The European Space Agency (ESA) has funded Ampyx Power, developer of a next-generation wind energy technology, and Omnisense, developer of locating and tracking solutions, to develop a robust fail-safe navigation system.
The positioning solution will be used for automated take-off and landing of Ampyx Power’s wind-energy aircraft when applied offshore or over rugged terrain. The technology will be enabling as well for other drones in critical applications.
Ampyx Power develops airborne wind energy systems (AWES) using autonomous tethered aircraft as a means for generating electricity on the ground. The launch and land deck is smaller than the wing span of the aircraft. High accuracy, availability and integrity of the relative positioning between aircraft and platform is required during the final horizontal approach to ensure safe landing of the aircraft in the case of GNSS outage.
The funding will cover the integration into the navigation solution of a local positioning system that seeks to provide 10 centimeters of relative positioning accuracy with 100-Hz update rate and an operating range up to 1 kilometers. Ultra-wideband positioning techniques will be used to make this happen.
“The project allows us to integrate a backup local positioning system into the existing high-end navigation solution,” said Michiel Kruijff, head of technology at Ampyx Power. “This novel navigation technology will ensure that our aircraft can overfly the platform with great accuracy, even in case of GNSS failure. This solution is particularly relevant for use cases in rugged terrain or offshore where other affordable means of relative positioning would be too costly or would offer insufficient performance or availability. We seek such a high level of system robustness both for commercial reasons and for safety reasons, in line with our certification approach with the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA).”
“We are pleased to offer our innovative local positioning system (LPS) to this project,” said Andy Thurman, CEO at Omnisense. “The closely time-synchronized fusion of ultrawideband (UWB) signals exchanged between landing deck and aircraft mounted Omnisense beacons, will allow highly accurate range measurements to be provided to the drone autopilot, enabling continuous operation in the safety critical landing phase. The enhanced capabilities which arise as a result of this project will enable Omnisense to extend the market reach for our flexible LPS offering from the industrial asset and animal tracking markets in which we currently operate, to more dynamic applications such as GNSS denied drone control, autonomous vehicles in smart cities and sports performance analysis.”
Klau Geomatics has launched MakeItAccurate, a global GNSS data correction and processing service.
MakeItAccurate takes data from any GNSS receiver on drone or survey equipment and makes it accurate. Users can now achieve centimeter (cm)-level accuracy without the need for base stations, real-time kinematic (RTK) links, data from Continuously Operating Reference Station (CORS) or other external inputs.
MakeItAccurate requires only the raw GNSS data from a drone to produce a highly precise trajectory and turn the traditional autonomous 3-5m GPS accuracy to 3-5 cm anywhere in the world.
In many parts of the United States, Europe, Japan, Australia and New Zealand, absolute accuracy of 2-3 cm XYZ will be achieved. In these areas, the KlauPPK processing engine applies sophisticated hybrid PPK/PPP algorithms, merging global PPP clock and orbit corrections with many distant CORS stations to achieve this high absolute accuracy.
The service enables enterprise drone operations to achieve high accuracy across their entire global operations with one repeatable workflow.
Sectors such as insurance, telecommunications and utilities can scale their operations without additional survey expertise and site-specific data constraints. The same process works for multiple operators on thousands of sites enabling consistent, high accuracy every time, the company said.
MakeItAccurate supports data from all GNSS manufacturers. Native support for DJI M 210v2 RTK or Phantom 4 RTK drones returns precise camera positions with centimeter-level accuracy. Other drones using external PPK GNSS products also can achieve highly accurate kinematic trajectories and camera coordinates.
A MakeItAccurate application programming interface (API) is available to push raw GNSS data to the processing engine and return highly accurate coordinates, with full reporting on the accuracy achieved for the entire trajectory or each camera event. GNSS hardware manufacturers can offer a custom service to add value to their products. Software developers offering artificial intelligence technology, photogrammetry processing or other outcomes that benefit from high accuracy can use the MakeItAccurate API.
