Dronument: A system for documentation of historical
monuments by a team of unmanned aerial vehicles

   Official project site in Czech language: dronument.cz

Images of archeological sites or heritage buildings have been traditionaly captured outdoor using kites, balloons or even planes. In recent years, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) have been widely used in the heritage sector. This technology can be used for monitoring of outdoor archeological sites, excavated objects, or for analysis of roof conditions, and likewise for monitoring of artifacts within interiors of historical structures. UAVs can carry various sensors, such as high-resolution cameras or even laser scanners. This allows to create both still images, videos, and data for off-line detailed analysis.

The goal of the Dronument project is to create an aerial platform enabling interior and exterior documentation of heritage sites. This includes development of software for data acquisition and processing, as well as system for data distribution amongst the heritage sector. Typical documentation interests in interiors are either artistic elements, such as paintings, altars, statues, mosaics, frescores, stained glass, pillars, or pipe organs, and non-artistic elements, such as building structure changes (e.g., wall clefts).

Documentation of historical structures with human-unreachable areas is difficult task for archaeologists and restorers. Our Multi-robot Systems group (MRS) from Department of Cybernetics at Czech Technical University in Prague helps with scanning of such areas using our own drones. The aerial system, which is currently in development, was already deployed in several historical objects within the Czech Republic and Poland in order to document interior artifacts and structures, and exterior facades and roofs. List of these objects is given by the multimedia list below.

The video was featured in IEEE Robotics Video Fridays.

Multimedia documentation and experimental evaluation of designed methods