Augmented reality-based smart structural health monitoring system with accurate 3D model alignment

Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) has become increasingly critical due to the rapid deterioration of civil infrastructure. Traditional methods involving heavy equipment are costly and time-consuming. Recent SHM approaches use advanced non-contact sensors, IoT, and Augmented Reality (AR) glasses for faster inspections and immersive experiences during inspections. However, current methods lack quantitative damage data, remote collaboration support, and accurate 3D model alignment with the real structure. Recognizing these current challenges, this paper proposes an AR-based system that integrates Building Information Modelling (BIM) visualization and follows a flexible manipulation approach of 3D holograms to improve structural condition assessments. The proposed framework utilizes the Vuforia software development toolkit to enable the automatic alignment of 3D models to the real structure, ensuring successful model alignment to assist users in accurately visualizing damage locations. The framework also enables flexible manipulation of damage locations, making it easier for users to identify multiple damage points in the 3D models. The system is validated through lab-scale and full-scale bridge use cases, with data transfer performance analyzed under 4G and 5G conditions for remote collaboration. This study demonstrates that the proposed AR-based SHM framework successfully aligns 3D models with real structures, allowing users to manually adjust models and damage locations. The experimental results confirm its feasibility for remote collaborative inspections, highlighting significant improvements with 5G networks. Nevertheless, performance under 4G remains acceptable, ensuring reliability even without 5G coverage. • This paper presents an AR-based framework for SHM, addressing key challenges in traditional inspection methods. • The system integrates BIM and flexible manipulation of 3D holograms, for accurate 3D model alignment with real structures. • The framework enables users to manually manipulate damage locations, improving the damage localization in maintenance logs. • Two use cases on a lab-scale beam and full-scale city bridge are used to validate results in different environments.