In recent years, major infrastructure failures on Italy’s national road network have highlighted the lack of proper monitoring, particularly for ageing bridges over 50 years old. Most inspections are still carried out manually on a fixed schedule, resulting in reactive maintenance rather than proactive, predictive measures. Current structural health monitoring (SHM) systems are limited by high costs and the need for customized solutions for each bridge.
The AMBROSE project aims to improve Italy’s road infrastructure by introducing a modern SHM framework for the early detection of structural problems. This integrated solution combines hardware (sensors) and software (data analysis) components. The focus is on the automation of monitoring systems to overcome the need for human supervision in data collection and processing. Automation allows structural information to be collected in real-time while avoiding human error.
We propose a novel SHM framework and strategy made up of different, integrated components to address all the limitations of current procedures.