Wireless Cyber-physical Simulator and Case Studies on Structural Control Wireless Cyber-physical Simulator and Case Studies on Structural Control

Wireless Structural Control (WSC) systems can play a crucial role in protecting civil infrastructure in the event of earthquakes and other natural disasters. Such systems represent an exemplary class of cyber-physical systems that perform close-loop control using wireless sensor networks. Existing WSC research usually employs wireless sensors installed on small lab structures, which cannot capture realistic delays and data loss in wireless sensor networks deployed on large civil structures. The lack of realistic tools that capture both the cyber (wireless) and physical (structural) aspects of WSC systems has been a hurdle for cyber-physical systems research for civil infrastructure. This advances the state of the art through the following contributions. First, we developed the Wireless Cyber-Physical Simulator (WCPS), an integrated environment that combines realistic simulations of both wireless sensor networks and structures. WCPS integrates Simulink and TOSSIM, a state-of-the-art sensor network simulator featuring a realistic wireless model seeded by signal traces. Second, we performed two realistic case studies each combining a structural model with wireless traces collected from real-world environments. The building study combines a benchmark building model and wireless traces collected from a multi-story building. The bridge study combines the structural model of the Cape Girardeau bridge over the Mississippi River and wireless traces collected from a similar bridge (the Jindo Bridge) in South Type of Report: MS Thesis Department of Computer Science & Engineering Washington University in St. Louis Campus Box 1045 St. Louis, MO 63130 ph: (314) 935-6160 Washington University in St. Louis School of Engineering and Applied Science Department of Computer Science and Engineering Thesis Examination Committee: Dr. Roger D. Chamberlain Dr. Christopher D. Gill Dr. Chenyang Lu, Chair Wireless Cyber-Physical Simulator and Case Studies on Structural Control by Bo Li A thesis presented to the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences of Washington University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science August 2013 Saint Louis, Missouri