• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.17 no.6
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• pp.935-956
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• 2016

With the help of advanced image acquisition and processing technology, the vision-based measurement methods have been broadly applied to implement the structural monitoring and condition identification of civil engineering structures. Many noncontact approaches enabled by different digital image processing algorithms are developed to overcome the problems in conventional structural dynamic displacement measurement. This paper presents three kinds of image processing algorithms for structural dynamic displacement measurement, i.e., the grayscale pattern matching (GPM) algorithm, the color pattern matching (CPM) algorithm, and the mean shift tracking (MST) algorithm. A vision-based system programmed with the three image processing algorithms is developed for multi-point structural dynamic displacement measurement. The dynamic displacement time histories of multiple vision points are simultaneously measured by the vision-based system and the magnetostrictive displacement sensor (MDS) during the laboratory shaking table tests of a three-story steel frame model. The comparative analysis results indicate that the developed vision-based system exhibits excellent performance in structural dynamic displacement measurement by use of the three different image processing algorithms. The field application experiments are also carried out on an arch bridge for the measurement of displacement influence lines during the loading tests to validate the effectiveness of the vision-based system.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.315-326
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• 2015

To overcome the drawbacks of the traditional contact-type sensor for structural displacement measurement, the vision-based technology with the aid of the digital image processing algorithm has received increasing concerns from the community of structural health monitoring (SHM). The advanced vision-based system has been widely used to measure the structural displacement of civil engineering structures due to its overwhelming merits of non-contact, long-distance, and high-resolution. However, seldom currently-available vision-based systems are capable of realizing the synchronous structural displacement measurement for multiple points on the investigated structure. In this paper, the method for vision-based multi-point structural displacement measurement is presented. A series of moving loading experiments on a scale arch bridge model are carried out to validate the accuracy and reliability of the vision-based system for multi-point structural displacement measurement. The structural displacements of five points on the bridge deck are measured by the vision-based system and compared with those obtained by the linear variable differential transformer (LVDT). The comparative study demonstrates that the vision-based system is deemed to be an effective and reliable means for multi-point structural displacement measurement.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.273-286
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• 2022

In recent years, vision-based monitoring has received great attention. However, structural identification using vision-based displacement measurements is far less established. Especially, simultaneous identification of structural systems and unknown excitation using vision-based displacement measurements is still a challenging task since the unknown excitations do not appear directly in the observation equations. Moreover, measurement accuracy deteriorates over a wider field of view by vision-based monitoring, so, only a portion of the structure is measured instead of targeting a whole structure when using monocular vision. In this paper, the identification of structural system and excitations using vision-based displacement measurements is investigated. It is based on substructure identification approach to treat of problem of limited field of view of vision-based monitoring. For the identification of a target substructure, substructure interaction forces are treated as unknown inputs. A smoothing extended Kalman filter with unknown inputs without direct feedthrough is proposed for the simultaneous identification of substructure and unknown inputs using vision-based displacement measurements. The smoothing makes the identification robust to measurement noises. The proposed algorithm is first validated by the identification of a three-span continuous beam bridge under an impact load. Then, it is investigated by the more difficult identification of a frame and unknown wind excitation. Both examples validate the good performances of the proposed method.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.20 no.5
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• pp.563-572
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• 2017

The safety of structures is closely associated with the structural out-of-plane behavior. In particular, long and slender beam structures have been increasingly used in the design and construction. Therefore, an evaluation of the lateral and torsional behavior of a structure is important for the safety of the structure during construction as well as under service conditions. The current contact measurement method using displacement meters cannot measure independent movements directly and also requires caution when installing the displacement meters. Therefore, in this study, a vision-based system was used to measure the in-plane and out-of-plane displacements of a structure. The image processing algorithm was based on reference objects, including multiple targets in Lab color space. The captured targets were synchronized using a load indicator connected wirelessly to a data logger system in the server. A laboratory beam test was carried out to compare the displacements and rotation obtained from the proposed vision-based measurement system with those from the current measurement method using string potentiometers. The test results showed that the proposed vision-based measurement system could be applied successfully and easily to evaluating both the in-plane and out-of-plane movements of a beam including twisting rotation.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.585-599
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• 2016

Steel cables serve as the key structural components in long-span bridges, and the force state of the steel cable is deemed to be one of the most important determinant factors representing the safety condition of bridge structures. The disadvantages of traditional cable force measurement methods have been envisaged and development of an effective alternative is still desired. In the last decade, the vision-based sensing technology has been rapidly developed and broadly applied in the field of structural health monitoring (SHM). With the aid of vision-based multi-point structural displacement measurement method, monitoring of the tensile force of the steel cable can be realized. In this paper, a novel cable force monitoring system integrated with a multi-point pattern matching algorithm is developed. The feasibility and accuracy of the developed vision-based force monitoring system has been validated by conducting the uniaxial tensile tests of steel bars, steel wire ropes, and parallel strand cables on a universal testing machine (UTM) as well as a series of moving loading experiments on a scale arch bridge model. The comparative study of the experimental outcomes indicates that the results obtained by the vision-based system are consistent with those measured by the traditional method for cable force measurement.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.3 no.3
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• pp.373-384
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• 2007

