Unmanned Aerial Vehicles and the Multi Temporal Mapping Results of the Dispilio Lakeside Prehistoric Settlement

Abstract

In this paper the authors present the evolution of the Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) and photogrammetric processing software technology through the multi temporal mapping of the lakeside Palaeolithic settlement of Dispilio (Kastoria, Greece). The study of the settlement initiated in 2006 using a Remote Control (RC) Helicopter, which was not equipped with an automated navigation and image acquisition system. Currently a multi-copter drone is used that can demonstrate flight stability, is capable of hovering in small heights and is equipped with an automated navigation and image acquisition system. With respect to the photogrammetric processing software at the start of the study specialized single image processing software like Bentley IRAS/c® were used for the production of rectified images, followed by the use of stereo image processing software like LPS® (Erdas) that have the ability to produce B/W Digital Terrain Models (DTM) and ortho rectified images. Currently specialized multi photo processing software is used like Agisoft Photoscan® or Imagine UAV® (Erdas) that the ability to produce dense coloured point clouds and ortho rectified images.