SensorTags to Detect Over-Temperature Conditions
As buildings, bridges, and vehicles age, the effort to detect and remedy corrosion, stress fractures, and other damage can be lengthy and costly. SRI offers SensorTags—embeddable wireless microsensors to continuously monitor structural "health" from the inside out. SensorTags, available for license, provide an early warning of potential damage before safety issues arise, extending structural life by indicating priorities for preventive maintenance.
SensorTags can be embedded in buildings, automobiles, and aircraft to monitor the integrity of structures. Embedded sensors record changes in condition and wirelessly transmit information, such as their ID code and condition status.
For NASA, SRI developed SensorTags that monitor temperatures under the Space Shuttle thermal shield. SRI built 12 prototypes that withstood 400° C. The goal was to embed the devices in a two-millimeter gap between tiles on the Space Shuttle to record possible over-temperature conditions during atmospheric reentry, thus identifying tiles that may need repair.
Related Applications
Related applications of wireless microsensors in commercial and industrial environments include:
- Inventory control, to monitor environmental conditions
- Condition-based maintenance of mechanical equipment
- Shipping containers, to monitor temperature, humidity, and shock
- Steam-sterilization, such as for medical devices
- Automobiles, trucks, aircraft—to warn of impending tire-tread separation
- Child car safety seats, to program a child’s weight into an airbag system
- Microwave ovens, to monitor temperature limit and determine when food is fully cooked
- Medical and process diagnostics
- Pharmacy or grocery shelves, to monitor freshness or degradation (for instance, to determine when milk sours by monitoring pH)
- Agriculture, to monitor soil moisture, pH, and salinity
