How can drones change the way we track erosion of historic monuments? The City Walls team at JMU is constructing a drone to assist in the conservational studies of the 16th century walls that surround the old part of Cartagena city in Colombia.
Ph.D. candidate Manuel Saba, a civil engineer and director of Bio Green Power Ltd., leads the City Walls team in contribution to his conservation efforts surrounding Cartagena’s historic walls.
Ph.D. candidate Manuel Saba in Colombia seeks to discover to what extent global warming and acid rain erode the historic Cartagena Walls. JMU’s camera-equipped drone will create a 3D model of the wall’s external features. This model will serve as the skeleton on which to hang information about the wall’s internal strength. Using an engineering software called SAP 2000, Manuel can combine the drone’s data about the wall’s exterior with information about the internal density of the wall to determine how the wall has weathered. This innovative method for exterior 3D model construction foregoes the traditional topographic survey for more precise results. A topographic survey uses technology like GPS to gather data on broad elevation levels and will not produce the accurate data points our drone can provide.
The presentation began with cultural and historical context surrounding the wall before asserting the purpose of the project. They explained the technical techniques with which they plan to engage their goals and ended with a discussion of ethical implications for the project (including discussions of cultural sensitivity and a burden of responsibility). While professors appreciated the story-telling aspect of this tactic, they suggested the team restructure their presentation format by beginning with information about the project. By introducing the historical-cultural background after the listener is hooked on our innovative process, the team may avoid confusion and loss of audience attention. Advisors encouraged the team to feature how their work serves as a precedent. Faculty members also suggested the team modify their PowerPoint presentation to feature more readable fonts and colors.
Following the presentation, professors shared helpful technical advice: it would be a mistake for the City Walls team to lose locational data by not charting drone GPS coordinates. GPS information will be valuable data the team should collect. The team has several options for recording GPS location of the drone during flight (see infographic below).
The team immediately began on revisions based on faculty feedback. Caoimhe revised the PowerPoint slides and began creating a graphic for presentation, while Kiva volunteered to create an interactive presentation tool about our prototype (see picture above).
The team completes their prototype early Sunday morning over Mr. Jay’s Bagels.
Meanwhile, the team broke down into specialized groups: hardware, software, and camera. Kiva tested the GoPro and the Sony camera to determine which should be used on the drone, and Nick suggested he could modify the gimbal to fit the Sony camera. With their first prototype behind them, the City Walls team looks forward to the improvements and progress they will soon achieve in their project.
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