Inside Unmanned Systems provides actionable business intelligence to decision-makers and influencers operating within the global UAS community. Features include analysis of key technologies, policy/regulatory developments and new product design.
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68 unmanned systems inside April/May 2016 AIR MAPPING Drone photos of Crete excavation. Overviews bring context to a dig. inside caves or buildings, in wooded areas. "The only limits are battery life and the number of pictures you can shoot," Driessen said. Piloting the drone for Driessen and colleagues is Nicolas Kress, who is both an archaeologist and topographer—as well, Driessen said, as a very handy and practical guy. "Nicolas has acquired all of his drone hours on the job" said Driessen, "with no formal training. He has self-learned take-offs, taking pictures and landing, as well as photographic image processing." Safety of course remains a bottom-line is- sue. Driessen said one needs to respect cer- tain drone-specific rules such as f light alti- tude, keeping people at a distance, keeping an eye on the drone at all times…but, he said, none of these rules are handicapping. "Legislation regarding drone f light is in permanent f lux, partly because lawmakers and regulators are having a tough time keep- ing pace with the technological advances and the 'democratization' of drones resulting from falling prices," he said. "We are registered with the relevant Civil Aviation Authorities and we introduce a request each time we want to fly. As we work in two dif- ferent countries, Greece and Cyprus, we need to comply with different laws. And one of our sites in Cyprus is in fact within a British military base, which implies another set of regulations." Taking to the Hills While some archaeologists such as those on Driessen's team are mastering the art of drone flying themselves, other researchers are opting for a more hands-off approach, hiring service providers who do the drone work for them. Consider the work at a large Welsh hillfort be- ing undertaken by Oxford University researchers in association with the University of Wales and the University of Liverpool. The hillfort is located in the Clwydian Range in northeast Wales. Around 2,500 years ago, the Deceangli tribe controlled the area and was probably responsible for the building of a string of forts, consisting of multiple lines of banked defenses and massive in-turned gateways. Gary Lock, Oxford emeritus professor of archaeology, heads research on the hillfort. "I've worked in archaeology for 35 years," he said. "I first heard about drones being used in archaeological fieldwork at the Computer Applications in Archaeology conference, per- haps six or seven years ago." Undertaking drone-based work for Lock and his group has been Pete Rauxloh, the di- rector of technology solutions at the Museum of London Archaeology (MOLA). MOLA is not actually a museum but a non-profit organiza- tion, once part of a museum, that now provides Photos courtesy of Jan Driessen, the Catholic University of Louvain in Belgium "THE DRONE IS ESPECIALLY USEFUL BEFORE WE BEGIN DIGGING, giving us a wider view of an entire site, helping us to identify possible areas of interest— essentially seeing things that we cannot see clearly from ground level." Alison Dickens, Cambridge Archaeological Unit, the University of Cambridge