A lightweight prototype of a magnetometric system for unmanned aerial vehicles

Detection of the Earth’s magnetic field anomalies is the basis of many types of studies in the field of earth sciences and archaeology. These surveys require different ways to carry out the measures but they have in common that they can be very tiring or expensive. There are now several lightweight commercially available magnetic sensors that allow light-UAVs to be equipped to perform airborne measurements for a wide range of scenarios. In this work, the realization and functioning of an airborne magnetometer prototype were presented and discussed. Tests and measures for the validation of the experimental setup for some applications were reported. The flight sessions, appropriately programmed for different types of measurements, made it possible to evaluate the performance of this detection methodology, highlighting the advantages and drawbacks or limitations and future developments. From the results obtained it was possible to verify that the measurement system is capable of carrying out local and potentially archaeological magnetometric measurements with the necessary precautions

Development of a low-cost seismic station based on MEMS technology

L’impatto di un forte terremoto su una comunità urbana può essere ridotto con una azione tempestiva e ben pianificata da parte degli organi di Protezione Civile preposti. In tale prospettiva è di fondamentale importanza che gli organi preposti alla sorveglianza sismica del territorio nazionale si dotino di strumenti di osservazione puntuale in grado di fornire nell’immediato terremoto informazioni utilissime per la gestione ottimale delle emergenze. Ciò può essere fatto oggi mediante la realizzazione reti sismiche urbane, con funzionamento in tempo reale (OSU Osservatori Sismici Urbani), in grado di fornire in maniera tempestiva ai centri per la gestione delle emergenze, la distribuzione dell'intensità dello scuotimento a seguito di un terremoto. Le mappe di scuotimento potrebbero consentire agli organi preposti, un’ottimale gestione delle priorità e la ripartizione delle risorse in modo da ottenere una significativa riduzione del numero di vittime a seguito di un forte terremoto. Le verifiche del grado di danneggiamento e di agibilità degli edifici potrebbero così essere effettuate secondo una logica prioritaria sulla base dei massimi scuotimenti misurati dalla rete sismica urbana. La realizzazione di OSU per le finalità su preposte è l’obiettivo principale del progetto MEMS finanziato dal MIUR nell’ambito del programma SIR (Scientific Independence of young Researchers). La prima sfida affrontata nell’ambito del progetto MEMS è stata la progettazione e sviluppo di una stazione accelerometrica idonea agli scopi del progetto. Il presente lavoro ha lo scopo di descrivere nel dettaglio, la stazione accelerometrica basata su tecnologia MEMS (Micro ElectroMechanical Systems), implementata nell’abito dell’omonimo progetto. Ciò che stato realizzato è una stazione accelerometrica dalle ottime performance, estremamente versatile e a bassissimo costo.The impact of a strong earthqauke onto an urban community can be reduced taking timely actions managed by the authority in charge for the civil protection. In this view, it is of fundamental importance that the authority in charge for the seismic surveillance is provided with the appropriate monitoring tools able to give the most useful information for the best emergency management in the immediate post-event. Today this goal can be reached realizing urban-scale, real-time seismic monitoring networks (Osservatori Sismici Urbani, OSU, in Italian). The real-time OSU networks are able to promptly provide information to the emergency authority about the ground shaking at each node after an earthquake. Maps showing the spatial distribution of the ground shaking could help in the optimization of the priorities and a good management of the rescue resources in order to reduce the number of victims. Also the assessment of the damage of the buildings could be carried out according to the logic of priority given by the shakings measured by the OSU. The realisation of OSUs is the main objective of the MEMS project. This project is funded by the MIUR under the SIR program (Scientific Independence of young Researchers). The first challenge of the MEMS project was the design and the development of a devoted accelerometric stations. This work illustrates in detail the accelerometric station based on MEMS technology (Micro Electro-Mechanical Systems). The final product is a low-cost accelerometric station with high performance and great versatility

Multiscale processes to describe the Eastern Sicily Seismic Sequences

In this paper, a version of hybrid of Gibbs point process models is proposed as method to characterise the multiscale interaction structure of several seismic sequences occurred in the Eastern Sicily in the last decade. Seismic sequences were identified by a clustering technique based on space-time distance criterion and hierarchical clustering. We focus our analysis on five small seismic sequences, showing that two of these are described by an inhomogeneous Poisson process (not significant interaction among events) while the other three clusters are described by a hybrid-Geyer process (mutiscale interaction between events). The proposed method, although it still needs extensive testing on a larger catalogue, seems to be a promising tool for the characterization of seismogenic sources through the analysis of induced seismicity

