Recording Shipwrecks at the Speed of Light: A Low-Cost, Diver Deployed Underwater Laser Scanning System and Its Efficacy of Use in Maritime Archaeology Compared to Photogrammetry and Sonar in the 4th Industrial Revolution
Over the last decade, the modern world has been transitioning into what is known as the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Within archaeology, rapid advancements in the areas of sonar, photogrammetry, LiDAR and 3D Laser Line Scanning are direct products of this transformation and the consequences have been profound. This has dramatically changed the way we record heritage sites in the 21st century as 3D scanning offers an increasing range of versatile and affordably innovative opportunities for collecting, processing, monitoring and disseminating site information using three and four-dimensional datasets in unprecedented ways. As part of a PhD study supported through the University of Southampton’s Centre for Maritime Archaeology, underwater laser scanning, its efficacy of use, and its developmental potential in maritime archaeology will be discussed through an experimental methodological approach utlizing a ULS-200 scanner and determining its baselines of operation within different aquatic environments. This may also include more recent laser scanned data of the Gnalic’; a 16th century Venetian shipwreck located off the coast of Croatia, considered to be one of the most important 16th century shipwreck sites discovered in the region. Through scans of its varied features, results are expected to determine the highest degree of relative spatial accuracy of the site at a Beam Intensity of approx. 12% and within an expected +/- 1.7mm of accuracy. Data captured under these settings may also reveal new insights as to its current state of preservation through the generation of reflectivity values indicating the condition of different materials, the resolution of fine linear features that photogrammetry has difficulty resolving, and a determination of the spatial and morphological quality of 3D results obtained on-site in previous years using a novel metrological approach.