Remotely assessing real-time wooden pole integrity

A system for remotely determining a real-time integrity of a plurality of wooden poles, the system comprising:

• a central computing device;
• a supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) network communicatively coupled to the central computing device;
• and
• a plurality of testing systems mounted on the plurality of wooden poles, wherein the plurality of testing systems are communicatively coupled to the SCADA network, and wherein a first testing system is mounted on a first wooden pole, the first testing system comprising;
• one or more acoustic sources;
• one or more acoustic receivers vertically displaced from the one or more acoustic sources;
• a memory;
• and
• a processing unit that is arranged to perform operations including:
• receiving, from the central computing device and via the SCADA network, instructions for determining a real-time integrity level for the first wooden pole, wherein the instructions are generated by the central computing device based on an inspection cycle for testing an integrity of the first wooden pole;
• emitting, by the one or more acoustic sources, one or more sound waves through the first wooden pole;
• measuring, by the one or more acoustic receivers, a respective amplitude and respective time of arrival of at least a portion of each of the one or more sound waves;
• and
• sending, via the SCADA network, the respective amplitude and time of arrival to the central computing device, wherein the central computing device is configured to:
• (i) calculate, using the respective amplitude, the respective time of arrival, and a predetermined function, a real-time integrity level of the first wooden pole, and (ii) in response to determining that the real-time integrity level is less than a threshold, cause output of an alert.

A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions executable by a computer system to perform operations for remotely determining a real-time integrity of a plurality of wooden poles, the operations comprising:

• generating, by a central computing device and based on an inspection cycle for a first wooden pole of the plurality, instructions for determining a real-time integrity level for the first wooden pole;
• sending, by the central computing device, the instructions to a supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) network, wherein the SCADA network is located closer to the plurality of wooden poles than the central computing device;
• sending, by the SCADA network, the instructions to a testing system mounted onto the first wooden pole;
• in response to receiving the instructions, emitting, by one or more acoustic sources of the testing system, one or more sound waves through the first wooden pole;
• measuring, by one or more acoustic receivers of the testing system vertically displaced from the one or more acoustic sources, a respective amplitude and respective time of arrival of at least a portion of each of the one or more sound waves;
• sending, by the testing system and via the SCADA network, the respective amplitude and respective time of arrival to the central computing device;
• calculating, by the central computing device and using the respective amplitude, the respective time of arrival, and a predetermined function, the real-time integrity level of the first wooden pole;
• and
• in response to determining that the real-time integrity level of the first wooden pole is less than a threshold level, causing, by the central computing device, output of an alert.