Probabilistic inference for structural health monitoring: new modes of learning from data

In data-driven structural health monitoring (SHM), the signals recorded from systems in operation can be noisy and incomplete. Data corresponding to each of the operational, environmental, and damage states are rarely available a priori; furthermore, labeling to describe the measurements is often unavailable. In consequence, the algorithms used to implement SHM should be robust and adaptive while accommodating for missing information in the training data—such that new information can be included if it becomes available. By reviewing novel techniques for statistical learning (introduced in previous work), it is argued that probabilistic algorithms offer a natural solution to the modeling of SHM data in practice. In three case-studies, probabilistic methods are adapted for applications to SHM signals, including semisupervised learning, active learning, and multitask learning.