An optical-based system for sensing parameters of a structure or machine for monitoring the health of the structure or machine. The optical-based system includes a set of optical fibers, each optical fiber including a set of fiber Bragg grating (FBG) sensors for sensing a set of parameters of the object; a set of interrogators configured to generate a set of incident optical signals for transmission via the set of optical fibers, respectively, receive a set of reflected optical signals from each of the optical fibers of the set, and generate a set of data related to sensed parameters of the object based on the set of reflected optical signals; and a controller configured to control the set of interrogators. Via a user interface or a remote computer on a cloud, sensing instructions may be provided to the controller, and sensed data and other information may be received from the controller.