The Use of Wireless Sensor Technologies for Condition Monitoring of Modern Aircraft Structures

Monitoring of the aircraft structures’ during the pre-flight testing is a critical task of the aerospace industry. One of the most promising solutions, not yet widely applied, is continuous monitoring of aircraft structures using wireless sensor network technology. The brief summary of the proposed system is the following- special sensors (devices which detect potential deformations), send signals to the local motes (autonomous computing device equipped with a wireless transmitter). Information from motes is gathered by routers which then transfer the aggregated information to the datacenter. Motes are used for collection and primary processing of the data from sensors, which then sent to the routers, and, ultimately, gateway of corporate network. Applications of corporate network control and define flexible patterns for processing of the information received from sensors. As an example of hardware components for preprocessing and data transmission the system described in this study uses motes and routers from MEMSIC, for measuring the level of deformation - sensors from Tokyo Sokki Kenkyujo. This network structure allows to centralize data collection modes in the process of testing; implement continuous data collection at a defined frequency; process and display data in real-time.