Feasibility study on the intelligent bridge combined with smart monitoring techniques

In the European Union (EU), LIFETIME Thematic Network which include the realization of an intelligent structure for establishment of a smart city in the future was organized by VTT Technical Research Center of Finland which launched in 2001 as an area-wide project. The intelligent bridge as an innovative system conjunction with smart cities has been accumulating expertise and knowledge for long-term lifetime management engineering of social infrastructures. This paper introduces a concept of the intelligent bridge equipped with the sensor function (detection/sensing functions), processor function (decision-making/instruction functions) and actuator function(control function), which can maintain the safety and designed performance of the bridge through the structure itself, performing all these functions in response to unexpected environmental changes and disturbances. It is expected to be important to attract young excellent engineers to become the field of technically more challenging.