Underwater Archaeology with Light AUVs

Abstract

For millennia, ships were lost at sea leading to the loss of an estimated 3 million vessels. This paper describes a light autonomous underwater vehicle specially tailored for coastal archaeology applications where a big part of this heritage sites should be found. This specific vehicle includes sonars, an optical camera and a magnetometer to detect and identify archaeological artifacts in the ocean bottom or underneath. It can be used isolated or as part of a team of AUVs for faster surveys. We describe the hardware, its simplified operation using custommade software and overview some results in different areas, where these vehicles have been used to detect several wrecks and other important artifacts.