Drone Inspection in Cultural Heritage

A special issue of Drones (ISSN 2504-446X).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 September 2022) | Viewed by 16773

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Department of Civil Engineering and Architecture, University of Pavia, 27100 Pavia, Italy
Interests: digital survey; architectural drawing; 3D laser scanner survey; database; cultural heritage

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Guest Editor
Department of Civil Engineering, University of Salerno, 84084 Fisciano, Italy
Interests: archaeology; conservation-restoration; photogrammetry; cultural heritage; laser scanning; CAD; architectural drawings; remote sensing; civil engineering

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Guest Editor
Cartographic and Land Engineering Department, Higher Polytechnic School of Avila, University of Salamanca, Hornos Caleros, 50 05003 Avila, Spain
Interests: photogrammetry; laser scanning; 3D modeling; topography; cartography
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E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Cartographic and Land Engineering Department, Higher Polytechnic School of Avila, University of Salamanca, Hornos Caleros, 50 05003 Avila, Spain
Interests: drones, flight planning and control, geometric and radiometric sensors

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Guest Editor
Departamento de Ingeniería Cartográfica y del Terreno, Universidad de Salamanca, 37008 Salamanca, Spain
Interests: cartographic; geodetic and photogrammetric engineering
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Cartographic and Land Engineering Department, Higher Polytechnic School of Avila, University of Salamanca, Hornos Caleros, 50 05003 Avila, Spain
Interests: photogrammetry; laser scanning; 3D modeling; structural analysis; construction diagnosis
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Unmanned aerial and ground vehicles (UAV and UGV), also called drones, have been widely used in cultural heritage for at least three decades, opening a vast field of applications in large scale and close range digitalization. Both platforms can capture images, or even point clouds, from inaccessible areas such as roofs or narrow galleries, making the complete documentation of complex heritage sites possible. However, the rapid evolution of geomatics and robotics, e.g., the development of new algorithms for structure from motion or SLAM problems, as well as the latest developments in electronics (e.g., navigation systems), requiring a continuous review of the possibilities within the heritage field. The present Special Issue will cover the latest advances in cultural heritage documentation, including the diagnosis of these structures, by means of the use of drones. Rather than another 3D reconstruction contribution, this Special Issue seeks high-quality papers that explore all the potentialities offered by these platforms and the latest advances in data acquisition, positioning, and sensor hybridization applied to the inspection of cultural heritage sites and objects.

This Special Issue originates from "Drones - Systems of Information on culTural hEritage (D-SITE 2022 Conference, https://www.dsiteconference.com/), which will be held on 16–18 June 2022 in Pavia, Italy. The most exciting and innovative papers related to drones presented at D-SITE 2022 will be selected to be extended and included in this Special Issue. Additionally, we wish to invite you to contribute by submitting articles concerning your recent research, experimental work, reviews, and/or case studies related to drone inspection in cultural heritage. Contributions may be from, but not limited to, the following topics:

  • Drone flight planning and control in cultural heritage
  • Autonomous navigation of drones in cultural heritage
  • 3D documentation of critical heritage infrastructures in cultural heritage for which drones are necessary
  • Damage detection in cultural heritage by means of drones
  • Inspection and diagnosis of heritage constructions by means of drones
  • Structural condition assessment in cultural heritage by means of drones
  • Multidisciplinary study cases that include the use of drones

It is hoped that this Special Issue provides advice and guidelines required for any cultural heritage professional making the best possible use of drones in cultural heritage.

Dr. Parrinello Sandro
Prof. Dr. Salvatore Barba
Prof. Dr. Diego González-Aguilera
Dr. Jesus Fernandez-Hernandez
Dr. Miguel Angel Maté-González
Dr. Luis Javier Sanchez-Aparicio
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Drones is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • Drones in cultural heritage
  • Heritage documentation
  • Drones equipped with geomatic sensors
  • 3D modeling
  • 4D analysis
  • Diagnosis of historical constructions
  • Data fusion

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Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

