Tools and techniques for underwater archaeological sites documentation

The amount of data required for a virtual reconstruction of an underwater archaeological site requires automatic systems for collecting data, based on the use of robots and unmanned underwater vehicles, which can work for a long time, in a hostile environment, without risk to human operators and with acceptable costs. However, such systems have often to be driven by expert pilots, adding costs to the usual Data gathering campaigns. This paper shows solutions found through subsequent campaigns, thanks to the expertise of a multidisciplinary team and in collaboration with several research institutions. In particular, this work presents the added value of technology within the data collection process from underwater archaeological sites, describing an assisted guidance system for a MicroROV developed in order to help unskilled pilot. Results of 3D reconstructions from images taken during real field mission with the above technology are described.