The project titled “A Dual-Mode Millimeter-Wave Sensor Network for Structural Monitoring in Wind Farms” was recently funded by NSF. I’m excited to work on this project with outstanding researchers at Texas Tech, Drs. Changzhi Li (PI) and Beibei Ren (co-PI).  Existing structural monitoring techniques, such as contact-based sensors and LIDAR systems suffer from different limitations. For example, LIDAR systems are susceptible to weather conditions and are often installed at fixed locations. In this project, we aim to develop a dual-mode millimeter-wave sensor network driven by a unified decision-making framework that optimizes structural inspection in wind farms. The radio frequency signals are robust against ambient light and weather conditions, providing robust continuous monitoring; moreover, a formation of swarm-UAV-based sensor network can synthesize a large observation aperture for high-resolution imaging when an initial problem is identified by continuous-monitoring sensors, or during scheduled maintenance. This project has an interdisciplinary nature involving millimeter-wave sensing, adaptive UAV formation, swarm flight control, and unified decision-making framework for system-level inspection schedule optimization. More details about this project can be found here.