LAMES develops methods for the instrumentation, inspection and assessment of infrastructures in order to detect and locate defects, quantify condition indicators of constituent materials, diagnose pathologies, and then support service life prognosis and decision-making.

These methods include in situ instrumentation using embedded sensors, semi-punctual or dynamic inspection tools carried by instrumented vehicles in live traffic, as well as laboratory-based non-destructive methods.

To build its expertise, LAMES pursues a detailed understanding of wave–medium interactions and interfaces, drawing on the physics of mechanical, acoustic and ultrasonic, thermal and electromagnetic wave propagation.

The study of the temporal and spatial evolution laws governing material behaviour — whether analytical or numerical, physics-based or data-driven — is of fundamental importance.