This technology is a vision-based displacement sensor that enables remote monitoring of structural degradation in civil structures.
Civil structures, such as dams and bridges, continually face exposure to harsh environmental conditions and various external loads that can degrade structural integrity and cause catastrophic failure. While contact-type sensors for monitoring structural deformation exist, they are often subject to complex installation or are error-prone. Vision-based displacement sensors provide a promising alternative that enables remote monitoring of structural displacement, but are susceptible to vibrations caused by traffic or weather conditions. As such, there is a need for an accurate low-cost vision displacement sensor that can monitor structural displacement regardless of external conditions.
This technology uses high performance vision-based displacement sensors to remotely monitor structural changes in real-time without the need for physical calibration markers. The system employs multiple cameras to monitor global structural deformations by capturing images at multiple points in space and time and using a template-matching algorithm to construct a displacement profile. Incorporating multiple cameras allows this technology to eliminate errors from external vibrations, while a laser-based auto-calibration module automatically refocuses the cameras and computes the proper pixel size.
A prototype of this technology has been demonstrated to accurately measure structural displacement both on a lab-scale and in direct field-testing on bridges.
Patent Issued (US 9,560,246)
IR CU13114
Licensing Contact: Richard Nguyen