A review of computer vision–based structural health monitoring at local and global levels

Structural health monitoring at local and global levels using computer vision technologies has gained much attention in the structural health monitoring community in research and practice. Due to the computer vision technology application advantages such as non-contact, long distance, rapid, low cost and labor, and low interference to the daily operation of structures, it is promising to consider computer vision–structural health monitoring as a complement to the conventional structural health monitoring. This article presents a general overview of the concepts, approaches, and real-life practice of computer vision–structural health monitoring along with some relevant literature that is rapidly accumulating. The computer vision–structural health monitoring covered in this article at local level includes applications such as crack, spalling, delamination, rust, and loose bolt detection. At the global level, applications include displacement measurement, structural behavior analysis, vibration serviceability, modal identification, model updating, damage detection, cable force monitoring, load factor estimation, and structural identification using input–output information. The current research studies and applications of computer vision–structural health monitoring mainly focus on the implementation and integration of two-dimensional computer vision techniques to solve structural health monitoring problems and the projective geometry methods implemented are utilized to convert the three-dimensional problems into two-dimensional problems. This review mainly puts emphasis on two-dimensional computer vision–structural health monitoring applications. Subsequently, a brief review of representative developments of three-dimensional computer vision in the area of civil engineering is presented along with the challenges and opportunities of two-dimensional and three-dimensional computer vision–structural health monitoring. Finally, the article presents a forward look to the future of computer vision–structural health monitoring.