Monitoring technology for earthquake-prone regions
16/06/2021
California-based QuakeLogic and SignaGuard have announced the development of a breakthrough process that combines the proprietary technology of both companies for structural health monitoring in earthquake-prone regions such as the Himalayas.Frequent earthquakes along the Himalayan region have led scientists to agree that the entire belt is due for a mega-earthquake at any time. Devastation from such a significant seismic event could result in millions of deaths since tourism is now so popular in the area.
Dr Erol Kalkan, CEO of QuakeLogic, has shown that damage from major earthquakes can be minimised by conducting a structural health audit in vulnerable areas and identifying structures that could cause particular risk. Such an audit would apply technical algorithms developed by Dr Kalkan to the data from structural health monitoring sensors, such as three-axis deflections and three-axis vibration sensors manufactured by SignaGuard, to locate structural weaknesses. Corrective action could then be taken to minimise failure of these structures in the event of a seismic event.
SignaGuard, the public safety division of MachineSense, specialises in the development of seismometers, sensors and systems for public safety and industrial automation. The company has been working with Dr Kalkan for the past two years to develop a cost-effective system to estimate structural damage from seismic activity.
SignaGuard has recently released a new seismic sensor enabled with Edge AI. Its advanced Internet of Things (IoT) features include the ability to automatically shut down electrical lines based on seismic levels, the triggering of automated SMS/email alerts of damage and an open-source technical platform (Python) to include third-party algorithms. This low-cost sensor has one of the smallest form factors in the industry.
It is the opinion of Dr Biplab Pal, CTO of MachineSense, that auditing the critical structures over the entire Himalayan area of 3000 km would be impossible without access to extremely low-cost connected seismic sensors, which can process data in the Edge, combined with automatic assessment using the algorithms developed by Dr Kalkan.
