A system to monitor the health of a structure, health monitoring sensor
nodes, program product, and associated methods, are provided. The system
includes an array of health monitoring sensor nodes connected to or
embedded within a structure to monitor the health of the structure. Each
health monitoring sensor node includes sensor elements positioned to
sense parameters of the structure and to provide data related to the
parameters to a health monitoring sensor node interrogator. Each health
monitoring sensor node includes a processor or other means to reduce raw
sensor data to thereby reduce communication bandwidth requirements and
data collisions, and can include memory or other storage for storing the
reduced data and an antenna arrangement for providing the reduced data to
the health monitoring sensor node interrogator.