Development of a wireless sensor node as an earthquake monitoring system for buildings

Abstract

The study aimed to design and develop a Wireless Sensor Node (WSN) to monitor vibration data in buildings. The goal was to create an affordable tool that aligns with the Department of Public Works and Highways efforts to track building conditions before, during, and after earthquakes. It also supports the Building Research and Innovation Development Goals for Engineering SUCs, which fosters collaboration among engineering state universities and colleges across the Philippines to address community challenges through research. The WSN includes essential features like data collection, verification, processing, and cloud storage. The system consists of an accelerometer sensor, a microcontroller, and an uninterruptible power supply for consistent operation. The sensor gathers acceleration data in the time domain, which is then converted to the frequency domain using the Fast Fourier Transform for easier analysis. To implement the system, the WSN was deployed in a building to collect baseline vibration data, which was used to set thresholds for the sensor's algorithms. Initial tests showed that the WSN successfully measured building vibrations, and the data was securely stored in the cloud, where it could be accessed through a website. This study set the foundation for future improvements and wider use of this technology.

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*Corresponding author

Email address: johncarlo.aggari@g.batstate-u.edu.ph