A bridge structural health monitoring system supported by the Internet of Things

Technological devices of all kinds are becoming more common in our daily lives: smart devices are being incorporated in buildings, houses, cars, and public infrastructure such as roads and bridges. The new devices give us an unusual degree of connectivity in our regular activities, for example when we employ our tablets or smart phones to check email or browse the public network, but also in more innovative forms of connectivity, such as receiving notifications directly from our refrigerator or collecting information from our clothes and shoes. This technological revolution brings new opportunities and challenges for users, businesses, and society. This paper explores such a new context, where we begin to co-exist and interact with a network of interconnected devices that is known as the Internet of Things. The objective of the project is to implement a solution for communicating devices that monitor, in real-time, the structural health of a bridge. The implementation is based on 6LoWPAN, a standard based on the IPv6 protocol over low-power and lossy networks to support the Internet of Things. We employ open hardware platforms and emphasize the singularities of embedded systems, such as a limited number of operations, low power consumption, and low bandwidth capability. The prototype shown in this work uses the 6LoWPAN standard in a network environment that connects with a real Bridge Management System, with the aim of optimizing the maintenance of road structures.