Immersive Touring for Marine Archaeology. Application of a New Compact Omnidirectional Camera to Mapping the Gnalić shipwreck with an AUV

This paper presents the use of omnidirectional cameras on underwater robots for the rapid high-resolution mapping of shipwrecks in marine archaeology applications. In collaboration with the University of Zadar, the methodology was recently demonstrated on the Gnalic shipwreck during the Breaking the Surface 2016 workshop held in Biograd na Moru (Croatia). The robot was programmed to survey the shipwreck and the data collected was used to build 360\(^\circ \) panoramic videos, topological panoramic maps and 3D optical reconstructions. The paper describes a recently built multicamera system comprising 5 compact, high resolution video cameras. It outlines the methodology used, reports the results obtained, and discusses the challenges that marine archaeology poses to underwater robotics, as well as the contribution that this technology may bring to the archaeology community.