On Oct. 24, 2019, representatives from 11 nations met in Moscow and agreed to a “Radio Navigation Development Plan for Participating Commonwealth of Independent States for 2019 to 2024.” The Russian version is here; a version in English produced by Google Translate can be found here.
Most government documents like this, regardless of the country, tend to be more overviews of current systems vice real plans for a way forward. In this case, though, this seems to be much more of a plan. It documents existing systems, recent accomplishments, user needs, and the upgrades and changes required to meet those needs.
The plan makes clear Russia’s significant concern with GNSS signal disruption (one might opine this is justified as they disrupt the signals so much themselves). As a result, the plan dedicates significant space to combatting disruption and making users more resilient by integrating space and terrestrial systems into a more robust and resilient PNT architecture.
It also seems to confirm a mobile terrestrial PNT capability, likely for military use, that has received little public attention.
Note on Translation and Terminology: The copy of the plan we found was in Russian. We used Google Translate to create an English version. One translation issue that we noticed was several variations of the way the Russian terrestrial Loran PNT system is described. The Russian Loran system is named “Chayka,” literally “Seagull” in English. References in the translated version to “Chaika,” “Loran,” “Laurent,” “Seagull” and “Tropic” are all some version of “Loran.”
User requirements
Early on the plan provides a detailed discussion of user requirements for each mode of transportation and for timing users. This user focus continues throughout the document. The table for timing users did not transition well during conversion of the document to English and is reproduced below:
Click to enlarge. (Source: “Radio Navigation Development Plan for Participating Commonwealth of Independent States for 2019 to 2024”)
Strategic approach
While not overtly stated, one can see that Russia and its Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) partners have a very strategic view of PNT and how they can leverage it.
Click to enlarge. (Map: “Radio Navigation Development Plan for Participating Commonwealth of Independent States for 2019 to 2024”)
This graphic from the plan speaks volumes. Russian/CIS domestic PNT covers 14% of the earth’s land mass (compared to 6.6% for the U.S.). A good portion of China’s belt and road passes through. Resilient and robust navigation is going to be especially important for a wide variety of reasons.
Concerns about i nterference
The plan discusses GNSS interference at length, listing 13 operational electronic systems (radars, TV channels, etc.) with emissions that could impact reception.
Among the recommendations to counter interference, the plan suggests creation of a system to monitor GNSS frequencies and identify disruptions, use of multiple GLONASS frequencies, and integrating GLONASS, GPS and terrestrial systems within users’ receivers.
“Integration of terrestrial and space RNS will allow creating separate navigation areas superior in technical the characteristics of each of its constituent systems…One of the ways to integrate ground and space RNS is integration of systems like “Seagull” [Loran] and GLONASS. Integrated systems “Seagull” / GLONASS may in the future used as the main systems for route stages navigation.”
Integration of inertial and Loran sensors with GNSS has already been done for some “consumer equipment.” The plan also says that at least one version of Seagull/Loran is being modernized.
Loran and GNSS
Russia’s version of Differential GNSS and Eurofix is done using Loran towers and signals.
In the Russian Federation and the Republic of Belarus there is a ground navigation base that supports control technology transmission corrective information from regional differential GNSS satellite subsystems using Eurofix technology. In Russian Federation, this base is presented in the form of pulse-phase RNS types “The Seagull,” “Tropic-2V” and “Tropic-2C.” Modernization in progress a similar station located in the city of Slonim of the Republic of Belarus.
Some of the advantages of this are listed as coverage of a large area (600- 2,200 km) at relatively low cost, improved channel uptime and availability, data transmission in urban and mountainous areas, and that Loran and GLONASS/GPS are complementary and provide backups for each other.
It also points out that Loran and GNSS are mutually supportive in other ways:
GNSS location determinations can be used to calibration of readings RSDN and compensate for errors due to the propagation of radio wave. In turn the data Laurent-C/Seagull can be used to monitor the integrity of satellite RNS.
Mobile Loran/Scorpio
One system that we have heard very little about in the last five years is Russia’s “Scorpio” or “Skorpion.” It was initially assessed by a US Army journal as a mobile, military PNT system, for space-denied battle.
