Entry Date:
May 23, 2017

Inference in Graphical Models

Principal Investigator Oral Buyukozturk

Co-investigators Hao Sun , Kunal Kupwade Patil , Robert W Haupt , Robert Shin , Huseyin Sadi Kuleli , Thomas Herring , M Toksöz , Ju Li , John Fisher , Fredo Durand , William Freeman , Christoph Reinhart , John Ochsendorf , Markus Buehler , Sidney Yip


The problem of automatic damage detection in civil structures is complex and requires a system that can interpret sensor data into meaningful information. We apply our recently developed switching Bayesian model for dependency analysis to the problems of damage detection, localization, and classification. The model relies on a state-space approach that accounts for noisy measurement processes and missing data. In addition, the model can infer statistical temporal dependency among measurement locations signifying the potential flow of information within the structure. By employing a fully Bayesian approach, we are able to characterize uncertainty in these variables via their posterior distribution and answer questions probabilistically, such as "What is the probability that damage has occurred?" and "Given that damage has occurred, what is the most likely damage scenario?"