EXTON, Pa.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--ThingWorx™, the provider of the first software application platform for the connected world, today announced a strategic partnership with Smart Structures Inc., a global leader in wireless solutions for smart infrastructure monitoring. The partnership will deliver solutions to improve the quality of bridge pilings, foundations, and other concrete structures, while reducing construction costs and improving safety.
This partnership addresses a growing need in the US – cost effectively building out a smarter physical infrastructure. Despite billions of dollars in federal, state, and local funds directed toward the maintenance of existing bridges, 69,223 bridges—11.5 percent of total highway bridges in the U.S.—are classified as "structurally deficient," requiring significant maintenance, rehabilitation, or replacement, according to a 2010 report from the Federal Highway Administration. In the years since the report was issued, America’s infrastructure challenges appear to be accelerating. However, new technologies, including wireless, Internet-connected sensors could improve the state of infrastructure, introduce more efficient means of monitoring assets, extend the service life of these assets, and enhance public safety.
“The number of wireless sensors and other Internet-connected devices deployed across the country to improve infrastructure management is growing rapidly, but what’s been missing is an effective platform for managing and analyzing condition reporting data,” says Russ Fadel, Co-founder and CEO at ThingWorx. “Our connected application platform serves as a complement to Smart Structures’ field-proven technology and solutions, and it will enhance the value that construction companies, bridge designers, municipalities, and governments derive from remote infrastructure monitoring.”
Smart Structures’ SmartPile® Embedded Data Collector (EDC) technology uses software to process data from wireless embedded sensors embedded within concrete piles used in foundations. The system is used during construction to ensure the quality and integrity of the structure. When properly planned in, these sensors can also provide post-construction long term load and event monitoring. The ThingWorx platform will provide the critical software and AlwaysOn communications infrastructure for the SmartPile system, allowing Smart Structures to securely connect its remote workstations to a centralized, cloud-based information database and Internet portal where sensor data is stored.
“Smart Structures’ technology and solutions have already demonstrated the benefits of smart infrastructure in the field, and we look forward to building more value into our solutions by adding the power of ThingWorx,” says Tom Chiarella, CEO at Smart Structures, Inc. "We chose ThingWorx because we were able to extend our current on-line system dramatically faster than with previous generation tools. These new technologies are changing the way we interact with our physical world, and by allowing objects and machines to send us data about their performance, our customers will be better prepared to react and respond to deficiencies in strength and integrity while minimizing costs and risk."
The partnership with ThingWorx extends Smart Structures’ core capabilities beyond sensor data collection, providing them with a modern, Web 2.0-based platform, including innovative collaboration and intelligence tools that will allow Smart Structures to rapidly build Internet dashboards that allow authorized users to download, analyze, review, and generate reports on sensor data that is captured during bridge construction and through ongoing monitoring.
As the system evolves, the Smart Structures solution has the ability to detect long-term changes that can indicate corrosion, erosion, and other leading indicators of structural deficiencies. This will enable state and federal governments to subscribe to the Smart Structures online data and application services to obtain data from the embedded sensors for health monitoring, maintenance and repair management, homeland defense, emergency response, and other critical needs. The system can also provide real-time alerts on pending structural deficiencies to enable a new level of situational awareness for local, state, and federal public safety and security agencies.
About ThingWorx
ThingWorx™ is a privately held company that provides the first software application platform designed for today's connected world. The ThingWorx platform combines the key functionality of Web 2.0, Search, and Social Collaboration, and applies it to the world of "Things", including connected products, machines, and industrial equipment. Businesses use the ThingWorx Platform to rapidly deliver innovative applications and connected solutions in markets such as manufacturing, utilities, and energy, as well as in emerging "Internet of Things" applications, including smart cities, smart grid, agriculture, transportation, and Machine-to-Machine (M2M). For more information, please visit our website at www.thingworx.com and our blog at www.thingworx.com/blog or follow us on Twitter @ThingWorx.
About Smart Structures, Inc.
Smart Structures' advanced sensing and monitoring technology enables clients to optimize the design, construction and operation of the nation’s infrastructure including bridges, ports, and industrial processing facilities. Our first product, the SmartPile® system, improves the quality of concrete foundations while reducing the overall cost of the substructure and improving construction efficiency and safety. This is accomplished through the company’s field-proven SmartPile® Embedded Data Collector (EDC) technology, which has revolutionized the structural monitoring industry by combining wireless embedded sensors within concrete piles with software that processes the sensor data during driving, thus providing complete real-time quality and condition reporting throughout the entire lifecycle starting with validating the quality of the concrete mix, fabrication of concrete components, the construction of the overall structure, and its operating life.