Could New Orleans have been saved if the levees had been blogging before Katrina arrived? Would the tragedy of 9/11 have gone any different if the structural steel in the World Trade Center had been podcasting its status via an RSS feed?
If the questions above make no sense to you, change “blogging” and “podcasting” in the paragraph above to “reporting structural and environmental data in real time using embedded sensors.” Research is well underway in many quarters that will make it possible to embed wireless sensors in buildings, providing an innovative new source of data.
FIATECH has successfully conducted two field tests involving the use of embedded sensors to test concrete curing rates, and has also studied the use of sensors to track tools and materials on the construction job site.
Today comes news that Solidica is joining the list of researchers. Solidica’s proprietary Ultrasonic Consolidation technology combines the ability to quickly “grow” dense metal parts, novel material, and injection tools with the option of embedding fibers and advanced wireless electronics. Thanks to a grant from the National Science Foundation, Solidica will seek to validate the idea of embedding wireless sensors into physical structures, for the purpose of real-time monitoring.
Ken Johnson, Solidica Vice President of Strategic Development and the Principal Investigator on the project, says “the basic premise of this effort is to provide the real-time health status information of a structure which can either predict a potential failure or provide data to first responders if a catastrophic event were to occur. Imagine the value of being able to remotely monitor the progression of a fire throughout a large complex, or map its structural integrity, knowing exactly which areas are safe and which are impassable.”
The use of wireless sensors in construction is a hot growth area right now, but still mostly off the radar. We’ll be keeping a close eye on developments in 2006.
--RSN