Welcome on the ARAP project website

To date, aerial archaeologists generally apply simple rectification procedures or more expensive and time-consuming orthorectification algorithms to correct their aerial photographs in varying degrees for geometrical deformations induced by the topographical relief, the tilt of the camera axis and the distortion of the optics.

Irrespective of the method applied, the georeferencing of the images is commonly determined with ground control points, whose measurement and identification is a time consuming operation and often limits certain images from being accurately georeferenced. Moreover, specialised software, certain photogrammetric skills, and experience are required.

Thanks to the recent advances in the fields of computer vision and photogrammetry such as Structure from Motion (SfM) and dense image matching as well as the improvements in processing power, it is currently possible to generate orthophotos of large, almost randomly collected aerial photographs in a straightforward and nearly automatic way.

This project, which has been launched in 2012 in co-operation with the LBI Archpro, aims at the creation of completely automatic solutions for the GCP selection and subsequent georeferencing and orthorectification of archaeological aerial photographs, both archived and newly acquired. This will offer possibilities for the consistent creation and fast updating of archaeologically relevant cartographic data in our rapidly changing landscapes.