Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 February 2011
Advancements in microelectromechanical technologies have lead to progressive design of small footprint, low dynamic mass and actuation power, and high-resolution MEMS inertial sensors. In this paper, development of instrumentation and methodologies for wireless health monitoring of structures using MEMS inertial sensors is presented. A dedicated experimental setup is developed to characterize specific MEMS inertial sensors and structures. Studies presented in this paper include development and characterization of a prototype wireless data acquisition system to transmit analog and digital signals. Results show that the frequency response of the prototype wireless data acquisition system is compatible with the frequency response of the MEMS inertial sensors utilized. The prototype wireless MEMS inertial system is applied to perform tilt and rotation measurements. It is shown that with the wireless MEMS system it is possible to achieve an angular resolution of 1.8 mrad.