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

The increasing number of structural collapses, slope failures and other natural disasters has lead to a demand for new sensors, sensor integration techniques and data processing strategies for deformation monitoring systems. In order to meet extraordinary accuracy requirements for displacement detection in recent deformation monitoring projects, research has been devoted to integrating Global Positioning System (GPS) as a monitoring sensor. Although GPS has been used for monitoring purposes worldwide, certain environments pose challenges where conventional processing techniques cannot provide the required accuracy with sufficient update frequency. Described is the development of a fully automated, continuous, real-time monitoring system that employs GPS sensors and pseudolite technology to meet these requirements in such environments. Ethernet and/or serial port communication techniques are used to transfer data between GPS receivers at target points and a central processing computer. The data can be processed locally or remotely based upon client needs. A test was conducted that illustrated a 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 be unsafe.