Page 135 - AC/E Digital Culture Annual Report

Although this project has not been completed, it is also intended to create virtual reality applica- tions to allow users to experience visiting these digitised sites [online resource - video].541.6.1 DRONES/UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles)The term drone is generally agreed to refer to unmanned aerial vehicles or UAVs, the technical name for them. Both terms emerged in the military eld and have been used since the mid-twentieth century, though their presence has grown considerably among the civilian pop- ulation in the past decade. This has led to the coining of another speci c term, RPA (remotely piloted aircraft).When we speak of drones in connection with heritage, we are generally referring to themas the latest revelation in data acquisition for generating digital information on cultural her- itage. Indeed, they are an important means of broadening the possibilities of photogrammetric and laser scanning techniques owing to their ad- aptation to a particular context (archaeological, monumental, etc...) or because the data gath- ered is of great importance to correctly model- ling the heritage object in combination with the abovementioned acquisition techniques.Drones have thus proven to be powerful new tools for sector professionals – particularly ar- chaeologists, who have so far made good use of them to document excavations, map landscapes and identify buried structures. It is therefore not surprising that their huge possibilities have led many culture enterprises to specialise in this means of documenting archaeological heritage, such as the Spanish companies Virtua Nostrum55 and Drone By Drone.56Nevertheless, the use of drones has not been limited to archaeology, as we also nd examples related to documenting historic heritage. Ac- cording to an article by Jos Antonio Domínguez(2015), the possible uses of drones in the eld of heritage can be classi ed by listing the functions these devices can perform, namely: 1) high-reso- lution images or videos to be used as visual doc- uments in inventories; 2) ights with di erent sensors (visual or thermal) to locate problems and pathologies; and 3) photogrammetric ights to obtain metric (measurable) documents in two or three dimensions.Tradr project (Long Term Human Robot Teaming for Robot Assisted Disaster Response)The recent earthquake that ravaged central Italy in August 2016 had devastating consequences for the heritage of towns like Accumoli, Arquata del Tronto and Amatrice, many of whose historic buildings collapsed and were left partly in ruins. In this unfortunate situation, new technologies proved to be an excellent ally in restoring dam- aged buildings. The Tradr project (Long Term Human Robot Teaming for Robot Assisted Disas- ter Response),57 funded by the European Union’s 7th Framework Programme in collaboration with the Italian Vigili del Fuoco, involved surveying the ravaged region of Amatrice, known as the “town of the 100 churches”. The churches of San Francesco and Sant’Agostino were inspectedby several drones and robots, which captured the rst images of the state of the buildings [video 1]58 [video 2].59 This documentation work was particularly important for the subsequent tasks of clearing the rubble and restoring the buildings, as it made it possible to establish a salvage plan for all the movable objects still inside the churches and organise their recovery.Virtua NostrumVirtua Nostrum60 is a Madrid-based company specialised in work involving new technologies in the elds of archaeology, palaeontology, architecture and geology. Digitisation of cultural heritage is an important part of the projectsand training courses this company runs, and it uses drones for aerial work as part of the CerroAC/E DIGITAL CULTURE ANNUAL REPORT 2017135The use of digital technologies in the conservation, analysis and dissemination of cultural heritage