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Exponent in partnership with California Urban Search and
Rescue (USAR) Task Force 3 has developed a system for monitoring
damaged buildings and structures to improve safety in emergency
response situations.
 The
WBMS allows emergency response personnel at an incident site
to quickly assess and monitor the stability of damaged buildings
and structures throughout the operation. By constantly monitoring
the structure for small angular movements, it is possible
to provide rescue workers advanced warning of potential collapse.
Once the remote sensors are attached to the structure, the
system uses precision inclinometers and digital radio technology
to provide improved measurement accuracy without putting personnel
in harm’s way.
Key Features:
- Precision Tilt measurement in two axes
- Modular architecture, multiple sensor and receiver
modules capable of monitoring several locations and
structures simultaneously
- Continuous readings - more reliable than transit-based
measurements.
- No false alarms from bumping transit.
- Flexible power supply options
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- Adjustable alarm threshold per sensor
- Hand-held monitor with audio alert
- Hands free operation with earphone
- Flexible mounting options
- Optional Base-station
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How it works:
The remote sensor unit contains two precision inclinometers
connected to a microprocessor and digital radio.  The
angles measured by the inclinometers are converted to a digital
format and broadcast to the receiver module. The remote sensor
module constantly checks for angles that are beyond a user-selectable
threshold value. If the angle of the structure moves beyond
the limit, an alarm is sent to the receiver module and the
user is notified by an audible alarm and by visual indicator
on the display. The hand-held receiver module uses a standard
Pocket PC to set up and display the data from the remote sensors.
The remote sensors can be quickly mounted to structures of
interest and remotely zeroed and calibrated from the hand-held
receiver. Unlike typical transit based monitoring schemes,
this system offers the advantage of ‘set and forget’
setup. The user is completely free to move about the site
and is not tethered by wires.
Disaster Site Management:
 Incident
Commanders and Safety Officers can take advantage of this
highly affective tool to help them forecast structure collapse
and increase site safety. The data recording capability is
also useful for characterizing ‘normal’ structural
behavior. By analyzing the trends in the data, Safety Officers
will be able to reduce the number of false alarms without
compromising operational safety.
System Specifications:
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Sensor Module Accuracy |
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Inclinometers accurate to 1/1000th of a degree |
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Hand-held computer |
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Standard Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) |
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Digital Radio |
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Spread Spectrum, Frequency Hopping
250mW transmit power (1W optional) |
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Range |
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1000 feet (up to 10 miles with 1W radio option) |
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Battery Life |
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24 hour operation (with standard battery pack)
7 day operation (with extended-life battery pack) |
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Software |
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Exponent WBMS v. 1.5 |
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Earphone for hands-free operation |
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