This document shows it as an on-going Ministry of Defense research and development modernization program. Also, as a mobile form of the Tropic-2P variant of Seagull/Loran.
In the period until 2020, a planned replacement of mobile long-range radio navigation systems “Tropic-2P” to the information system coordinate-temporal support “Scorpio”. As part of the complex equipment there are local control and correction stations, which can significantly improve the accuracy of determining coordinates consumers.
The way forward
At over a hundred pages, this plan has a lot of information. It includes a table of 19 different navigation systems maintained by the government and the plan for each. This table also suffered when the document was transformed into the English version. The manual re-recreation is below:
Click to enlarge. (Source: “Radio Navigation Development Plan for Participating Commonwealth of Independent States for 2019 to 2024”)Click to enlarge. (Source: “Radio Navigation Development Plan for Participating Commonwealth of Independent States for 2019 to 2024”)
The U.S.-only For Official Use Only sessions will be hosted at the Northern Kentucky Convention Center in Covington, Kentucky, and the U.S.-only secret sessions will be hosted at the Air Force Institute of Technology in Dayton, Ohio.
According to ION, the rescheduled conference will host the original program, which was scheduled to take place in June.
“We are aware of the importance of this community of dedicated public servants meeting in an environment where they can effectively collaborate, exchange research, and demonstrate technology,” said Lisa Beaty, executive director for ION. “The current global climate made our ability to hold this conference in June unlikely, and we needed to provide an alternative opportunity for all our stakeholders.”
Those scheduled to present at JNC 2020 will receive emails from ION asking them to respond electronically to confirm the rescheduled dates and times of their presentations. Those who have registered to attend will receive an email from ION letting them know what their options are.
Terra Drone group company KazUAV has helped Nur-Sultan police to use drones to patrol and monitor illegal border movement and slow the spread of coronavirus in Kazakhstan
KazUAV, Kazakhstan drone service provider and a member of Japan-based Terra Drone Corporation, has been working at the frontlines to keep communities safe amid the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak.
Providing direct support to the operational headquarters set up to prevent the spread of coronavirus in Kazakhstan, KazUAV has been helping the Nur-Sultan Police Department to patrol the borders of the locked-down capital city with drones, ensuring “contactless” surveillance and fast-paced operations.
Nur-Sultan is the capital city of Kazakhstan.
The Central Asian nation closed its borders and locked down its main cities, including Nur-Sultan, after confirming the first coronavirus case on March 16. The oil-rich country that borders Russia and China also announced a state of emergency, set to last until April 15, adopting tough measures to combat the pandemic.
Some of the guidelines put forth by the Kazakh authorities include country-wide travel restrictions, suspension of public gatherings, and implementation of stringent sanitation and anti-epidemic measures.
A checkpoint on the border of Nur-Sultan. (Photo: Terra Drone)
All entrances and exits from Nur-Sultan have been completely blocked as part of these measures, mobilizing multiple law enforcement agencies of the Republic of Kazakhstan. Armored vehicles, barriers, and concrete blocks are being used to man the movement from the surrounding villages of Talapker, Karaotkel (Ilyinka), Koyandy, Kosshy and Zhibek-Zholy, on the Nur-Sultan-Petropavlovsk highway.
An additional post has been set up by the municipal government of the Akmola region in Shubary to ensure there are no cases of non-compliance by the Kazakh population.
KazUAV has been directly involved in the collection of information, operational monitoring, and coordination of actions of the Police Department and the Coronavirus Spread Prevention Operational Headquarters for all these areas.
A KazUAV drone takes off to monitor the borders of the Kazakh capital of Nur-Sultan. (Photo: Terra Drone)
Using drone-mounted cameras with both visible and infrared sensors, the KazUAV team has completed hundreds of flight hours, broadcasting all captured data, as well as the exact coordinates of objects of interest, directly to the operational headquarters command center. This has led to the authorities discovering multiple bypass roads and irregularities in the locked-down area – without which, the quarantine measures could not have proven effective.
