Towards Intelligent Materials: Smart Sensors and Iot for Adaptive Monitoring

Abstract: A combination of intelligent materials, smart sensors, the Internet of Things (IoT), edge computing, and artificial intelligence (AI) enables novel methods for material, structure, equipment, and engineered environment monitoring. Intelligent material systems can embed sensing functions and monitor the physical and environmental conditions continuously, unlike typical materials and monitoring systems which are based mainly on periodic checking and external instrumentation. In this narrative review, the authors explore the connection between smart sensing materials, IoT communication infrastructures, data analytics and adaptive monitoring. The review highlights the literature on smart sensor technologies, piezoelectric- and polymer-based sensing materials, structural health monitoring, IoT communication and edge intelligence, artificial intelligence of things, predictive monitoring, and environmental and industrial applications. The literature shows that the real added value for embedding smart materials with IoT is not a single architecture or performance, but rather the establishment of a continuous information flow between physical conditions and digital interpretation and, if required, decision support or actuation. There are various ways to see strain, vibration, temperature, pressure, deformation and other related variables with sensors that are embedded or attached to the surface such as piezoelectric materials, polymer-based sensors, MEMS devices, optical sensing technologies, etc. These sensing capabilities are expanded with wireless communications, gateways, edge processing, cloud services, and interoperable data environments, all part of IoT infrastructures. In addition to this, AI also aids in anomaly detection, prediction, classification and operational decision-making, but, as mentioned in the literature, many AIoT systems are still in a relatively early stage of implementation in the real world. Energy constraints, sensor drift, cyber security, data quality, interoperability, computational limitations and the ability to test adaptive systems under variable environmental and operational conditions are important challenges. The review ends that intelligent materials and IoT are not a validated technology but more a complementary element within an overall cyber-physical monitoring system. Future work should focus on easily tested sensing platforms, standardized testing protocols, easily understood analytics, efficient energy consumption, and field testing over extended periods of time.