Monitoring of Civil Engineering Structures using a State-of-the-art Image Assisted Total Station

Abstract Today, many civil engineering structures are permanently monitored to provide early warnings from structural failure. Many of the currently used measurement sensors have the drawback that access to the monitored structure is required. Furthermore, different types of instrumentation are needed to measure vibrations and displacements. We therefore propose the usage of an image assisted total station (IATS) for vibration- and displacement monitoring. Compared to previously reported approaches using IATS prototypes, our system is based on a commercially available standard IATS. In laboratory investigations, we show that the used IATS can measure displacements with a precision of 0.1 mgon. In a field experiment at a lifesize footbridge we compare the IATS measurements to currently used accelerometer and total station measurements.