When it comes to remote monitoring of vast areas, unmanned aerial vehicles are one of the best tools available to public safety agencies today. As a leading drone service provider in Kazakhstan, KazUAV not only gave Kazakh first responders access to cutting-edge drone technology, the company also assisted the enforcement agencies with the vast experience of its team of specialists, trained to operate day and night in the toughest of weather conditions.
The UAV ground control station at the Coronavirus Spread Prevention Operational Headquarters in Nur-Sultan. (Photo: Terra Drone)
“As international experience has shown, restrictions introduced to prevent the spread of the coronavirus are the most effective measures to fight it,” said Dmitry Ivanov, development director, KazUAV. “Of course, it’s hard for everyone now; it is a challenging time for each one of us. But the call to stay home is more relevant than ever in the context of drones. We are familiar with carrying out critical tasks like monitoring floods or patrolling important events, but this was an emergency request which needed an immediate response.”
The Space Foundation has decided to reschedule the 36th Space Symposium for Oct. 31 to Nov. 2. It will still take place at The Broadmoor in Colorado Springs.
According to the Space Foundation, the 36th Space Symposium will gather leaders, innovators and entrepreneurs from the civil, commercial, military, research and international sectors to share, explore and partner on efforts that will impact our lives beyond Earth and upon it.
“Working with our partners, The Broadmoor, the City of Colorado Springs, our corporate members and other key stakeholders, we look forward to welcoming everyone back to Colorado Springs to celebrate one of the world’s most inventive and impactful communities,” said Rear Admiral Tom Zelibor, CEO of the Space Foundation. “We will continue to monitor all of the public health reports and adhere to all of the federal, state and local orders regarding public assemblies but we have confidence in planning ahead for a future that brings our community safely back together in Colorado Springs.”
As a result of the date and timing changes for this year’s symposium, attendees will find a revamped agenda from what was originally scheduled for this spring, the Space Foundation said. Scheduled changes can be found here.
In addition, registration fees paid to attend the 36th Space Symposium will be automatically transferred to the rescheduled program. Those choosing to not attend the rescheduled Symposium are requested to notify [email protected] to receive a full refund of registration fees paid.
Iris Automation released Casia 360, an onboard detect-and-avoid solution with a 360-degree radial field of view to enable commercial beyond visual line-of-sight (BVLOS) operations for unmanned aircraft systems (UAS).
According to the company, Casia 360 system has the ability to detect other aircraft in all directions. It then uses computer-vision algorithms to classify them, makes intelligent decisions about the threat they may pose to the drone, then triggers an alert to the pilot in command and automated maneuvers to safely avoid collisions.
Casia 360, a low size, weight and power system, is composed of two onboard controllers and five long-range optical cameras that provide a 360-degree field of view. The software is packaged in a self-contained embedded supercomputer that works with the machine vision cameras onboard, the company said.
“Casia 360 allows a drone to have a complete sense of its surroundings so it can avoid potential collisions from any direction,” said Alexander Harmsen, CEO of Iris Automation. “We developed this technology based on feedback from our customers and regulatory bodies around the world. It enables drones to be used for an even greater range of long-distance use cases and saves money, increases safety and unlocks applications across multiple industries: railway, energy sector, utility powerline inspections, package delivery, and life-saving search and rescue operations.”
Iris Automation, based in San Francisco, is an artificial intelligence and safety avionics company building collision-avoidance systems for autonomous vehicles.
Esri has created and released a suite of resources to help businesses like commercial organizations, government agencies and utilities maintain operational continuity during the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to Esri, these resources are designed to help organizations understand the current status of their operations and employees, analyze relative community risk to COVID-19 and create business strategies for moving forward.
The four released resources include the Coronavirus Business Continuity solution, impact planning for COVID-19, the Health and Medical Lifeline: COVID-19 Risk Model and county-level COVID-19 case data.
The Coronavirus Business Continuity solution includes configurable apps and surveys to enable organizations to track the status and location of their employees and facilities throughout the supply chain and communicate that information with internal and external stakeholders.
