Eleven types of armors were laboratory tested and their performances concerning the random placements of armors for two different surface slopes of rubble mound breakwater were compared. The three major categories of performance comparison are wave reflection, wave run-up and run-down, and armor stability. Due to the vast differences both in the setups of experiments and in the methodologies of data acquisition and analyses, the multitude of existing literatures yielded extremely scattering results, which are generally quite inconclusive and inconsistent, as well as incomparable. To cope with these problems the present research carries out the following: (1) Factors that affect armor behaviors are detailed and those that are modeled or not are indicated; (2) A real time laboratory system for data acquisition, monitoring, calibration, and analyses is developed, and the integrated program aims to provide accurate, convenient, and automated on-site processes; (3) Based upon the intrinsic
