Six buildings in the Wellington region and the upper South Island, instrumented as part of the GeoNet Building Instrumentation Programme, recorded strong motion data during the 2016 Kaikoura earthquake. The response of two of these buildings: the Bank of New Zealand (BNZ) Harbour Quays, and Ministry of Business, Innovation, and Employment (MBIE) buildings, are examined in detail. Their acceleration and displacement response was reconstructed from the recorded data, and their vibrational characteristics were examined by computing their frequency response functions. The location of the BNZ building in the CentrePort region on the Wellington waterfront, which experienced significant ground motion amplification in the 1–2 s period range due to site effects, resulted in the imposition of especially large demands on the building. The computed response of the two buildings are compared to the intensity of ground motions they experienced and the structural and nonstructural damage they suffered, in an effort to motivate the use of structural response data in the validation of performance objectives of building codes, structural modelling techniques, and fragility functions. Finally, the nature of challenges typically encountered in the interpretation of structural response data are highlighted.

Structural health monitoring (SHM) algorithms based on adaptive least mean squares (LMS) filtering theory can directly identify time-varying changes in structural stiffness in real-time in a computationally efficient fashion. However, better metrics of seismic structural damage and future utility after an event are related to permanent and total plastic deformations. This study presents a modified LMS-based SHM method and a novel two-step structural identification technique using a baseline nonlinear Bouc—Wen structural model to directly identify changes in stiffness due to damage as well as plastic or permanent deflections. The algorithm is designed to be computationally efficient; therefore it can work in real-time. An in silico single-degree-of-freedom (SDOF) nonlinear shear-type structure is used to prove the concept. The efficiency of the proposed SHM algorithm in identifying stiffness changes and plastic/permanent deflections is assessed under different ground motions using a suite of 20 different ground acceleration records. The results show that in a realistic scenario with fixed filter tuning parameters, the proposed LMS-based SHM algorithm identifies stiffness changes to within 10% of true values within 2s. Permanent deflection is identified to within 14% of the actual as-modeled value using noise-free simulation-derived structural responses. This latter value provides important post-event information on the future serviceability, safety, and repair cost.

This paper describes the first phase in development of a mobile robot that can navigate aerial power transmission lines completely unattended by human operator. Its ultimate purpose is to automate inspection of power transmission lines and their equipments. The authors have developed a scaled functional model of such a mobile robot with a preliminary simple computer based on-off controller. MoboLab (Mobile Laboratory) navigates a power transmission line between two strain towers. It can maneuver over obstructions created by line equipments such as insulators, warning spheres, dampers, and spacer dampers. It can also easily negotiate the towers by its three flexible arms. MoboLab has an internal main screw which enables the robot to move itself or its two front and rear arms independently through changing gripped points. When the front arm gets close to an obstacle, the arm detaches from the line and goes down, the robot moves forward, the arm passes the obstacle and grippes the line again. In a same way another arms pass the obstacle.

This paper provides an overview on the physical and functional performance of the New Zealand telecommunication network following the 14 November 2016 Kaikōura earthquake (Mw 7.8). Firstly, the paper provides an overview of the New Zealand telecommunications infrastructure. Secondly, the paper presents preliminary information on the impacts of the Kaikōura earthquake on the telecommunication network following the format proposed by [1] for post-earthquake assessment and resilience analysis of infrastructure systems, namely: extent of earthquake-induced physical impacts on the components of the telecommunication networks, identified according to a proposed taxonomy; main observed dependency issues; identification of resilience attributes and strategies that allowed an effective and rapid reinstatement of the telecommunication service. Finally lessons learned and research needs are discussed.

Abstract-It is a challenge for mobile robots to climb a vertical wall primarily due to requirements for reliable locomotion, high manoeuvrability, and robust and efficient attachment and detachment. Such robots have immense potential to automate tasks which are currently accomplished manually, offering an extra degree of human safety in a cost effective manner. In contrast to vacuum suction, magnetic adhesion, and dry techniques used existing wall climbing robots, Canterbury's research effort focuses on a novel approach which achieves attachment and detachment based on Bernoulli Effect. The adhesion force is achieved on a variety of surfaces, independent on the material of the wall and surface conditions. Such ubiquitous mobility with a force / weight ratio as high as 5 is nearly impossible to be achieved by other adhesion methods.Index Terms-Bernoulli Effect, wall climbing robot, attraction force, adhesion, attachment mechanism