Utility of low-cost drones to generate 3D models of archaeological sites from multisensory data

Summary

With the emergence of low-cost multicopters on the market, archaeologists have rapidly integrated aerial imaging and photogrammetry with more traditional methods of site documentation. UAVs serve as simple yet transformative tools that can rapidly map archaeological sites with increased efficiency and higher resolution than manual measurements while contextualizing the site within the landscape at costs significantly cheaper than plane-based aerial LIDAR systems. Though structure from motion alone produces excellent results, more sophisticated diagnostic imaging systems must be adapted for low-cost aerial deployment to produce multi-modal datasets. This paper proposes a workflow for selecting sensors

appropriate for a given environment and combining different modalities and resolutions of data for improved documentation and analysis. We present detailed optimization and automation techniques for structure from motion developed during a multitude of data collection initiatives. Furthermore, we discuss a collection of efforts to incorporate additional diagnostic imaging systems- such as LIDAR, stereovision, and thermal onto low-cost UAV drones to increase archaeologists’ access to multispectral

and 3D imagery. UAV drones serve as a cost-effective platform, and structure from motion an ideal entry

point for further adoption of diagnostic imaging to facilitate efficient site mapping and offer archaeologists innovative ways to visualize and analyze data.

SAA 2015 abstracts made available in tDAR courtesy of the Society for American Archaeology and Center for Digital Antiquity Collaborative Program to improve digital data in archaeology. If you are the author of this presentation you may upload your paper, poster, presentation, or associated data (up to 3 files/30MB) for free. Please visit http://www.tdar.org/SAA2015 for instructions and more information.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)   •
• Archaeological Applications of Unmanned Aerial Systems (Drones)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage