A method for monitoring and diagnosing the health of a structure. The method includes providing a plurality of damage monitoring units each having at least one actuator, at least one sensor and a data collection device. The sensors are arranged and disposed to measure vibration produced by the actuator and provide a signal corresponding to the measured vibration to the data collection device. The actuator is activated and the vibration is measured with the sensor. The signal is compared to a reference signal and a damage index value is determined in response to the comparison between the signal and reference signal. The damage index value is transmitted for each vibratory path to a central processing device and the damage index values are analyzed for the plurality of damage monitoring units to determine the location of damage to the structure.