Bio-inspired Sensors for Structural Health Monitoring - Biotechnologies and Biomimetics for Civil Engineering - page 256

Fig. 11.2 A cross-section of the cochlea is shown. The cochlea is a part of the mammalian inner
ear and plays an important role in processing and transmitting auditory signals (Peckens and
Lynch 2013 ). (Image provided courtesy of IOP publishing)
signal processing technology integrated with a rain-flow counting method. It was
shown that loading cycles were accurately measured with \5 % error, and fatigue
life was calculated.
11.3 Creature-like Robotic Sensors
While bio-inspired algorithms offer the possibility of optimizing sensor instru-
mentations, in many cases, large structures still require densely distributed sensors
for SHM. It has already been shown by Celebi ( 2002 ) that the cost to install
sensors in tall buildings could exceed US$5,000 per channel. Although one of the
major goals (and advantages) of wireless sensors was to lower costs by eliminating
sensor dependence on a tethered connection (Lynch and Loh 2006 ), the need for a
dense sensor instrumentation could make a wireless SHM system cost prohibitive
for many end-users and applications.
Mobile or robotic sensors that are inspired by different creatures' ability to
navigate around the natural world offer unique benefits for SHM. In particular, the
fundamental benefit is that mobile sensors are no longer tied to their instrumented
locations, as is the case for static sensor networks. Instead, a small number of
mobile sensors could crawl around a bridge or building and record structural
response data at many measurement points. The robotic sensor could be wirelessly
commanded, collect data at a variety of measurement points over large spatial
domains, and as frequently as desired (given the limitations of onboard power).
The end result would be the possibility of obtaining densely distributed structural
response data using only a handful of sensors. These robots could also navigate to