Cultural Heritage and Mobile Robotics Technologies

This paper reviews current research works at the authors’ Institutions to illustrate how mobile robotics and related technologies can be used to enhance economical fruition, control, protection and social impact of the cultural heritage. Robots allow experiencing on-line, from remote locations, tours at museums, archaeological areas and monuments. These solutions avoid travelling costs, increase beyond actual limits the number of simultaneous visitors, and prevent possible damages that can arise by over-exploitation of fragile environments. The same tools can be used for exploration and monitoring of cultural artifacts located in difficult to reach or dangerous areas. Examples are provided by the use of underwater robots in the exploration of deeply submerged archaeological areas. Besides, technologies commonly employed in robotics can be used to help exploring, monitoring and preserving cultural artifacts. Examples are provided by the development of procedures for data acquisition and mapping and by object recognition and monitoring algorithms.

Libs in cultural heritage: recognition and identification of objects in an underwater archaeological shipwreck

Nowadays, one of the most important areas of interest in archeology is the characterization of the submersed cultural heritage. Mediterranean Sea is rich in archaeological findings due to storms, accidents and naval battles since prehistoric times. Chemical analysis of submerged materials is an extremely valuable source of information on the origin and precedence of the wrecks, and also the raw materials employed during the manufacturing of the objects found in these sites. Nevertheless, sometimes it is not possible to extract the archaeological material from the marine environment due to size of the sample, the legislation or preservation purposes. In these cases, the in-situ analysis turns into the only alternative for obtaining information. In spite of this demand, no analytical techniques are available for the in-situ chemical characterization of underwater materials. The versatility of laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) has been successfully tested in oceanography 1. Advantages such as rapid and in situ analysis with no sample preparation make LIBS a suitable alternative for field measurements. To further exploit the inherent advantages of the technology, a mobile fiber-based LIBS platform capable of performing remote measurements up to 50 meters range has been designed for the recognition and identification of artworks in underwater archaeological shipwrecks. The LIBS prototype featured both single-pulse (SP-LIBS) and multi-pulse excitation (MP-LIBS) 2. The use of multi-pulse excitation allowed an increased laser beam energy (up to 95 mJ) transmitted through the optical fiber. This excitation mode results in an improved performance of the equipment in terms of extended range of analysis (to a depth of 50 m) and a broader variety of samples to be analyzed (i.e., rocks, marble, ceramics and concrete). In the present work, the design and construction considerations of the instrument are reported and its performance is discussed on the basis of the spectral response, the remote irradiance achieved upon the range of analysis and its influence on plasma properties, as well as the effect of the laser pulse duration and purge gas to the LIBS signal. Also, to check the reliability and reproducibility of the instrument for field analysis several robustness tests were performed outside the lab. Finally, the capability of this instrument was successfully demonstrated in an underwater archaeological shipwreck (San Pedro de Alcántara, Malaga).

Propuesta metodológica para la Educación Patrimonial a través de la puesta en escena de las películas de romanos: el valor artístico y el valor documental

La Educación Patrimonial tiene como objetivo que nuestros alumnos aprendan a legitimar o poner en valor el patrimonio cultural. Las “películas de romanos”, más concretamente la puesta en escena de estos films son un recurso didáctico consolidado; pero la Didáctica de las Ciencias Sociales no cuenta con una metodología que permita dar criterio de certeza al valor histórico-documental así como al valor histórico-artístico de la puesta en escena de las películas de romanos. Proponemos una metodología para la verificación del valor histórico-documental e histórico-artístico de los escenarios de las “películas de romanos”. Heritage Education has as objective that our students learn to qualify or value cultural heritage. The "films about ancient Rome", specifically the scenography of these films are an educational resource consolidated, but Didactics of Social Science doesn't have a didactic methodology which allows for validating to the historical-documentary value as the historical-artistic value of the scenography of "films about ancient Rome". We propose a methodology for the verification of the historical-documentary and historical-artistic value for the scene of these films.

Trabajos 3D Realizados en la Puerta 1 del Complejo Arqueológico de Perdigoes (Portugal): estado de la cuestión

La Universidad de Málaga lleva excavando en un proyecto internacional desde 2008 en el Complejo Arqueológico de Perdigões. La incorporación de las tecnologías 3D a la arqueología es hoy en día un hecho y en este proyecto no ha sido menos. El presente artículo tiene como objetivo presentar los trabajos realizados en el Complejo Arqueológico de Perdigoes en lo que se refiere al uso de técnologías 3D.