Real-Time Multi-channel Cable Replacement for Structural Control

The goal of structural control is to mitigate the response of a structural system under the ongoing external excitation, on the basis of the feedback provided by a suitable array of sensors. In this study, a wireless sensing system, initially conceived for structural monitoring, is modified and used into a structural controller designed for a reduced scale three storey steel frame: the goal is to replace the analog cables between the sensors and the structural controller. The wireless feedback to structural control comes from four accelerometers; the structural controller then drives an Active Mass Damper (AMD) actuator. The wireless sensing system is based on the recent low-cost System-on-Chip (SoC) radio transceivers instead of the commonly adopted commercial wireless modems. Unlike the structural monitoring system, a structural control system usually requires continuous and real-time sensor feedback which is implemented in this study by adopting the Frequency Division Multiplexing (FDM) method.