5 Reasons to consider Wireless Monitoring
Learn about wireless monitoring advantages
Wireless is the smarter, more efficient way to monitor infrastructure.
Intelligent, robust, precise.
Here are five reasons to consider wireless for your next monitoring project.
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1. Save Money
For very short term monitoring it often makes sense to stick with the conventional approaches of attended surveys and monitoring because setup and capex costs are relatively low. The longer term cost benefits of wireless can kick-in surprisingly quickly however. This is especially true where sites are remote, where access is challenging and where safety supervision or access equipment hire may be required.
Key considerations: Wireless setup is quick, simple and can be often be done by engineers or surveyors already working on the project rather than specialist personnel mobilised for just a few hours work The initial cost of instruments can be offset by re-using them on other sites, and with a life of over ten years the investment can be spread over multiple projects Time is money – wireless monitoring saves the time of key people on a project, enabling them to focus on the data and its significance, rather than the process of collecting it.
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2. Safer Monitoring with fewer Site Visits Construction sites, railways and mines are recognised as high-risk environments and there is pressure throughout the industry to harness technology in order to reduce risk to people. The ability to leave instruments such as wireless tilt sensors, crack gauges and cameras in places
that are hard to access means that you don’t need to put people in harms way. The ability to understand the long- term performance of assets such
as bridges, tunnels and dams, and to detect problems such as deformation, cracking or slope failure instantly can help protect people using the assets or potentially affected by their failure.
Key considerations: Around the world, construction and transportation are amongst the most dangerous sectors in terms of workforce injuries and fatalities. Around 1000 deaths and 175,000 injuries are recorded per year in the US construction industry alone. Any reduction in the number of people on site will reduce the exposure to risk – it is far safer to monitor assets from a desk than from a scaffold platform or a railroad track. Most countries have a growing number of assets such as bridges that are classed as sub-standard and they all face a growing risk of defects and collapse. Increasing traffic levels and the changing climate exacerbate these pressures. Wireless remote monitoring technologies such as the Senceive InfraGuard TM system can detect many defects in time to alert stakeholders and significantly reduce the risk to users.
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3. Easy Setup A key factor in the selection of any monitoring solution is the complexity of setup and operation. Like other IOT technologies, easy installation and operation is one of the big advantages of wireless monitoring. Installation of Senceive kit can often be performed by non-specialists with remote instruction and supervision. Other aspects you should consider include system design and configuration, and getting the most from
the data, for example by integrating and visualising in combination with other datastreams. These can be more complicated, but help is always available either through an empowered partner or directly from Senceive via a service agreement. Selecting the right monitoring configuration requires a robust understanding of the objective (and knowledge of the asset being monitored), together with an understanding of the tools available.
Key considerations: Site access is often restricted, difficult to arrange and expensive – for example when accessing railways or bridges that’s why its crucial to get the most done in the shortest time Senceive wireless technology can be pre-configured, so its usually a case of taking it out of the box, fixing it to the asset and seeing the first data online within minutes. To get the most from the instrumentation and the data, there can still be a need for training and support. That’s where the Senceive Academy and tailored service packages come in.
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4. Continuous Data - Frequent sampling Frequency of sampling is a key factor in establishing an acceptable level of confidence that a significant event will be detected. An approach based on scheduled visual inspections or surveys may yield high quality data on asset condition, but will typically be conducted too infrequently to reliably detect a dynamic defect such as a failing slope. A growing number of automated technologies are available that can provide frequent updates based on remote instruments. Techniques for slope monitoring include INSAR, automated total stations and wireless condition monitoring as well as geotechnical instruments that can be left in boreholes to monitor parameters including groundwater and vertical and horizontal movement. For structural health monitoring there are even more options, including instrumentation to monitor movement, engineering parameters such as
stress and strain, as well as changes in chemical and environmental properties. Technologies include accelerometers, acoustic emissions sensors, fibre optics, vibration sensors and tilt meters. Most of the automated techniques operate on the basis of intermittent sampling and reporting. Some can transmit their data automatically, whereas others require a person to visit site and download results. They do not, therefore, truly address the need for high frequency or continuous sampling to detect sudden events.
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Wireless monitoring using tilt meter and other sensors is an exception. Sampling and reporting frequency
can be set to sub-minute intervals (although this will reduce the battery life of the system). Innovative solutions such as Senceive InfraGuard™ combine long-life with a high probability of event detection by using unique responsive sensors that can “wake up” from a low power mode to a near continuous mode if movement is detected. Rapid sampling is important in applications where things can change quickly. Examples include monitoring:
• tunnel convergence in the hours following lining construction
• structures such as building facades affected by adjacent demolition or construction works
• bridges and structures considered vulnerable to flood or impact damage slopes such as railway cuttings and flood banks.
Key considerations: Rapid sampling improves the probability of event detection – but usually comes with the payoff of short battery life
The intelligence built into InfraGuard sensors enables unique responsive behaviour AND ultra-long battery life
Long-term continuous monitoring provides a potentially powerful database to enable asset owners to characterise cyclic patterns of behaviour and identify problems in time to act – potentially the basis of predict and prevent maintenance.
Big Data
100 x 48 = 4800 samples per day 4800 x 365 = 1.7m samples per year
for Smarter Infrastructure
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5. Long-life Achieving long-life performance without fixed power and communications infrastructure is a challenge faced in many monitoring applications. The solution developed by Senceive typically uses solar panels to power a cellular communications gateway and battery powered sensors that are optimised to operate for up to 15 years. This means that remote assets can be managed based on precise, reliable data without frequent site visits.
Getting to this point has not been easy. The journey started in 2005 with the first field deployments of what has evolved into the Senceive FlatMesh™ solution, which is built on a non-hierarchical, self-organising mesh architecture. The firmware installed on each wireless node enables a network of nodes to communicate efficiently thanks to a flat structure,
whereby each node communicates with its neighbours on an equal status basis, without hierarchy and without the need for any specialised router or concentrator nodes. This enables simple quick installation, and robust, self-organising operation.
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Together with smart algorithms operating in each node, this reduces power consumption and maximizes battery life. Monitoring systems based on the FlatMesh™ wireless communication platform are engineered to combine the benefits of frequent sampling with ultra-long
battery life; tilt sensors powered by a single lithium cell battery can operate for up to 15 years based on 30 minute sampling.
Constraints to consider include the reduced effectiveness of solar panels in certain conditions and
the impact of more frequent sampling on node battery life.
Key considerations: Most monitoring solutions rely either on fixed power supply or low frequency reporting to provide a satisfactory lifespan.
Senceive technology enables long-life performance, even in highly challenging environments.
The long lifespan of automated remote monitoring and the greatly reduced need for site visits result in cost savings of up to 80% compared to conventional monitoring approaches.
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