Development of an IoT Structural Monitoring System Applied to a Hypogeal Site

Abstract

This paper describes the development of a distributed sensing system that can be disseminated in an environment of interest to monitor the vibration of a structure. This low-cost system consists of several sensor nodes and a central receiving node. All nodes are built using off-the-shelf electronic components. Each of the sensor nodes is battery-powered and equipped with a triaxial MEMS accelerometer, a wireless Long Range (LoRa) transceiver module for data transmission, a GPS module used for synchronization, and a microcontroller. The operation of the sensor node is validated by controlled laboratory tests where it is compared to a commercial reference accelerometer. Furthermore, the feasibility and potential benefits of the application of the proposed system to a structure in an archaeological site is investigated. Results show that the proposed sensor node could successfully monitor the vibration at several locations within the site. Therefore, it may be employed to detect the most relevant stresses to the structure, allowing for the identification of risks.

Keywords

• accelerometers
• structural monitoring
• Internet-of-Things sensors
• vibration sensing
• sensors for cultural heritage monitoring