Brief communication: Vehicle routing problem and UAV application in the post-earthquake scenario

In this paper we simulate unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) recognition after a possible case of diffuse damage after a seismic event in the town of Acireale (Sicily, Italy).Given a set of sites (84 relevant buildings) and the range of the UAV, we are able to find a number of vehicles to employ and the shortest survey path. The problem of finding theshortest survey path is an operational research problem called the vehicle routing problem (VRP). which has a solution that is known to be computationally time-consuming. We used the simulated annealing (SA) heuristic, which is able to provide stable solutions in a relatively short computing time.We also examined the distribution of the cost of the solutions varying the depot on a regular grid in order to find the best area for executing the survey

Il rilievo della facciata della chiesa di San Pietro di Coppito a L’Aquila dopo il terremoto del 2009

il terremoto del 6 aprile 2009 danneggia gravemente la chiesa di San Pietro di Coppito, chiesa di capo di quarto della città dell'Aquila. In particolare, la facciata subisce un crollo parziale della parte sommitale che rende necessaria, nella fase di prima emergenza, la realizzazione di presidi di messa in sicurezza - cerchiature e puntellature - al fine di salvaguardare il monumento, evitando la caduta degli elementi murari parzialmente distaccati, in vista dell'elaborazione del progetto di ricostruzione parziale, riparazione e miglioramento sismico, la cui esecuzione avviene a un anno dal terremoto. Nell'ambito delle indagini propedeutiche alla definizione dei criteri e delle modalità di intervento è stato eseguito un rilievo di dettaglio della facciata, il cui stato mutilo ha permesso in primo luogo di indagare la natura costruttiva e le modifiche su di essa operate e, di seguito, di confrontare i dati raccolti con quelli testuali e iconografici riguardanti la chiesa. Questa memoria presenta i risultati dello studio conoscitivo condotto come supporto alle decisioni progettuali sul monumento limitandosi alla descrizione della facciata, poiché essi offrono la possibilità di una riflessione più generale sull'approccio del progetto sugli edifici murari storic

An Overview of Geophysical Techniques and Their Potential Suitability for Archaeological Studies

The need to study, protect, and conserve archaeological heritage has enhanced the application of geophysical techniques as non-invasive and reliable tools to investigate fragile and valuable assets. This review presents the most popular geophysical techniques suitable for archaeogeophysical investigations, namely, magnetometry, ground penetrating radar, and electrical resistivity tomography, together with a series of multiparametric measures taken from aerial platforms (UAS). For each method, we recall the basic physical principles, illustrate the operative procedures for field investigation, and provide indications about data processing and modeling. We propose a flowchart to address reliable and effective geophysical investigations, from its planning to the development of the final archaeogeophysical model. We underline the integrated approach, in which the combination of various techniques allows the best results in terms of resolution, coverage, investigation depth, speed, and costs to be obtained. We introduce a suite of studied cases in which this approach has been applied successfully

GPR and magnetic survey at the Kamarina archaeological site (Sicily, Italy) supported by aerial photo-graphic and thermographic data

Abstract \u2013 Multidisciplinary geophysical investigations have been carried out in a small area of the Greek archaeological site of Kamarina, in southern Sicily, in order to support some hypotheses, derived from historical and archaeological bases. After an aerial photographic and thermographic survey, a small area near to the Agora has been considered for magnetometric and GPR investigations. Obtained results show a good correlation and allow to highlight some structures oriented in agreement with the uncovered remains. The use of integrated geophysical techniques allowed a more robust interpretation of the detected anomalies in order to better address the choices for new excavations

Remotely controlled aerial and underwater vehicles in support to magnetic surveys

This article deals with the creation of a professional magnetometer, a flexible, light and compact instrument that can be installed on aerial and marine drones. The instrument can accurately measure the local magnetic field. Subsequently, it was installed on AUV and a micro ROV to test its effectiveness for archaeological purposes and magnetic surveys. Experimental data show that both systems can be used by filtering disturbances from vehicles

Multidisciplinary investigations at the Kamarina archaeological site (southern Sicily, Italy)

Multidisciplinary geophysical investigations have been carried out in a small area of the Greek archaeological site of Kamarina, in southern Sicily, in order to support some hypotheses, derived from historical and archaeological bases. After an aerial photographic and thermographic survey, a small area near to the Agora has been considered for magnetometric and GPR investigations. Obtained results show a good correlation and allow to highlight some structures oriented in agreement with the uncovered remains. The use of integrated geophysical techniques allowed a more robust interpretation of the detected anomalies in order to better address the choices for new excavations