24 pages, 5666 KiB  
Article
Supporting Long-Term Archaeological Research in Southern Romania Chalcolithic Sites Using Multi-Platform UAV Mapping
by Cornelis Stal, Cristina Covataru, Johannes Müller, Valentin Parnic, Theodor Ignat, Robert Hofmann and Catalin Lazar
Drones 2022, 6(10), 277; https://doi.org/10.3390/drones6100277 - 26 Sep 2022
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 3174
Abstract
Spatial data play a crucial role in archaeological research, and orthophotos, digital elevation models, and 3D models are frequently used for the mapping, documentation, and monitoring of archaeological sites. Thanks to the availability of compact and low-cost uncrewed airborne vehicles, the use of [...] Read more.
Spatial data play a crucial role in archaeological research, and orthophotos, digital elevation models, and 3D models are frequently used for the mapping, documentation, and monitoring of archaeological sites. Thanks to the availability of compact and low-cost uncrewed airborne vehicles, the use of UAV-based photogrammetry matured in this field over the past two decades. More recently, compact airborne systems are also available that allow the recording of thermal data, multispectral data, and airborne laser scanning. In this article, various platforms and sensors are applied at the Chalcolithic archaeological sites in the Mostiștea Basin and Danube Valley (Southern Romania). By analysing the performance of the systems and the resulting data, insight is given into the selection of the appropriate system for the right application. This analysis requires thorough knowledge of data acquisition and data processing, as well. As both laser scanning and photogrammetry typically result in very large amounts of data, a special focus is also required on the storage and publication of the data. Hence, the objective of this article is to provide a full overview of various aspects of 3D data acquisition for UAV-based mapping. Based on the conclusions drawn in this article, it is stated that photogrammetry and laser scanning can result in data with similar geometrical properties when acquisition parameters are appropriately set. On the one hand, the used ALS-based system outperforms the photogrammetric platforms in terms of operational time and the area covered. On the other hand, conventional photogrammetry provides flexibility that might be required for very low-altitude flights, or emergency mapping. Furthermore, as the used ALS sensor only provides a geometrical representation of the topography, photogrammetric sensors are still required to obtain true colour or false colour composites of the surface. Lastly, the variety of data, such as pre- and post-rendered raster data, 3D models, and point clouds, requires the implementation of multiple methods for the online publication of data. Various client-side and server-side solutions are presented to make the data available for other researchers. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Drone Inspection in Cultural Heritage)
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20 pages, 10913 KiB  
Article
Accuracy Assessment of Cultural Heritage Models Extracting 3D Point Cloud Geometric Features with RPAS SfM-MVS and TLS Techniques
by Alessandra Capolupo
Drones 2021, 5(4), 145; https://doi.org/10.3390/drones5040145 - 11 Dec 2021
Cited by 15 | Viewed by 3339
Abstract
A proper classification of 3D point clouds allows fully exploiting data potentiality in assessing and preserving cultural heritage. Point cloud classification workflow is commonly based on the selection and extraction of respective geometric features. Although several research activities have investigated the impact of [...] Read more.
A proper classification of 3D point clouds allows fully exploiting data potentiality in assessing and preserving cultural heritage. Point cloud classification workflow is commonly based on the selection and extraction of respective geometric features. Although several research activities have investigated the impact of geometric features on classification outcomes accuracy, only a few works focused on their accuracy and reliability. This paper investigates the accuracy of 3D point cloud geometric features through a statistical analysis based on their corresponding eigenvalues and covariance with the aim of exploiting their effectiveness for cultural heritage classification. The proposed approach was separately applied on two high-quality 3D point clouds of the All Saints’ Monastery of Cuti (Bari, Southern Italy), generated using two competing survey techniques: Remotely Piloted Aircraft System (RPAS) Structure from Motion (SfM) and Multi View Stereo (MVS) techniques and Terrestrial Laser Scanner (TLS). Point cloud compatibility was guaranteed through re-alignment and co-registration of data. The geometric features accuracy obtained by adopting the RPAS digital photogrammetric and TLS models was consequently analyzed and presented. Lastly, a discussion on convergences and divergences of these results is also provided. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Drone Inspection in Cultural Heritage)
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18 pages, 21931 KiB  
Article
Fusion of UAV and Terrestrial Photogrammetry with Laser Scanning for 3D Reconstruction of Historic Churches in Georgia
by Thomas Luhmann, Maria Chizhova and Denys Gorkovchuk
Drones 2020, 4(3), 53; https://doi.org/10.3390/drones4030053 - 7 Sep 2020
Cited by 35 | Viewed by 6614
Abstract
In September 2018, photogrammetric images and terrestrial laser scans were carried out as part of a measurement campaign for the three-dimensional recording of several historic churches in Tbilisi (Georgia). The aim was the complete spatial reconstruction with a spatial resolution and accuracy of [...] Read more.
In September 2018, photogrammetric images and terrestrial laser scans were carried out as part of a measurement campaign for the three-dimensional recording of several historic churches in Tbilisi (Georgia). The aim was the complete spatial reconstruction with a spatial resolution and accuracy of approx. 1 cm under partly difficult external conditions, which required the use of different measurement techniques. The local measurement data were collected by two laser scanning campaigns (Leica BLK360 and Faro Focus 3D X330), several UAV flights and two terrestrial image sets. The photogrammetric point clouds were calculated with the image-based modelling programs AgiSoft and RealityCapture taking into account the control points from the laser scans. The mean residual errors from the registrations or photogrammetric evaluations are 4–16 mm, depending on the selected software, size and complexity of the monument and environmental conditions. The best completeness and quality of the resulting 3D model was achieved by using laser scan data and images simultaneously. The article presents recent results obtained with RealityCapture and gives a critical analysis of accuracy and modelling quality. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Drone Inspection in Cultural Heritage)
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