In structural health monitoring we work to provide the best estimate of the condition of a structure based on a set of data acquired by sensors. The radical developments that have taken place in the telecommunication and sensor technology fields are about to change the way civil engineering design and infrastructure maintenance is conceived and carried out. Sensors and instrumentation for civil application currently used cost a fraction of what they used to cost ten years ago and perform better. The existence of embedded sensors from the construction inevitably influences structural design and construction industry.
The group activity in this field addresses different scale level: development and integration of new sensors suitable for civil monitoring, including wireless sensors, fiber optic sensors and electromagnetic gauges; laboratory validation of new monitoring technologies; design and deployment of monitoring systems for real-time control and assessment of structures. Recently, the growing success of keywords like smart structure, intelligent infrastructure and decision support system, also supports the idea that optimal decisions are an output of structural health monitoring.
Therefore, we believe that efficient structural health monitoring system incorporates good-quality sensor technology, a robust network for data transmission and storage, and a decision support system (DSS) for structural management purposes.