Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) for structural health monitoring (SHM) applications can allow for a rapid assessment of structural integrity after an event such as a natural disaster puts the reliability of civil infrastructure in question. Unfortunately, there are many technical challenges associated with employing such a WSN in civil infrastructure for operation over multiple decades. Maintenance costs must remain low enough to justify the integration of such a WSN into a given structure. The technical challenges include ensuring power is delivered to the sensor nodes, reducing installation and maintenance costs, and automating the collection and analysis of data collected by a wireless sensor network. Here we explore possible solutions to the technical challenges presented by WSN for SHM applications. A "mobile host" WSN has been developed where a civil structure is instrumented with sensor nodes capable of being powered solely on energy transmitted to the sensor node wirelessly by the mobile host. When the sensor node has received adequate energy for making a given measurement, the sensor node performs the necessary measurement operations and then wirelessly transmits the measurement to the mobile host. These operations are then repeated for all desired sensor nodes in the network.
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