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Collecting field data - archaeological investigations

tumalow2

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Hey everyone,

I am an archaeologist that regularly uses Arcgis Field Maps on an ipad/iphone and connected to a Trimble R2 receiver to record the location of artifacts, features, sites, etc. Is there any way to use a drone to collect/record this type of information? I have a Mavic 2P and Mini 3P (I have my part 107) that I use for overview photos and some occasional photogrammetry. Having the ability to record points, lines, and polygons would really help speed up the recordation progress for larger sites. Thanks!
 
Beyond your current use of photogrammetry I am not sure you will be able to get even close to the accuracy of GPS for feature locations.

I was active as an archaeologist for 20 years in Utah but when I was in grad school we were still using Brunton compasses and USGS quad sheets for locational information. We would have given body parts for the level of locational accuracy and aerial photography you have now.
 
Yes, we use regulary 3D-photogrammetry and the resulting ortho-images for plans of architectural remains. Just make sure that the ortho-images are correctly geo-located by the use of ground control points and you are ready to go.

Here an example for the use of the mentioned methods: Felix Wolter - 2020 - Telling Stones | Nias Island | Indonesia

Good luck.
 
Hey everyone,

I am an archaeologist that regularly uses Arcgis Field Maps on an ipad/iphone and connected to a Trimble R2 receiver to record the location of artifacts, features, sites, etc. Is there any way to use a drone to collect/record this type of information? I have a Mavic 2P and Mini 3P (I have my part 107) that I use for overview photos and some occasional photogrammetry. Having the ability to record points, lines, and polygons would really help speed up the recordation progress for larger sites. Thanks!
Greetings from Birmingham Alabama USA, welcome to the forum! We look forward to hearing from you!
 
Hello from the Crossroads of America tumalow2

Welcome to the Forum. :cool:
 
I am an archaeologist.... Having the ability to record points, lines, and polygons would really help speed up the recordation progress for larger sites. Thanks!

Welcome from the Hampton Roads area of Virginia, USA. We have a Member's Map in the Upper Right of the Title Bar. Click on "Members" and then Click on "Member's Map…" Check it out and you might find some new flying friends.


I am sorry, but as an old fossil myself, I cannot help you with your quest…

Fly On and Fly Safe…

dino.gif
 
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Welcome to Mavic Pilots! :) Enjoy the forum!Thumbswayup
 
Greetings tumalo2, welcome to the forum from the outback of Australia. May I suggest that you post this query in the commercial pilots forum. I so wanted an R2, but couldn’t afford it, ended up with an Eos Arrow gold for my GCP’s. I know that there are many RTK drones out there but I still think you have to set you GCPs for greater accuracy.
Regards
 
Welcome to the forum. We look forward to your participation and your view of the world.
 
Welcome from the Hampton Roads area of Virginia, USA. We have a Member's Map in the Upper Right of the Title Bar. Click on "Members" and then Click on "Member's Map…" Check it out and you might find some new flying friends.


I am sorry, but as an old fossil myself, I cannot help you with your quest…

Fly On and Fly Safe…

View attachment 160229
🤣I see what you did there! This is a funnier joke than some realize- he’s an archaeologist, not a paleontologist! But that’s OK- people mix those two professions up a lot.

Welcome TumaLow2 - I’ll post more regarding your question soon- both my wife and I do work with GIS, drone mapping and archaeology.
 
Hey everyone,

I am an archaeologist that regularly uses Arcgis Field Maps on an ipad/iphone and connected to a Trimble R2 receiver to record the location of artifacts, features, sites, etc. Is there any way to use a drone to collect/record this type of information? I have a Mavic 2P and Mini 3P (I have my part 107) that I use for overview photos and some occasional photogrammetry. Having the ability to record points, lines, and polygons would really help speed up the recordation progress for larger sites. Thanks!
I’m back- so ESRI sells > SiteScan < for doing it with ArcGIS Pro, I don’t use it but it may just be what you are looking for if you have a generous budget.

Currently, I also use an M2P and have helped my wife’s company do some bedrock milling site mapping with it. Sounds like we’re doing it a lot like you currently are doing it also. We used a Trimble to plot ground control points around the site and then used my M2P to do low-level aerial photos all the way around it. That was imported into Photoscan to create Geotagged 3D maps of the site. As you probably know, If one doesn’t use ground control points with a non-RTK drone, they could get up to 10m accuracy errors just due to signal reflections and atmospheric effects on the GPS signals.

Personally, I’d get a RTK enabled drone and use Drone Deploy. But one issue is if you are going for federal contracts, a BlueSky certified drone may be best as it would be required on a lot of their projects, particularly on bases.

Check out the commercialdronepilots sister forum to this one, there are a lot of people on it who are doing commercial mapping projects and you’ll get good answers there.
 
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I am an archaeologist that regularly uses Arcgis Field Maps on an ipad/iphone and connected to a Trimble R2 receiver to record the location of artifacts, features, sites, etc. Is there any way to use a drone to collect/record this type of information?

I think you can do what you want using ArcPro FMV. I'm pretty sure the videos from your units aren't MISB (I know mine from my Mavic Air 2 aren't), so you'll have to do the video multiplexing (georeferencing) before getting into FMV.
ESRI's page describing the process is Introduction to Full Motion Video—ArcGIS Pro | Documentation

I was able to make a geolocated video from my GoPro with FMV and here is a demo I did -
 
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