Robotic tools for deep water archaeology: Surveying an ancient shipwreck with an autonomous underwater vehicle (original) (raw)

The ARROWS project: adapting and developing robotics technologies for underwater archaeology

IFAC-PapersOnLine, 2015

ARchaeological RObot systems for the World's Seas (ARROWS) EU Project proposes to adapt and develop low-cost Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) technologies to significantly reduce the cost of archaeological operations, covering the full extent of archaeological campaign. ARROWS methodology is to identify the archaeologists requirements in all phases of the campaign and to propose related technological solutions. Starting from the necessities identified by archaeological project partners in collaboration with the Archaeology Advisory Group, a board composed of European archaeologists from outside ARROWS, the aim is the development of a heterogeneous team of cooperating AUVs capable of comply with a complete archaeological autonomous mission. Three new different AUVs have been designed in the framework of the project according to the archaeologists' indications: MARTA, characterized by a strong hardware modularity for ease of payload and propulsion systems configuration change; U-CAT, a turtle inspired bio-mimetic robot devoted to shipwreck penetration and A Size AUV, a vehicle of small dimensions and weight easily deployable even by a single person. These three vehicles will cooperate within the project with AUVs already owned by ARROWS partners exploiting a distributed high-level control software based on the World Model Service (WMS), a storage system for the environment knowledge, updated in real-time through online payload data process, in the form of an ontology. The project includes also the development of a cleaning tool for well-known artifacts maintenance operations. The paper presents the current stage of the project that will lead to overall system final demonstrations, during Summer 2015, in two different scenarios, Sicily (Italy) and Baltic Sea (Estonia).

Design of a modular Autonomous Underwater Vehicle for archaeological investigations

OCEANS 2015 - Genova, 2015

FP7 European project. The ARROWS project challenge is to provide the underwater archaeologists with technological tools for cost affordable campaigns: i.e. ARROWS adapts and develops low cost AUV technologies to significantly reduce the cost of archaeological operations, covering the full extent of an archaeological campaign (underwater mapping, diagnosis and cleaning tasks). The tools and methodologies developed within ARROWS comply with the "Annex" of the 2001 UNESCO Convention for the protection of Underwater Cultural Heritage (UCH). The system effectiveness and MARTA performance will be demonstrated in two scenarios, different as regards the environment and the historical context, the Mediterranean Sea (Egadi Islands) and the Baltic Sea.

2.4. An ASV (Autonomous Surface Vehicle) for Archaeology- The Pla.pdf

This chapter seeks to inform the archaeological community about a robotic autonomous surface vehicle (ASV) currently being developed for shallow-water applications in marine sciences and archaeology (Miškovic´ et al. 2011, Miškovic´ et al. 2013; Vasilijevic´ et al. 2015). The ASV Pladypos (a PLAtform for DYnamic POSitioning) was developed at the University of Zagreb Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing, in the Laboratory for Underwater Systems and Technologies (LABUST). Its main characteristic, from which it obtained its name, is dynamic positioning at sea. The Pladypos uses GPS to keep a steady position at a requested location or along transects while actively compensating for external disturbances such as wind, waves, and currents. The Pladypos can deploy with a variety of cameras and sensors to survey submerged ancient harbors and coastal settlements, or any underwater landscape where current digital recording strategies do not scale well beyond the size of individual shipwreck sites. The Pladypos was originally developed to answer research needs identified by underwater archaeologists and other marine scientists, and collaboration between the engineers and archaeologists on real field missions was planned from the outset as a means to increase interdisciplinary understanding and identify areas for improvement. Here we present some preliminary results and describe the experience of an interdisciplinary team using the Pladypos to create a georeferenced bathymetric map and integrated photomosaic of the submerged ruins at Caesarea Maritima in Israel

A new method for underwater archaeological surveying using sensors and unmanned platforms

As most of the world's oceans are inaccessible to diving archaeologists, we must rely on advanced underwater technology and marine robotics to explore, map and investigate ship wrecks in these areas. New sensors and unmanned sensor platforms represent huge potentials for archaeological applications, but require a scrutinous look at how established archaeological methods and approaches must be adapted or rejected to optimize the results. Surveys done on a disintegrated wreck site with acoustic sensors like side scan sonar and synthetic aperture sonar, and optical sensors like stereo cameras, video and underwater hyperspectral imager, are compiled to serve as a case study to demonstrate the method. Challenges regarding guidance, navigation and control are discussed.

Marine Robots Mapping the Present and the Past: Unraveling the Secrets of the Deep

Remote Sensing

Underwater cultural heritage sites are subject to constant change, whether due to natural forces such as sediments, waves, currents or human intervention. Until a few decades ago, the documentation and research of these sites was mostly done manually by diving archaeologists. This paper presents the results of the integration of remote sensing technologies with autonomous marine vehicles in order to make the task of site documentation even faster, more accurate, more efficient and more precisely georeferenced. It includes the integration of multibeam sonar, side scan sonar and various cameras into autonomous surface and underwater vehicles, remotely operated vehicle and unmanned aerial vehicle. In total, case studies for nine underwater cultural heritage sites around the Mediterranean region are presented. Each case study contains a brief archaeological background of the site, the methodology of using autonomous marine vehicles and sensors for their documentation, and the results in...

2.4. An ASV (Autonomous Surface Vehicle) for Archaeology: The Pladypos at Caesarea Maritima, Israel

2016

This chapter seeks to inform the archaeological community about a robotic autonomous surface vehicle (ASV) currently being developed for shallow-water applications in marine sciences and archaeology. The ASV Pladypos (a PLAtform for DYnamic POSitioning) was developed at the University of Zagreb Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing, in the Laboratory for Underwater Systems and Technologies (LABUST). Its main characteristic, from which it obtained its name, is dynamic positioning at sea. The Pladypos uses GPS to keep a steady position at a requested location or along transects while actively compensating for external disturbances such as wind, waves, and currents. The Pladypos can deploy with a variety of cameras and sensors to survey submerged ancient harbors and coastal settlements, or any underwater landscape where current digital recording strategies do not scale well beyond the size of individual shipwreck sites.

Underwater Archaeology with Light AUVs

Oceans, 2019

For millennia, ships were lost at sea leading to the loss of an estimated 3 million vessels. This paper describes a light autonomous underwater vehicle specially tailored for coastal archaeology applications where a big part of this heritage sites should be found. This specific vehicle includes sonars, an optical camera and a magnetometer to detect and identify archaeological artifacts in the ocean bottom or underneath. It can be used isolated or as part of a team of AUVs for faster surveys. We describe the hardware, its simplified operation using custom-made software and overview some results in different areas, where these vehicles have been used to detect several wrecks and other important artifacts.

Data gathering in underwater archaeology by means of a remotely operated vehicle

This work describes the procedures and methodology employed in recent mission at sea for gathering data from submerged sites of archaeological interest. The emphasis in this activity is mainly in developing, testing and validating solutions that simplify the work of archaeologist by employing unmanned robotic vehicles and automatic procedures and that can be applied to deep water sites that are not reachable by divers.