Remote Placement of Magnetically Coupled Ultrasonic Sensors for Structural Health Monitoring

In this work we develop an intelligent remote sensor placement system for standoff deployment of magnetically coupled ultrasonic sensors for structural health monitoring applications. Currently there exists significant legacy infrastructure that requires monitoring. Sensors often need to be accurately placed in hard-to-reach locations which are exposed to harsh environmental conditions, all while ensuring adequate mechanical coupling between the sensor and the structure. Installing these sensors is a task which is time consuming, expensive, and dangerous. In this paper, we develop an intelligent pneumatic remote sensor placement system meant to be integrated with commercially available multicopters. It is designed to accurately deploy sensor nodes from a standoff distance. To achieve this it will calculate the required trajectory and energy requirements to ensure proper placemen as well as coupling between the node and the structure without damaging the sensor package or the structure in the process. This work leverages recent advances in computer vision and commercially available multicopters to align the remote sensor placement system with the point of attachment on the structure. This technology will reduce the barriers associated with the deployment of large scale sensor networks in the field of structural health monitoring.