Deployment of a low-cost digital platform for the monitoring of Santa María del Mar church in Barcelona

Despite the growing need of protection for Cultural Heritage, many technological innovations are held back by the lack of affordable hardware. In this sense, Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) is a highly valuable tool for the vulnerability assessment of historical constructions, but its wide diffusion is limited by the high costs, both implementation and operation. For this reason, there is currently the need for SHM strategies with cost reduction but still able to ensure good performance. The objective of the study is to contribute to the development of a low-cost, open-source, reliable and accurate system for the structural monitoring of architectural heritage. The first phase of the research includes the selection of open-source hardware and low-cost strategies based on past projects at the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering of Polytechnic University of Catalonia- Barcelona Tech and market analysis. The second phase focuses on the system calibration and evaluation of experimental resolution and accuracy, including extensive analysis of analog-to-digital converter (ADC) and linear potentiometer reliability. The third phase describes the deployment of the system in Santa Maria del Mar church in Barcelona. The results of the research show the great potential of this technology that may help to promote a comprehensive and cost-efficient monitoring of the built cultural heritage.