Visualization of Real-time Displacement Time History superimposed with Dynamic Experiments using Wireless Smart Sensors (WSS) and Augmented Reality (AR)

Wireless Smart Sensors (WSS) process field data and inform structural engineers and owners about the infrastructure health and safety. In bridge engineering, inspectors make decisions using objective data from each bridge. They decide about repairs and replacements and prioritize the maintenance of certain structure elements on the basis of changes in displacements under loads. However, access to displacement information in the field and in real-time remains a challenge. Displacement data provided by WSS in the field undergoes additional processing and is seen at a different location by an inspector and a sensor specialist. When the data is shared and streamed to the field inspector, there is a inter-dependence between inspectors, sensor specialists, and infrastructure owners, which limits the actionability of the data related to the bridge condition. If inspectors were able to see structural displacements in real-time at the locations of interest, they could conduct additional observations, which would create a new, information-based, decision-making reality in the field. This paper develops a new, human-centered interface that provides inspectors with real-time access to actionable structural data (real-time displacements under loads) during inspection and monitoring enhanced by Augmented Reality (AR). It summarizes the development and validation of the new human-infrastructure interface and evaluates its efficiency through laboratory experiments. The experiments demonstrate that the interface accurately estimates dynamic displacements in comparison with the laser. Using this new AR interface tool, inspectors can observe and compare displacement data, share it across space and time, and visualize displacements in time history.