Miniaturized wireless sensor node for earthquake monitoring applications

Miniaturized wireless sensor nodes have demonstrated promising use in many application fields. This paper presents a new wireless sensor node designed for earthquake simulation and structural health monitoring applications. The sensor node is based on an ultra-low power System-on-Chip (SoC) microcontroller with an integrated sub-1GHz radio core. The node is also equipped with a temperature sensor and a 3-axis accelerometer to monitor its ambient environment and geotechnical movements. The sensor is designed targeting minimum physical size and power consumption. The shake table earthquake-like simulation showed that the node can correctly measure typical seismic acceleration and work autonomously for up to 17 days with continuous acceleration measurement and 30 minutes of effective radio transmission every day.