image: Senceive sensors monitor UK rail infrastructure. view more
Credit: Senceive
The National Physical Laboratory (NPL) has worked with wireless sensor network developers Senceive, to help them deliver improved monitoring of degradation across critical structures in the UK that will save costs and improve safety levels.
London-based Senceive's main application area is long-term infrastructure monitoring. The company's meshed systems of wireless sensors are used to assess the condition of railway structures, track, bridges, culturally significant buildings and even historical artefacts. The sensors enable managers to plan essential maintenance rather than reacting to problems when they occur, prolonging the lifetime of structures and lessening the likelihood of accidents.
Senceive's wireless sensor networks are highly complex embedded systems, so it can be a challenge to quantify the uncertainties involved. As the system is designed for structural health monitoring-type applications, generating reliable data is critical so Senceive asked NPL to help them improve their products by understanding their measurement challenges.
Initially Senceive needed NPL's help to improve their tilt sensing system and verify its accuracy, precision and limits. NPL characterised the output of Senceive's tilt sensors in terms of linearity, jitter and overall uncertainty. NPL also advised Senceive on system improvements and on future deployments. This has given Senceive a greater understanding of the measurement issues they face, and prepared them for an upcoming large-scale deployment.
The results from the work have given Senceive the confidence of knowing how well their sensors perform with real data to back up their datasheets.
Michael Collett from NPL said:
"NPL provides companies with access to world-leading support and expertise across a wide range of technical areas. By working with NPL, Senceive have been able to understand how to get the most out of their system and validate their results. NPL has also learned a lot by working with a commercial company in the fast moving sector of wireless sensor networks."
Michael Gois at Senceive said:
"Working closely with Michael Collett and tapping into the great depth of expertise at NPL has been invaluable in helping us understand the measurement challenges we are faced with, and enabled us to incorporate some significant improvements into our system design."
Senceive has been working with NPL since 2009. It has supplied the Laboratory with wireless sensors to monitor a 14 tonne footbridge that is 20 metres long and 5 metres high. NPL is loading the bridge to destruction and the effects monitored to find new ways of maximising the lifetimes of civil structures.
About Senceive
Senceive is a London-based supplier of wireless asset monitoring systems. Their systems use wireless sensor networks to protect infrastructure spread across wide areas on industrial sites, civil structures, railways, utilities and many other applications. By remotely retrieving data from almost any sensor type, Senceive's customers can monitor their sites from anywhere in the world.
About NPL
The National Physical Laboratory (NPL) is one of the UK's leading science facilities and research centres. It is a world-leading centre of excellence in developing and applying the most accurate standards, science and technology available.
NPL occupies a unique position as the UK's National Measurement Institute and sits at the intersection between scientific discovery and real world application. Its expertise and original research have underpinned quality of life, innovation and competitiveness for UK citizens and business for more than a century:
- NPL provides companies with access to world leading support and technical expertise, inspiring the absolute confidence required to realise competitive advantage from new materials, techniques and technologies
- NPL expertise and services are crucial in a wide range of social applications - helping to save lives, protect the environment and enable citizens to feel safe and secure. Support in areas such as the development of advanced medical treatments and environmental monitoring helps secure a better quality of life for all
- NPL develops and maintains the nation's primary measurement standards, supporting an infrastructure of traceable measurement throughout the UK and the world, to ensure accuracy and consistency.