4th International Conference on Earthquake Engineering

Substantial research has been conducted to advance structural control as a means of mitigating the dynamic response of civil structures. Recently, the structural engineering field has begun exploring low-cost wireless sensors for structural monitoring applications. Wireless sensors can be employed to reduce the labor and costs associated with installing extensive lengths of coaxial wires in today’s structural control systems. In this study, the wireless sensors are designed to perform four major tasks in a control system: (a) collect real-time structural response data; (b) wirelessly transmit or receive response data; (c) process data and compute control decisions; and (d) apply control signals to structural actuators. The demands of the control system to respond in real-time pose as a challenge for wireless sensing and control, due to communication delays between wireless sensors and possible data loss. This paper investigates the feasibility of employing decentralized and partially decentralized control strategies to reduce communication latencies associated with wireless sensor networks. Control algorithms are embedded in a wireless sensor prototype designed for use in a structural control system. Both numerical simulation and experimental results show that decentralized wireless control is viable for future structural control systems, especially wireless ones.