• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.18 no.6
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• pp.1217-1231
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• 2016

In this research, a slotted patch antenna sensor is designed for wireless strain and crack sensing. An off-the-shelf RFID (radiofrequency identification) chip is adopted in the antenna sensor design for signal modulation. The operation power of the RFID chip is captured from wireless reader interrogation signal, so the sensor operation is completely battery-free (passive) and wireless. For strain and crack sensing of a structure, the antenna sensor is bonded on the structure surface like a regular strain gage. Since the antenna resonance frequency is directly related with antenna dimension, which deforms when strain occurs on the structural surface, the deformation/strain can be correlated with antenna resonance frequency shift measured by an RFID reader. The slotted patch antenna sensor performance is first evaluated through mechanics-electromagnetics coupled simulation. Extensive experiments are then conducted to validate the antenna sensor performance, including tensile and compressive strain sensing, wireless interrogation range, and fatigue crack sensing.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.6 no.5_6
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• pp.439-459
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• 2010

Structural health monitoring (SHM) of civil infrastructure using wireless smart sensor networks (WSSNs) has received significant public attention in recent years. The benefits of WSSNs are that they are low-cost, easy to install, and provide effective data management via on-board computation. This paper reports on the deployment and evaluation of a state-of-the-art WSSN on the new Jindo Bridge, a cable-stayed bridge in South Korea with a 344-m main span and two 70-m side spans. The central components of the WSSN deployment are the Imote2 smart sensor platforms, a custom-designed multimetric sensor boards, base stations, and software provided by the Illinois Structural Health Monitoring Project (ISHMP) Services Toolsuite. In total, 70 sensor nodes and two base stations have been deployed to monitor the bridge using an autonomous SHM application with excessive wind and vibration triggering the system to initiate monitoring. Additionally, the performance of the system is evaluated in terms of hardware durability, software stability, power consumption and energy harvesting capabilities. The Jindo Bridge SHM system constitutes the largest deployment of wireless smart sensors for civil infrastructure monitoring to date. This deployment demonstrates the strong potential of WSSNs for monitoring of large scale civil infrastructure.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.33 no.6
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• pp.465-482
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• 2024

In this paper, a robust wireless sensor network configuration design method is proposed to develop the optimal configuration under the consideration of sensor failure and energy consumption. A malfunctioned sensor in a wireless sensor network may lead to data transmission failure of the entire sensing cluster, inducing severe deterioration in system identification performance. The proposed method determines a wireless sensor network configuration that is robust against sensor failure. By utilizing Bayesian inference, we introduce a robust indicator to evaluate the impact on estimation accuracy of sensor configurations with various malfunctioned sensors. Moreover, a network formation strategy is proposed to optimize the energy efficiency of the wireless sensor network configuration. Therefore, the resultant robust wireless sensor network configuration can operate with the minimum energy consumption while the measurement information of the sensor network with malfunctioned sensors can be guaranteed. The proposed method is illustrated by designing the robust wireless sensor network configurations of a truss model and a bridge model.

• Journal of information and communication convergence engineering
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.258-262
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• 2009

A Practical application of environmental monitoring system based on wireless sensor node network with the core of embedded system STR711FR2 microprocessor is presented in the paper. The adaptable and classifiable wireless sensor node network is used to achieve the data acquisition and multi-hop wireless communication of parameters of the monitoring base station environment including repeaters. The structure of the system is proposed and the hardware architecture of the system is designed, and the system operating procedures is proposed. As a result of field test, designed hardware platform operated with 50kbps bit rate and 5MHz channel spacing at 2040Hz. The wireless monitoring system can be managed and swiftly retreated without support of base station environmental monitoring.

• Proceedings of the Korean Environmental Sciences Society Conference
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• 1998.04a
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• pp.109-111
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• 1998

A sensor was designed to detect backmixing of vessel fluid into the feedpipe. The sensor was composed of electrodes and a designed electric circuit. The electrodes were installed inside the feedpipe and tap water was flowed into the feedpipe. When NaC1 solution in the vessel penetrate into the feedpipe due to high agitator speed, the conductivity change is sensed by the electrodes and the resultant output signal is recorded by a pen-chart recorder. The electric circuit was designed to show maximum sensitivity. The resolution of this designed sensor was on the order of 10-s mole/l.

