Drones, Lasers Help Studies of Ancient Mayan Ruins Jeff Stone - IBTimes.com
go to original September 18, 2014

SFM (structure from motion) modeling using UAVs and cameras in the jungles of Guatemala (Albert Lin)

Archaeologists studying Mayan ruins have taken inspiration from nocturnal bats flying above, using drones to scan the ancient temples from an entirely new viewpoint. The remote-controlled quadcopters have proven so useful, in fact, that researchers have assembled enough footage to create a 3-D model of the site hidden deep in the jungle.

Researchers from the University of California San Diego’s Qualcomm Institute coordinated with a team of archaeologists and drone experts to document the Mayan archaeological site of El Zotz in northern Guatemala. Remnants from the pre-Columbian civilization are still largely unexcavated in part because the best way to view the large stone structures in humid, forested jungle is by air. It’s no coincidence that the area isn’t best known for the Mayan ruins, but for the large bat population that thrives in the cliffs and caves dispersed throughout.

The aim of the El Zotz Archaeological Project, according to Phys.org, is to examine how the city’s 1,600-year-old architecture helped it become an influential seat of power, according to the science news site Phys.org. To do so, researchers are using drones equipped with LIDAR, a new kind of technology that fires laser pulses from an aircraft to measure the distance between objects on the ground. Perhaps most important for this case, LIDAR is also able to penetrate dense levels of vegetation and sweep across areas of land faster than is possible on foot.

Read the rest at IBTimes.com

We invite you to add your charity or supporting organizations' news stories and coming events to PVAngels so we can share them with the world. Do it now!