A system for recording historical buildings using multiple unmanned aerial vehicles

   More information can be found at dronument.cz

Images of archeological sites or heritage buildings have been traditionaly captured using kites, balloons or even planes. Nowadays, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) are widely used in the heritage sector. For example, UAVs can be used for monitoring of sites, excavated objects or for analysis of roof conditions. UAVs can carry various sensors like 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 this project is to create a basic platform enabling the outdoor recording of heritage sites. This includes developments of SW for data capturing and processing as well as system for data sharing suitable for heritage sector.

Scanning of historical buildings with inaccessible 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 inaccessible areas using our own drones.

At February 26, 2017, MRS together with National Heritage Institute in Olomouc scanned the church in Sternberg. During the scanning of high placed areas such as copula and wall paintings, we used our methods for stabilization of autonomous helicopter formation. Nowadays we negotiate with other heritage institutions to scan other historical buildings.