CPS: TTP Option: Synergy: Collaborative: Internet of self-powered sensors-Towards a scalable long-term condition-based monitori

Abstract: This research is investigating a cyber-physical framework for scalable, long-term monitoring and condition- based maintenance of civil infrastructures. Civil infrastructure constitutes a network of interdependent sys- tems and utilities (e.g., highways, bridges, rail systems, buildings) that are necessary for supporting social and economic activities. With growth of the world economy and its population, there has been an ever increasing dependency on larger and more complex networks of civil infrastructure as evident in the billions of dollars spent by the federal, state and local governments to either upgrade or repair transportation sys- tems or utilities. Despite these large expenditures, the nation continues to suffer staggering consequences from infrastructural decay. An example is the August 2007 collapse of the I-35W bridge in Minneapolis which resulted in the loss of 13 lives and economic losses close to $200 million. Therefore, paramount to the concept of a ``smart” city of the future is the concept of ``smart” civil infrastructure that can self-monitor itself to predict any impending failures and in the cases of extreme events (e.g. earthquakes) identify por- tions that would require immediate repair, and prioritize areas for emergency response. This research pro- ject is making significant progress towards this grand vision by investigating a framework of infrastructural internet-of-things (i-IoT) using a network of self-powered, embedded health monitoring sensors. The col- laborative and interdisciplinary nature of this research is providing opportunities for unique outreach pro- grams involving undergraduate and graduate students in areas of sensors, IoTs and structural health mon- itoring. The project is also providing avenues for disseminating the results of this research to stakeholders in the state governments and for translating the results of the research into field deployable prototypes.

The intellectual merits of this research addresses different elements of the proposed i-IoT framework by bringing together expertise from three universities (Washington Univ. in St. Louis, Michigan State University and University of Nevada, Reno) in the area of self-powered sensors, energy scavenging processors, struc- tural health monitoring and earthquake engineering. At the fundamental level, the project is investigating self-powered sensors that will require zero-maintenance and can continuously operate over the useful life- span of the structure without experiencing any downtime. The challenge in this regard is that sensors need to occupy a small enough volume such that an array of these devices could be easily embedded and can provide accurate spatial resolution in structural imaging. This research is also investigating techniques that will enable real-time wireless collection of data from an array of self-powered sensors embedded inside a structure, without taking the structure out-of-service. The methods being explored involve combining the physics of energy scavenging, transduction, rectification and logic computation to improve the system’s energy-efficiency and reduce the system latency. At the algorithmic level the project is exploring novel structural failure prediction and structural forensic algorithms based on historical data collected from self- powered sensors embedded at different spatial locations. This includes kernel algorithms that can exploit the data to quickly identify the most vulnerable part of a structure after a man-made or natural crisis (for example an earth-quake). Finally, the technology translation plan for this research is to validate the pro- posed i-IoT framework in real-world deployment conditions which includes buildings, multi-span bridges and highways.

Explanation of Demonstration: The demonstration will showcase the self-powered piezo-floating-gate sensor technology which has been deployed at the Mackinac Bridge in Michigan. The interactive session will outline the potential of the technology towards achieving the long-term vision of infrastructural internet-of-things.