Patent ID: 7725269

Claim:
A network of nodes for use in detecting an event in a structure, each node in the network comprising: a sensor encapsulation configured for structural health monitoring, the encapsulation containing: at least one sensing element; a printed circuit board coupled to the at least one sensing element, the printed circuit board comprising: a signal conditioning analog circuit; an analog-to-digital conversion element configured to digitize data collected from the at least one sensing element; a microprocessor coupled to the at least one sensing element, the signal conditioning analog circuit, and the analog-to-digital conversion element and configured to collect data from the at least one sensing element; an excitation element configured to provide excitation to the sensing element; a memory component coupled to the microprocessor configured to locally store data; and a communication chip coupled to the microprocessor and configured to provide remote digital connectivity; wherein each of the nodes of the network is configured to pass data to a central processing unit, and wherein the central processing unit is configured to trigger an active damage detection operation by communicating with at least one of the plurality of nodes.