MX3D is 3D printing a 12 meter long stainless steel pedestrian bridge, which will be in place and crossing one of Amsterdam’s canals in the old city center by 2019. We have teamed up with a consortium of mathematicians, IoT specialists and e to develop a smart sensor network to monitor the bridge’s health in real time. A great example of data centric engineering.

The partners joining the MX3D project include: Autodesk, The Alan Turing Institute and the Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Metropolitan Solutions (AMS).

The team from The Alan Turing Institute is responsible for designing and installing a sensor network on the bridge. These sensors will collect structural measurements such as strain, displacement and vibration, and will measure environmental factors such as air quality and temperature, enabling engineers to measure the bridge’s health in real time and monitor how it changes over its lifespan. This data will also allow us to “teach” the bridge to understand what is happening on it, how many people are crossing it and how quickly.