Cyber-Physical System for Bridge Lifecycle Monitoring

The goal of this research project is to develop a scalable cyber-physical system (CPS) framework
for seamless integration of physical and computational systems for bridge lifecycle monitoring.
Bridge monitoring includes many different components, such as computer-aided design (CAD)
system, bridge management system (BMS), structural health monitoring (SHM) system, and
various analysis tools. In current practice, these components are isolated from each other and
sharing of information across systems is very limited. Information sharing and system integration
would facilitate meaningful use of data and enhance bridge operation and maintenance and
public safety. Our initial task is to build a scalable and flexible cyber-infrastructure to handle the
massive data sets from diverse sources. Cloud computing and distributed database systems are
employed to facilitate scalable, flexible, fault-tolerant, high performing and cost-effective
management of the bridge information. Data schemas for bridge information (e.g., bridge model,
sensors, and inspection reports) are defined along with data links for the related data entities.
Furthermore, we create standard web application programming interfaces (APIs) hosted on the
cloud server to enable platform-neutral remote access to the database. The framework includes
engineering analysis modules and data analysis modules to support monitoring and inspection
activities. The research are being validated by using the data collected from the Telegraph Road
Bridge located in Monroe, Michigan. The demonstration results show that the system design can
integrate physical and computational components involved in bridge monitoring and
management applications. Specifically, the system can facilitate easy access to the bridge
information and support automated data analyses involving diverse data types and analysis
modules.