Hybrid Artificial Intelligence Approach to Continuous Bridge Monitoring

A framework for an intelligent fusion of outputs from a combination of the state of the art nondestructive testing techniques of highway bridges and parking garages is described. A hybrid artificial intelligence system that automates the decision-making process is employed for the examination of the results obtained from various nondestructive testing methods. Neural networks, fuzzy logic, as well as other computational paradigms are employed for a preliminary pattern recognition and sensor data reduction from individual nondestructive testing techniques. An expert system is used for providing a user interface, selecting _altemati ve paradigms for data analysis guided by the user input, as well as the information obtained from the system's knowledge base. The final decision-making process is performed via the expert system through the interpretation of the numerical results based on heuristic and knowledge-based reasoning. The system is divided into many independent modules that interact with each other. Any of the modules can be individually modified, retrained or replaced altogether without affecting any of the other modules.