Mobile multi-agent evaluation method for wireless sensor networks-based large-scale structural health monitoring

Wireless sensor networks are increasingly adopted both in aircraft and civil structural health monitoring. However, due to the limited resources on a wireless sensor node, structural evaluation ability of the wireless sensor network is also limited, especially for large-scale structures. This paper presents a multi-agent cooperation system based on mobile agent technology for wireless sensor network-based structural health monitoring which deals with the evaluation of large-scale structure. Mobile agent with the signal processing or evaluation algorithm is designed to migrate among different sensor nodes and perform network self-organization, data processing, information fusion, and damage estimation. This method can reduce the request to the sensor nodes and achieve a better monitoring and evaluation performance through multiagent cooperation. The proposed mobile multiagent system is evaluated by a large dimension aerospace aluminum structure monitoring experiment in which strain distribution and joint failure are monitored by different sensors. Experimental results show that the system can significantly improve the monitoring performance for large-scale structures.