Embedded Sensor System for Early Pathology Detection in Building Construction

TL;DR

This paper presents an autonomous, low-power ZigBee wireless sensor network system designed for early detection of structural pathologies in building construction, reducing risks associated with manual inspections.

Contribution

It introduces a novel ZigBee-based WSN system tailored for structural health monitoring, with detailed design, protocol, and performance evaluation.

Findings

The prototype effectively monitors structure health with low power consumption.

Range tests demonstrate reliable communication within typical building distances.

Power consumption analysis confirms suitability for long-term deployment.

Abstract

Structure pathology detection is an important security task in building construction, which is performed by an operator by looking manually for damages on the materials. This activity could be dangerous if the structure is hidden or difficult to reach. On the other hand, embedded devices and wireless sensor networks (WSN) are becoming popular and cheap, enabling the design of an alternative pathology detection system to monitor structures based on these technologies. This article introduces a ZigBee WSN system, intending to be autonomous, easy to use and with low power consumption. Its functional parts are fully discussed with diagrams, as well as the protocol used to collect samples from sensor nodes. Finally, several tests focused on range and power consumption of our prototype are shown, analysing whether the results obtained were as expected or not.