Development of a Fully Automated, GPS Based Monitoring System for Disaster Prevention and Emergency Preparedness: PPMS+RT

Abstract: The increasing number of structural collapses, slope failures and other naturaldisasters has lead to a demand for new sensors, sensor integration techniques and dataprocessing strategies for deformation monitoring systems. In order to meet extraordinaryaccuracy requirements for displacement detection in recent deformation monitoringprojects, research has been devoted to integrating Global Positioning System (GPS) as amonitoring sensor. Although GPS has been used for monitoring purposes worldwide,certain environments pose challenges where conventional processing techniques cannotprovide the required accuracy with sufficient update frequency. Described is thedevelopment of a fully automated, continuous, real-time monitoring system that employsGPS sensors and pseudolite technology to meet these requirements in such environments.Ethernet and/or serial port communication techniques are used to transfer data betweenGPS receivers at target points and a central processing computer. The data can beprocessed locally or remotely based upon client needs. A test was conducted that illustrateda 10 mm displacement was remotely detected at a target point using the designed system.This information could then be used to signal an alarm if conditions are deemed to beunsafe.