• IEMEK Journal of Embedded Systems and Applications
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.229-235
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• 2014

This paper presents an environmental navigation system which provides a guidance to the users of smart bicycle for a pollution-free route during their travel. The smart bicycle operates as a sensor node being composed of a distributed wireless sensor network over the whole urban area. Several environmental sensors measuring the amount of dust, CO, $CO_2$, $NO_2$ in the air are built into the smart bicycle to estimate the level of air pollution in the located area. Each smart bicycle sends/receives the measured sensor data and the city pollution map to/from the centralized server, which leads the bike-riders to a healthy route by providing the environmental navigation information. The proposed idea and its implementation give a useful insight on various application services with the distributed smart bicycles.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.24 no.5
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• pp.281-286
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• 2015

The importance of air quality monitoring is rapidly increasing. Even though state-of-the-art air quality monitoring technologies such as mass spectrometry, gas chromatography, and optical measurement enable high-fidelity measurement of air pollutants, they cannot be widely used for portable or personalized platforms because of their high cost and complexity. Recently, personalized and localized environmental monitoring, rather than global and averaged environmental monitoring, has drawn greater attention with the advancement of mobile telecommunication technologies. Here, micro- and nano-technologies enable highly integrated and ultra-compact sensors to meet the needs of personalized environmental monitoring. In this paper, several examples of MEMS-based gas sensors for compact and personalized air quality monitoring are explained. Additionally, the principles and usage of functional nanomaterials are discussed for highly sensitive and selective gas sensors.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers P
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• v.56 no.3
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• pp.117-122
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• 2007

In this paper, we described a design and implementation of a sensor node for environmental monitoring. The main focus of design for sensor nodes is to isolate MCU for treating sensors from the RF module for considering various communication environment. The second is to make the interface between MCU and varity of sensor. In addition, we choose a narrow band communication module, cc1020, for the admittance of Korea government communication law. We also use a uC/OS-II as an operating system which is famous for 8bit MCUs. We showed that the communication performance is sufficient to use the communication module in a out-door environment through several experiments in that it is possible to transmit between 100m distance through experiments in a mountain.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.163-167
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• 2022

In this study, we investigated a carbon nanotube (CNT) film sensor to detect hazardous and noxious substances distributed in seawater. The response change of the sensor was studied according to environmental temperature, and its temperature coefficient of resistance (TCR, α) was measured. The temperature of the CNT film (~50 ㎛) was in the range of 20-50 ℃, and αCNT was calculated to be -0.0011 %/ ℃. We experimentally confirmed that the CNT film had a smaller TCR value than that of the conventional sensor. Therefore, we investigated the response change of the CNT sensor according to temperature. The CNT sensor showed a relatively small error of approximately 2.3 % up to 30 ℃, which is within the temperature range of the seawater of the Korean Peninsula. However, when the temperature exceeded 40 ℃, the error in the CNT sensor increased by more than 5.2 %. We fabricated a metal oxide (ITO, indium-tin-oxide) film and compared its performance with that of the CNT sensor. The ITO sensor showed an error of >12.5 % at 30 ℃, indicating that in terms of the stability of the sensor to temperature, the CNT film sensor has superior performance.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.69 no.4
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• pp.407-416
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• 2019

This paper develops a wireless sensor for online fatigue crack detection and failure warning based on crack-induced nonlinear ultrasonic modulation. The wireless sensor consists of packaged piezoelectric (PZT) module, an excitation/sensing module, a data acquisition/processing module, a wireless communication module, and a power supply module. The packaged PZT and the excitation/sensing module generate ultrasonic waves on a structure and capture the response. Based on nonlinear ultrasonic modulation created by a crack, the data acquisition/processing module periodically performs fatigue crack diagnosis and provides failure warning if a component failure is imminent. The outcomes are transmitted to a base through the wireless communication module where two-levels duty cycling media access control (MAC) is implemented. The uniqueness of the paper lies in that 1) the proposed wireless sensor is developed specifically for online fatigue crack detection and failure warning, 2) failure warning as well as crack diagnosis are provided based on crack-induced nonlinear ultrasonic modulation, 3) event-driven operation of the sensor, considering rare extreme events such as earthquakes, is made possible with a power minimization strategy, and 4) the applicability of the wireless sensor to steel welded members is examined through field and laboratory tests. A fatigue crack on a steel welded specimen was successfully detected when the overall width of the crack was around $30{\mu}m$, and a failure warnings were provided when about 97.6% of the remaining useful fatigue lives were reached. Four wireless sensors were deployed on Yeongjong Grand Bridge in Souht Korea. The wireless sensor consumed 282.95 J for 3 weeks, and the processed results on the sensor were transmitted up to 20 m with over 90% success rate.