Patent ID: 7281428

Claim:
An interrogation system for monitoring structural health conditions, comprising: at least one wave generator coupled to a structure and operative to generate a wave signal that propagates through said structure; a plurality of optical fiber sensors applied to the structure, each of said optical fiber sensors and said wave generator forming a communication path for transmitting the wave signal therebetween; at least one electronic module operative to generate an input sensor signal and to send the input sensor signal to at least one of the optical fiber sensors, each of said optical fiber sensors being operative to impress the wave signal onto the input sensor signal to generate an output sensor signal that is frequency shifted from the input sensor signal by the wave signal, said electronic module being responsive to said output sensor signal and operative to generate an information signal; a signal processing unit; and a relay switch array module having a plurality of relay switches, one of said relay switches being operative to relay the information signal to said signal processing unit, said signal processing unit being responsive to said information signal and operative to generate a digital sensor signal and send the digital sensor signal to a computer means.