This work presents a comprehensive study on a particular kind of conveyor called second-generation voltage conveyor (VCII). This building block is based on voltage conveying concept and is the dual of second generation current conveyor (CCII). It is shown that VCII is a very useful block in those configurations where CCII is limited, in terms of number of active blocks. The results of this study are helpful in choosing the best building block between CCII and VCII for each specific application. Finally, for the first time, the CMOS implementation of VCII is also presented. Simulation results with PSPICE using 0.35μm CMOS technology and supply voltage of ±1.65V are given to approve the theory.

In the last decades, the applications of structural monitoring are moving toward the field of civil engineering and infrastructures. Nevertheless, if the structures have damages, it does not mean that they have a complete loss of functionality, but rather that the system is no longer in an optimal condition so that, if the damage increases, the structure can collapse. Structural Health Monitoring (SHM), a process for the identification of damage, periodically collects data from suitable sensors that allow to characterize the damage and establishes the health status of the structure. Therefore, this monitoring will provide information on the structure condition, mostly about its integrity, in a short time, and, for infrastructures and civil structures, it is necessary to assess performance and health status. The aim of this work is to design an Internet of Things (IoT) system for Structural Health Monitoring to find possible damages and to see how the structure behaves over time. For this purpose, a customized datalogger and nodes have been designed. The datalogger is able to acquire the data coming from the nodes through RS485 communication and synchronize acquisitions. Furthermore, it has an internal memory to allow for the post-processing of the collected data. The nodes are composed of a digital triaxial accelerometer, a general-purpose microcontroller, and an external memory for storage measures. The microcontroller communicates with an accelerometer, acquires values, and then saves them in the memory. The system has been characterized and the damage indicator has been evaluated on a testing structure. Experimental results show that the estimated damage indicator increases when the structure is perturbed. In the present work, the damage indicator increased by a maximum value of 24.65 when the structure is perturbed by a 2.5 mm engraving.