Wireless sensors for structural control

In the field of civil engineering, wireless sensor networks are mostly considered for structural monitoring systems. In this paper the authors attempt to apply it into a structural control system for a 3-storey frame mounted on a shaking table. The structural control system mainly consists of four accelerometers, a structural controller and an Active Mass Damper (AMD) as actuator. The designed wireless sensors is based on the use of recent low-power System-on-Chip wireless transceivers which integrate an 8051 microcontroller core and are able to operate in most license-free Industrial, Scientific and Medical (ISM) frequency bands . The requirement of continuous and real-time sensing in the structural control applications represents the main challenge for the wireless sensor network which has the problem of data loss. The AMD is based on a direct current (DC) motor driven by a newly designed proportional, integral and derivative (PID) controller.