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 wireless 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 element to receive sensed parameters to define raw sensor data, and memory coupled tothe processorto store operating instructions therein;
a data collector having a wireless receiver positioned to collect data individually from each separate one of the plurality of health monitoring sensor nodes over a wireless communication medium; 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, andproviding the reduced data to the data collector over the wireless communication medium, the reduced data comprising one or more of the following;
one or more parameters describing one or more threshold crossing events, and one or more parameters describing a trend of the raw sensor data, and the reduced data providing a substantially reduced wireless transmission bandwidth requirement between the respective one of the plurality of health monitoring sensor nodes and the data collector over that required for providing the raw sensor data.
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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 to reduce raw sensor data to thereby reduce communication bandwidth requirements and data collisions, 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.
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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 wireless 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 element to receive sensed parameters to define raw sensor data, and memory coupled tothe processorto store operating instructions therein; a data collector having a wireless receiver positioned to collect data individually from each separate one of the plurality of health monitoring sensor nodes over a wireless communication medium; 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, and providing the reduced data to the data collector over the wireless communication medium, the reduced data comprising one or more of the following;
one or more parameters describing one or more threshold crossing events, and one or more parameters describing a trend of the raw sensor data, and the reduced data providing a substantially reduced wireless transmission bandwidth requirement between the respective one of the plurality of health monitoring sensor nodes and the data collector over that required for providing the raw sensor data. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
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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 substantially reduce wireless transmission bandwidth requirements between the health monitoring sensor node and a data collector over that required for providing the raw sensor data, the reduced data comprising one or more of the following;
one or more parameters describing one or more threshold crossing events, and one or more parameters describing a trend of the raw sensor data; andproviding the reduced data to the data collector over the wireless communication medium. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 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 over a wireless communication medium; and responsive to receiving the interrogation signal, the health monitoring sensor node providing to the interrogator one or more of the following forms of reduced raw sensor data over the wireless communication medium;
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 over that which would be required to provide the interrogator the raw sensor data.
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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 wireless 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 wireless health monitoring sensor node from the associated sensor element to thereby form raw sensor data; the health monitoring sensor node iteratively comparing 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; the health monitoring sensor node receiving an interrogation signal from an interrogator over a wireless communication medium; and responsive to the interrogation signal, the health monitoring sensor node providing to the interrogator over the wireless communication medium indicia of the current trend in the raw sensor data defining reduced data, the reduced data providing a reduced data transmission bandwidth requirement over that of a raw sensor data transmission bandwidth requirement to thereby provide reduced data collisions between the health monitoring sensor node and at least one other health monitoring sensor node. - View Dependent Claims (23)
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Specification