Impact planning for COVID-19 provides a snapshot of every U.S. county, including daily updates on each county’s COVID-19 cases and data on population vulnerability, hospital beds and more.
The Health and Medical Lifeline: COVID-19 Risk Model from the Federal Emergency Management Agency ranks counties by high, medium and low risk for COVID-19 vulnerability and risk.
PCTEL has terminated its previously announced share repurchase program. The board of directors does not intend to modify the company’s dividend policy, PCTEL said.
“Given the uncertainty surrounding the COVID-19 virus and its impact on economic and market conditions, the board determined that it is prudent to terminate the share repurchase program,” said David Neumann, CEO of PCTEL. “Maintaining our strong balance sheet will allow PCTEL flexibility to address the unique and evolving challenges presented by the COVID-19 situation.”
In addition, PCTEL also terminated a plan pursuant to Rule 10b5-1 under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, that was in place to facilitate market repurchases.
According to PCTEL, under the now-terminated repurchase program, it repurchased approximately 375,000 shares of common stock for an aggregate purchase price of approximately $2 million. Following these repurchases, it had approximately 18.5 million shares of common stock outstanding, the company said.
PCTEL is a provider of wireless technology, including industrial IoT devices, antenna systems, and test and measurement solutions.
IQD has launched a new series of GNSS-disciplined oven controlled crystal oscillators (OCXOs), the IQCM-112 series.
The new design incorporates an internal GNSS receiver with a 1PPS output, which is compatible with an external GPS, GLONASS, BeiDou and Galileo source. It is housed in a 14-pin 60-millimeter-square package.
When coupled to an external aerial antenna via the incorporated SMA connector, in the event of the loss of the GNSS signal the highly specified 10-MHz OCXO will switch-in with a holdover capability of 1.5 µSeconds for a 24-hour period, thereby maintaining lock until restoration of the reference signal.
The standard operating temperature range of the module is -20° to 75° C but is also available with a -40° to 85° C operating temperature range. Other holdover specifications can be considered upon request.
The required power supply is 5V with a standard HCMOS output. Current consumption is 2A maximum during warm-up with this reducing to 1A once the steady-state condition is reached.
The design incorporates an internal adaptive algorithm that enables the module to “learn” the parameters of the GNSS signal after a period of three days of lock, so that the holdover function can start in the event of signal failure.
A built-in internal alarm indicates lock failure and subsequent restoration of signal. The unit incorporates a serial connection for more detailed interrogation of the device’s performance.
The IQCM-112 series is intended for a range of applications including land-based telecommunications systems and marine-based navigation systems.
The IQCM-112 forms part of a range of highly specified modules and Oven Controlled Crystal Oscillators available from IQD.
Why do we keep hearing about unmanned aircraft all the time, almost everywhere? Fortunately, the buzz has gone beyond next-door neighbors flying dangerously close to your roof or hovering annoyingly around a living room window, and incidents of UAV incursions shutting down airports seem to be getting fewer — improved enforcement and higher penalties may be slowing down these incidents.
Now, UAV users are taking on productive, innovative tasks that couldn’t previously be done, or finishing projects surprisingly quickly and more affordably than ever before, with drones built or adapted for new applications. And equipment manufacturers are creating new sensors customized for use on drones.
Commercial, integrated GNSS/inertial sensors are available that have extremely high performance — previously only available with expensive mil-spec electronics — but in lightweight, small packages, supported by real-time kinematic (RTK), precise point positioning (PPP) corrections or post-processed kinematic (PPK). UAVs carry still, video and multi-spectral cameras generating automatically geocoded outputs, ready for post processing into multi-layered formats — virtually everything a customer could ever dream of having. And lidar sensors enable drones to build accurate models of everything they overfly.
Drones originated largely with military forces. Originally used for forward intelligence gathering, UAV tasks have multiplied and substantially expanded in scope.
Commercial industries were quick to realize the benefits. Before drones, the cost of many tasks done manually would be prohibitive and too time-intensive. Fast, affordable data collection now allows us to quickly tackle and solve many problems.
