1. A system for estimating strain of a component, said system comprising: a signal generator configured to transmit a signal toward the component; a sensor coupled to the component and configured to receive said signal and to generate a reflected signal; a fiber Bragg grating filter coupled to said sensor and configured to filter said reflected signal and to generate a filtered signal; a detector coupled to said filter and configured to convert said filtered signal to a time domain signal; and an artificial neural network coupled to said detector and configured to process said time domain signal to facilitate estimating the strain of the component.