the method comprising the steps of:
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positioning a health monitoring sensor node on or within a body of a structure to be monitored, each node including a sensor element;
sampling sensor output by the health monitoring sensor node from the associated sensor element to thereby form raw sensor data;
iteratively comparing by the health monitoring sensor node the raw sensor data to prior trend data describing a prior trend in the raw sensor data, to thereby determine a current trend in the raw sensor data;
receiving by the health monitoring sensor node an interrogation signal from an interrogator; and
providing to the interrogator by the health monitoring sensor node indicia of the current trend responsive to the interrogation signal, the indicia of the current trend providing a reduced data transmission bandwidth requirement. - View Dependent Claims (23)
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Specification