UAVs can pre-survey large, previously inaccessible tracts of difficult terrain, collect detailed visual representations of entire cities, monitor and support crop growth, or even survey underwater terrain using lidar. UAVs provide crop-growing support by flying autonomous patterns and spraying fields with pesticides or fertilizer. They also are being called into service to spray villages with disinfectant to control the spread of coronavirus, and to survey England’s beaches to monitor coastal erosion.
PrecisionHawk’s Jaymie Young and Matt Tompkins fly a UAV with the hosts of History Channel’s “Lost Gold of World II” in the Philippines in late 2018. (Photo: PrecisionHawk)
The collection of about 300 giant geoglyphs known as Nasca Lines were etched into the ground in the Peruvian coastal plain 2,000 years ago by the Nasca culture in South America. They depict various plants, animals, and shapes and are so large that they can only be fully appreciated when viewed from the air. Unlike the Nasca Lines, most archaeological sites are hard to see from the air, especially those deep under thick jungle vegetation, as in the lowlands of northern Guatemala. Here, lidar’s ability to penetrate foliage makes it the ideal tool for archeological exploration. At the same time, the lack of infrastructure, including airports, makes UAVs the platform of choice for many such projects.
Challenges for lidar in archaeology
Operating aerial lidar for archaeology in a jungle environment presents four challenges. The biggest one is penetrating the canopy. “Typically, the sites that they have been exploring lately have been quite overgrown, and disguising what has been there for a long time, to the extent that even someone walking on the ground has not been able to see the scope of the site,” said Paul LaRocque, senior scientist at Teledyne Optech. Penetrating multiple layers of vegetation requires a minimum of two lidar returns. For heavily vegetated environments, Matt Tompkins, director of Flight Services at PrecisionHawk, recommends a five-return system.
The second challenge is ground-truthing the data collected, explained Thomas Garrison, assistant professor in Ithaca College’s Department of Anthropology. “Even though we digitally removed the forest, it is still there, of course.” For example, it is hard to confirm long roads between sites, because they run beyond a ground observer’s field of vision.
The third challenge is acquiring a GPS signal. “In the tropical environment, a UAV needs to return to its take-off site very precisely,” Garrison explained. Finally, jungles put a twist on the familiar trade-offs between fixed-wing and rotary-wing UAVs: “A fixed-wing UAV will cover a greater area, but you may not have enough space for it to take off where you want to fly your lidar and may not be able to recover it,” Garrison said.
Making lidar an effective tool for archaeology required the development of sensors with very high pulse repetition frequencies (PRF) and with multi-look angles, which better penetrate the canopy to reach the ground and any structures, LaRocque explained.
Manned aircraft vs. UAVs
Archaeology missions need aerial lidar sensors with sufficient peak power from each pulse to reach the ground after much of it is absorbed or reflected by the canopy. In this respect, manned fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft have an advantage over UAVs because they can carry larger sensors with a higher peak power. Plus, they can cover much larger areas per flight. “This is important because archaeologists have been finding that [areas of interest] are much bigger than they ever imagined,” LaRocque said.
Finally, forests and jungles make it challenging to find open areas for launching and landing UAVs and flying them by line of sight. “Where do you stand to see the UAV above the canopy?” For these applications, LaRocque said, manned aircraft probably fly just 500 to 1,000 meters above ground level, “because they are not out for high survey efficiency but for penetration to the ground.”
Tompkins, whose company has conducted many missions in jungle environments and other remote places, takes the opposite view. Archaeology constantly presents new challenge and “takes you to some pretty crazy places,” he said and UAV lidar “allows archaeologists to access information that would otherwise be too difficult or dangerous to access.” In the projects on which PrecisionHawk has worked in heavy jungle, it has seen “excellent penetration through heavy jungle canopy, which gave us access to ground-level data,” he said.
Logistically, Tompkins pointed out, UAVs are “significantly easier and safer than manned aircraft” in remote areas with little access to airport infrastructure, air traffic control, and any sort of emergency services. A team with a UAV can mobilize and travel quickly. Where there is no electricity to recharge the UAV’s battery, the team will bring a generator.
