Autonomous end-to-end wireless monitoring system for railroad bridges

Abstract

This paper documents the development of a fully autonomous, low-cost wireless structural health monitoring system for railroad bridges. Using wireless smart sensors (WSS) equipped with an adaptive event- and schedule-based framework, integrated 4G-LTE gateway nodes, and a cloud-based data pipeline, the system detects train-crossing events, retrieves data without manual intervention, and provides real-time visualization to end users. A full-scale field deployment demonstrates effectiveness in capturing critical events and supporting remote assessment, thus overcoming the limitations of traditional inspection methods.