Air-to-Ground Transmission and Near Real-Time Visualization of FBG Sensor Data via Cloud Database

During the last decades, innovative aircraft health management systems have been receiving increasing interest from original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and aircraft operators. Their implementation could lead to substantial benefits: drastic cuts in turnaround time, operation costs, and life cycle costs (LCCs) as well as sharp increases in system availability, safety, and reliability. An interconnectivity step-up is, hence, needed to guarantee a seamless data transfer. In this article, an integrated open-source solution for reliable data transmission and near real-time graphical visualization is proposed. After a comprehensive calibration and verification campaign performed on a test stand, the overall system has been successfully validated on structural data measured using a network of fiber Bragg gratings (FBGs) mounted on a radio-controlled model aircraft. The result is an effective and robust system able to monitor near real-time critical parameters and health status of structures. With this system, the temperature and displacements of the structure can be displayed on a heat map arranged on a 3-D model and visualized through a computer application on the ground. The proposed methodology can be applied to heterogeneous scenarios, ranging from maintenance planning activities to performance checks, providing an all-in-one solution for flight data management as well as other applications in the structural monitoring domain.