For structural health monitoring (SHM) of civil infrastructures, displacement is a good descriptor of the structural behavior under all the potential disturbances. However, it is not easy to measure displacement of civil infrastructures, since the conventional sensors need a reference point, and inaccessibility to the reference point is sometimes caused by the geographic conditions, such as a highway or river under a bridge, which makes installation of measuring devices time-consuming and costly, if not impossible. To resolve this issue, a visionbased real-time displacement measurement system using digital image processing techniques is developed. The effectiveness of the proposed system was verified by comparing the load carrying capacities of a steel-plate girder bridge obtained from the conventional sensor and the present system. Further, to simultaneously measure multiple points, a synchronized vision-based system is developed using master/slave system with wireless data communication. For the purpose of verification, the measured displacement by a synchronized vision-based system was compared with the data measured by conventional contact-type sensors, linear variable differential transformers (LVDT) from a laboratory test.

• 한국기계연구소 소보
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• s.19
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• pp.69-79
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• 1989

Cutting tool life monitoring is a critical element needed for designing unmanned machining systems. This paper describes a tool wear measurement system using computer vision which repeatedly measures flank and crater wear of a single point cutting tool. This direct tool wear measurement method is based on an interactive procedure utilizing a image processor and multi-vision sensors. A measurement software calcultes 7 parameters to characterize flank and crater wear. Performance test revealed that the computer vision technique provides precise, absolute tool-wear quantification and reduces human maesurement errors.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.13 no.6
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• pp.927-942
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• 2014

Structural displacement is an important indicator for assessing structural safety. For structural displacement monitoring, vision-based displacement measurement systems have been widely developed; however, most systems estimate only 1 or 2-DOF translational displacement. To monitor the 6-DOF structural displacement with high accuracy, a vision-based displacement measurement system with a uniquely designed marker is proposed in this paper. The system is composed of a uniquely designed marker and a camera with a zooming capability, and relative translational and rotational displacement between the marker and the camera is estimated by finding a homography transformation. The novel marker is designed to make the system robust to measurement noise based on a sensitivity analysis of the conventional marker and it has been verified through Monte Carlo simulation results. The performance of the displacement estimation has been verified through two kinds of experimental tests; using a shaking table and a motorized stage. The results show that the system estimates the structural 6-DOF displacement, especially the translational displacement in Z-axis, with high accuracy in real time and is robust to measurement noise.

• Transactions of Materials Processing
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• v.5 no.4
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• pp.343-352
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• 1996

One of the preferred methods that can be used to verify the results of finite element analysis is to measure surface strains of the deformed part for purpose of direct comparison with simulation results. Instead of using the usual manual method the vision-based measurement method is capable of determining surface geometry and strain from the deformed grid pattern automatically with the help of a computer. To obtain strain distribution over an area, the coordinates of such a surface grid are determined from the multiple video images by applying the photogrammetry principle. Methods to improve the overall accuracy of the vision-based strain measurement system are explored and the possible accuracies that can be attained by such a measurement method are discussed. A major emphasis is placed on the initial grid application method its accuracy and ease of subsequent image processing. Finite element analyses of limiting dome height(LDH) test are carried out and the results of them are compared with exsperimen-tal data.

• Journal of Information Processing Systems
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.155-170
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• 2020

Passive ranging is a critical part of machine vision measurement. Most of passive ranging methods based on machine vision use binocular technology which need strict hardware conditions and lack of universality. To measure the distance of an object placed on horizontal plane, we present a passive ranging method based on monocular vision system by smartphone. Experimental results show that given the same abscissas, the ordinatesis of the image points linearly related to their actual imaging angles. According to this principle, we first establish a depth extraction model by assuming a linear function and substituting the actual imaging angles and ordinates of the special conjugate points into the linear function. The vertical distance of the target object to the optical axis is then calculated according to imaging principle of camera, and the passive ranging can be derived by depth and vertical distance to the optical axis of target object. Experimental results show that ranging by this method has a higher accuracy compare with others based on binocular vision system. The mean relative error of the depth measurement is 0.937% when the distance is within 3 m. When it is 3-10 m, the mean relative error is 1.71%. Compared with other methods based on monocular vision system, the method does not need to calibrate before ranging and avoids the error caused by data fitting.