Adjustable Backscatterers for Submillimetric Plant Movement Monitoring
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current methods for measuring spatial movements of plant structures, such as pipes, face challenges in maintaining precision over time due to environmental and anthropic factors, leading to reduced accuracy and increased risk of fracture from landslides or subsidence.
Innovation Solution
An apparatus and method utilizing a combination of DGPS and SAR differential interferometry with adjustably constrained ground stations and active artificial backscatterers, equipped with electromechanical actuators for automatic regulation of azimuthal orientation and height, ensuring continuous optimal signal reception and submillimetric precision.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If satellite positioning systems (GPS, DGPS) or SAR differential interferometry are used to measure spatial movements of plant structures, then measurement precision can be achieved, but the precision deteriorates over time due to environmental and anthropic factors altering the positioning of ground stations and backscatterers
Solution Approach 1:
The system employs active artificial backscatterers with electromechanical actuators that dynamically adjust their orientation and position in real-time to maintain optimal alignment with satellites. This dynamic adaptation compensates for environmental changes and structural movements, preserving measurement precision over time without requiring physical repositioning of the entire monitoring system.
Solution Approach 2:
The system incorporates feedback mechanisms where the position and orientation of ground stations and backscatterers are continuously monitored and adjusted. The electromechanical actuators receive feedback signals to maintain optimal positioning, ensuring that measurement precision is preserved despite environmental and anthropic alterations to the installation site.
2Reliability
If ground stations and backscatterers are installed in fixed positions to ensure stable measurements, then measurement reliability improves, but environmental and anthropic factors cause positioning alterations that reduce measurement precision over time
Solution Approach 1:
Rather than maintaining fixed positions, the system uses dynamically adjustable backscatterers with electromechanical actuators. These devices can change their orientation and position to compensate for environmental changes, thereby maintaining measurement precision while the physical installation remains subject to environmental factors.
Solution Approach 2:
The active artificial backscatterers perform self-adjustment through electromechanical actuators that automatically reposition and reorient the devices to maintain optimal signal alignment with satellites, eliminating the need for manual intervention to preserve measurement precision.
3Ease of manufacture
If passive artificial backscatterers are used, then installation simplicity improves, but they require precise initial orientation towards satellites and are sensitive to orientation changes, reducing adaptability
Solution Approach 1:
The system replaces static passive backscatterers with dynamic active backscatterers equipped with electromechanical actuators. These devices can actively adjust their orientation to track satellites and maintain optimal signal alignment, providing adaptability while remaining relatively simple to install compared to complex active systems.
Solution Approach 2:
The system replaces the need for precise mechanical orientation during installation with electromechanical actuation systems that provide automatic orientation adjustment. This substitution of mechanical precision requirements with automated control mechanisms simplifies installation while enhancing adaptability.
4Adaptability or versatility
If active artificial backscatterers with electromechanical actuators are used, then adaptability to environmental changes improves, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system employs electromechanical actuators that provide dynamic adjustment capabilities, allowing the backscatterers to adapt to environmental changes and maintain optimal positioning. The complexity is concentrated in small, manageable actuator components rather than the entire system, making the complexity manageable and worthwhile given the precision benefits.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The solution maintains measurement precision and reduces the impact of environmental and anthropic alterations, achieving submillimetric accuracy in spatial movement detection and predicting mechanical stress and potential breakages in plant structures.
Implementation Method 1
A DGPS system comprises two ground receivers of signals transmitted by a plurality of satellites forming part of the known satellite positioning systems (GPS, Glonass or Galileo)
Implementation Method 2
The emission means used in SAR systems transmit signals towards the earth having a frequency within the microwave range, whereas the sensor is used for collecting the complex backscattering of the signals transmitted
Implementation Method 3
The radar signal phase transmitted from the SAR system and backscattered from the ground level, is proportional to the distance between the satellite and the ground point in which the backscattering takes place. Consequently, a phase difference between two SAR images of the same area, acquired at different instants, is directly associated with a lowering or raising of the object
Data Source
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AI summary
An apparatus and method for measuring spatial movements of plant structures, such as pipes, due for example to movement of the ground in presence of landslide phenomena, subsidence, collapse, or differential settling. The measuring apparatus includes at least one ground station that communicates with at least one corresponding signal-sending satellite station, the ground station being connected in a movable manner to a support constrainable in a fixed manner to the plant structure, the ground structure having an initial azimuthal orientation and an initial azimuthal height. The ground station is moved with respect to the support via a mechanism for adjusting the orientation and height of the same to compensate for an instantaneous orientation and height that are different from the initial orientation and height.