Positional accuracy
Archaeological applications do not require survey-level positional accuracy. Archaeologists only need to be able to locate on the ground features that they identify in the 3D lidar point cloud. “We use Trimble Juno 5s, so that we can load the lidar data directly onto their screens,” Garrison said. “If we get near a structure, we only need to take a point. We don’t even need to find base stations and do corrections afterward. We can manually correct the points based on where they were on the structures.”
Ancient structures are rarely in the areas with the thickest, nastiest vegetation, which are usually low-lying areas, Garrison said. However, those areas might reveal other items of cultural interest, such as agricultural fields. “In the lidar data we have, we are seeing that ancient societies were terraforming their entire landscape, so everywhere you go there is something to check or confirm.”
Missions
In 2018, PrecisionHawk conducted an archaeological project in a remote jungle in the Philippines for a History Channel show called “Lost Gold of WWII.” Show producers were trying to find where Japanese troops might have stored gold stolen from the Philippine government.The team flew lidar on a UAV to identify roads or other manmade structures that could help them identify possible hiding spots in areas pinpointed through historical documents, Tompkins recalled.The PrecisionHawk team produced a colorized lidar data file in the jungle that the producers used on the program.
The largest lidar acquisition for archaeological investigations in the world is the Pacunam Lidar Initiative (PLI), a consortium of scholars funded by the Guatemalan foundation Pacunam (short for Fundación Patrimonio Cultural Y Natural Maya). So far, the PLI has scanned about 7,000 square kilometers in the lowlands of northern Guatemala.
Garrison is one of three principal consultants for the foundation. “Lidar has a huge impact in archaeology under tropical forests because you get more bang for the buck in terms of peeling back the forest and revealing the preserved ancient landscapes underneath,” he said. “We’ve been working on these data since we first flew in 2016 with the National Center for Airborne Laser Mapping in Houston. We published preliminary results in Science in 2018.” In the massive PLI project, “Instead of just single sites, we can see broad trends across huge areas.”
The first phase of the Pacunam lidar initiative covered 2,100 square kilometers in northern Guatemala in 10 different polygons of data acquisition. “We found that there were 60,000 more structures in these areas than we knew about before,” Garrison said. This raised the question of how so many people could feed themselves. The lidar data revealed that they had used huge swampy areas as agricultural fields. It also revealed many road systems between and within these sites and many defensive earthwork features of military engineering for warfare distributed along the valleys.
“All of that changed our view of what this ancient landscape looked like,” Garrison said. In the summer of 2019, the project flew another 5,000 square kilometers and is now analyzing the data, which shows “a complete picture of an ancient culture’s impact on the landscape,” Garrison said. “When you think of ancient Rome and everything that they had, you can’t really see everything because modern Europe is there. But here we have all this stuff preserved under the jungle in a way that is letting us see the totality of an ancient culture.”
Discoveries made with UAVs
• Using UAV lidar, the Crow Canyon Archaeology Center and the Canyons of the Ancient National Monument were able to map an 800-year-old Pueblo site at Sand Canyon, Colorado, and discover previously undocumented structures. UAV experts from Caddis Aerial and Routescene conducted the survey using a Velodyne HDL32 lidar scanner on a DJI M600 Pro UAV flying at 40-meter altitude relative to the take-off point. They then processed the point cloud, consisting of 3.2 billion points, using Routescene’s LidarViewer Pro software and created a digital terrain module at 400 points per square meter.
• A hexacopter built with DJI technology, flying 20–60 meters above the ground, enabled Isabelle Heitz of AirD’éco to map several ancient sites, including the microtopography of an ancient theater covered by woods in the center of Soissons, a town in eastern France, and a fortified town of the Gallic age, now covered by thick woods.
• Using Google Earth, satellite imagery and low-flying UAVs, archaeologists Sarah Parcak and Christopher A. Tuttle discovered a previously unknown monumental structure that had been hidden in plain sight only half a mile from the World Heritage site of Petra, Jordan.
