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Tracing ancient settlements in Colombia with remote sensing

A team of the LDE alliance (Leiden University, TU Delft, and Erasmus University Rotterdam) asked whether it might be possible to search for signs of ancient settlements in the jungle with affordable remote sensing techniques. For an expedition in a Colombian dense forest, the team, including remote sensing expert Felix Dahle of TU Delft, joined forces with archaeologists and drone experts from Colombia. In mountainous forests, drones provide affordable access to areas that would otherwise be unreachable from the ground. A LiDAR laser scanner already proved its value in coastal observation . The big question was whether LiDAR could bypass the many treetops. Trees reflect the laser, so it was crucial to fly close so it found its way through the foliage. The team mounted a highly portable LiDAR laser scanner to a drone and went on expedition nearby ancient terraces of the Tairona culture in the Sierra Nevada of Santa Marta. “We had to find the sweet spot. Close to the archaeological sites and still secure above the canopy”, says Felix Dahle. And it passed the test. The LiDAR laser scanner create a point cloud and a detailed 3D model of the landscape. “We were able to detect ancient terraces in the jungle. We discovered that we can scan through the forest when it is not too dense, but some areas remained unfathomable. We could also distinguish several types of vegetation, which might be of great use too to find undiscovered archaeological sites.”

TU Delft jointly wins in XPRIZE Rainforest competition in Brazil

TU Delft jointly wins in the XPRIZE Rainforest competition in the Amazon, Brazil Imagine using rapid and autonomous robot technology for research into the green and humid lungs of our planet; our global rainforests. Drones that autonomously deploy eDNA samplers and canopy rafts uncover the rich biodiversity of these complex ecosystems while revealing the effects of human activity on nature and climate change. On November 15, 2024, after five years of intensive research and competition, the ETHBiodivX team, which included TU Delft Aerospace researchers Salua Hamaza and Georg Strunck, achieved an outstanding milestone: winning the XPRIZE Rainforest Bonus Prize for outstanding effort in co-developing inclusive technology for nature conservation. The goal: create automated technology and methods to gain near real-time insights about biodiversity – providing necessary data that can inform conservation action and policy, support sustainable bioeconomies, and empower Indigenous Peoples and local communities who are the primary protectors and knowledge holders of the planet’s tropical rainforests. The ETHBiodivX team, made of experts in Robotics, eDNA, and Data Insights, is tackling the massive challenge of automating and streamlining the way we monitor ecosystems. Leading the Robotics division, a collaboration between TU Delft’s Prof. Salua Hamaza, ETH Zurich’s Prof. Stefano Mintchev and Aarhus University’s Profs. Claus Melvad and Toke Thomas Høye, is developing cutting-edge robotic solutions to gather ecology and biology data autonomously. “We faced the immense challenge of deploying robots in the wild -- and not just any outdoor environment but one of the most demanding and uncharted: the wet rainforests. This required extraordinary efforts to ensure robustness and reliability, pushing the boundaries of what the hardware could achieve for autonomous data collection of images, sounds, and eDNA, in the Amazon” says prof. Hamaza. “Ultimately, this technology will be available to Indigenous communities as a tool to better understand the forest's ongoing changes in biodiversity, which provide essential resources as food and shelter to the locals.” . . . .

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