{"id":53206,"date":"2022-12-01T11:14:05","date_gmt":"2022-12-01T10:14:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/intellias.com\/?p=53206"},"modified":"2024-07-28T21:12:11","modified_gmt":"2024-07-28T19:12:11","slug":"changing-the-game-for-structural-safety-with-advanced-predictive-maintenance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/intellias.com\/predictive-maintenance-iot-solution-for-structural-safety\/","title":{"rendered":"Changing the Game for Structural Safety with Advanced Predictive Maintenance"},"content":{"rendered":"

Project snapshot<\/h2>\n

The worldwide network of highways, bridges, tunnels, and other structural facilities is rapidly growing, and so are the global infrastructure challenges. Aging roadways mixed with extreme weather conditions cause traffic delays, time and money losses, and threats to safety and life.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t<\/linearGradient><\/defs><\/svg>\n\t\t\t\t\t

There are more than 617,000 bridges across the United States. Currently, 42% of all bridges are at least 50 years old, and 46,154, or 7.5% of the nation\u2019s bridges, are considered structurally deficient, meaning they are in \u2018poor\u2019 condition.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t2021 Annual Report Card for America\u2019s Infrastructure, <\/span> the American Society of Civil Engineers<\/span><\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<\/small>\n\t\t\t<\/blockquote>\n\t\t<\/section>\n

In response to the need for preserving and modernizing infrastructure<\/a>, our client, a Silicon Valley research and innovation center, has built a fiber optic<\/a> sensing technology to remotely monitor the structural health of critical assets, proactively assess their condition, and optimize maintenance operations. Working hand in hand with our client, Intellias developed a predictive IoT maintenance solution that makes monitoring of critical structures more accurate and cost-efficient and serves as an early warning system for potential failures.<\/p>\n

Business challenge<\/h2>\n

Maintaining vital infrastructure requires scheduled checks by engineers, usually twice a year. This is a huge undertaking considering the cost of regular on-site monitoring, the vast number of assets of state significance across the country, and traffic disruptions due to closed roads or bridges under inspection. What adds to the problem is that manual checks are prone to human error: some deficiencies are not easily spotted by the human eye and may lead to safety risks.<\/p>\n

A think tank for innovative approaches and solutions, our client thought up a more optimized way to conduct necessary maintenance. The company invented low-cost embedded fiber optic sensors that can be easily installed on structures and used to collect and return real-time information on structural strain, bending, vibration, thermal response, loads, and corrosion. The next step was to develop a smart structural health solution<\/a> that would help asset managers analyze data on asset conditions and performance to determine the need and optimal timing for maintenance.<\/p>\n

Our client has established a joint venture with a state-owned enterprise focused on strategic asset management<\/a> of all railway and tram infrastructure, including more than 2,500 bridges. As Intellias had already worked successfully on one of our client\u2019s IoT projects, we accepted the challenge to join their R&D team to build a predictive maintenance solution and deploy pilots with our client\u2019s new customer.
\n\"Changing<\/p>\n

Technology solution<\/h2>\n

Evaluation and R&D strategy<\/h3>\n

Our primary goal was to build the product from an idea to a proof-of-concept (PoC) that could be scaled for use in other infrastructure sectors. Intellias experts conducted evaluations and came up with a technical proposal for technologies to be used on the project.<\/p>\n

Our client\u2019s serverless solution for remote monitoring was meant to consist of:<\/p>\n