Citizen Sensors for SHM: Towards a Crowdsourcing Platform

Area of Science:

• Civil Engineering
• Computer Science
• Data Science

Background:

• Ubiquitous smartphones offer potential for low-cost sensor networks in structural health monitoring (SHM).
• Crowdsourcing provides valuable, heterogeneous data from citizen initiatives for SHM applications.
• Previous research validated smartphone accelerometers for vibration-based SHM.

Purpose of the Study:

• To integrate mobile sensing and web-based computing for a crowdsourcing-based SHM platform.
• To develop and test a system for collecting and processing structural vibration data using citizen-operated smartphones.
• To assess the reliability and accuracy of citizen-acquired data for identifying structural modal properties.

Main Methods:

• Developed an iOS application for citizens to measure and upload structural vibration data.
• Created a web-based platform for automated data collection, processing, and storage of modal properties.
• Conducted field tests on a bridge structure using the integrated mobile and web platforms.
• Investigated uncertainties associated with citizen data collection (phone location, coupling, duration).

Main Results:

• Demonstrated that vibration data acquired by citizen smartphones accurately identifies structural modal properties.
• Validated the effectiveness of the integrated mobile and web platform for SHM.
• Identified and analyzed potential sources of uncertainty in citizen-collected data.

Conclusions:

• The developed platform successfully utilizes citizen-operated smartphones for accurate structural health monitoring.
• The system offers a cost-effective, sustainable approach for long-term monitoring of urban infrastructure.
• This participatory sensing platform provides hybrid solutions for crowdsourcing parameters in SHM.