Accuracy of Underwater Photogrammetric Methods: The Case Study of the Invincible Wreck Site

Summary

This report presents an accuracy analysis of the 2016 underwater photogrammetric survey of the HMS Invincible, an at-risk British wreck of historic import, which afforded the opportunity to compare the three-dimensional models generated by a variety of widely available cameras. In a two-phase project, photogrammetric data from the Invincible wreck site was compared against swath bathymetry, and the cameras used onsite were tested on reference objects under controlled pool conditions.

The results of the survey allowed us to evaluate the error margins of both idealized and real-world photogrammetric outputs of common camera types with varying sensor sizes. Based on these findings, we discuss the most effective photogrammetric workflows from the Invincible project and the relative accuracy of the latest generation of GoPro cameras compared to commercial SLRs. Ultimately, we define the archaeological value of a point cloud from a site-scale photogrammetric survey under open water conditions, with multiple camera types.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Paper / Report Submission (General Sessions) 2017   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2017

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Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 654