Nondestructive evaluation of civil structures and materials using stereo camera measurements

Discusses the feasibility of using stereo camera measurements to monitor motion in civil engineering structures; these measurements would be useful for nondestructive evaluation of large scale structures. The authors use stereo camera information to estimate the locations and translations of specific structural features under various nondestructive loadings. The authors then combine these measurements with a priori knowledge of structural geometry and topology to estimate structural parameters. The authors combine system identification techniques with methods for subpixel measurement and reliable feature matching to resolve measured motions. The authors discuss the issues associated with making these measurements and illustrate the technique on a small physical model of a single tier, two storey frame structure.<<ETX>>