Rules-based embedded system applied to the determination of structural health in multilevel buildings

Abstract

The objective of this work was to develop a rule-based system that supports to determine the structural health of multi-level buildings. Hardware description techniques using programmable logic, by employing entity integration and hierarchical design with VHDL programming, are presented. The system is embedded in a FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Arrays) which, using an algorithm, integrates a first stage where a group of ultrasound sensors collect the measure that is interpreted to obtain the relative displacement of the mezzanine. In the second stage, an inference engine performs the evaluation. We present results using an experimental model that verifies that the system was able to determine the stability of the structure based on the relative displacement parameter of mezzanine.