Innovative solutions for underwater archaeology

In the field of underwater archaeology, the department has been working successfully with the Saxony-Anhalt State Office for the Preservation of Monuments and Archaeology for many years. For the first time, an autonomous surface vehicle was deployed on the Süßen See lake at the end of 2018. Equipped with a high-resolution multibeam echo sounder, an approximately 7,000-year-old sunken burial mound was surveyed and 3D modeled.

In the following years, the ROV (Remotely Operated Vehicle) developed at the institute was used several times in the Süßen See and Arendsee lakes to check and verify objects from sonar data. They provide valuable assistance to archaeologists in the Süßen See: the ROV creates high-resolution videos and sonar data of objects and structures that can remain hidden even to experienced scuba divers in the murky waters.

In 2020, another sensor was successfully integrated into the vehicle. This is an underwater laser scanner from the company Kraken Robotik. This sensor allows the most accurate measurement of underwater structures to date - deviations in the 3D model created are less than one millimeter. This sensor was first tested in the IOSB-AST test basin and later tested in practice in both the Süßen and Arendsee lakes.

Diver monitoring & support

In addition, the underwater vehicle supported the research divers in locating selected objects during the diving mission. The payloads of our remotely operated underwater vehicles (ROVs) offer essential added mission value for diver monitoring and support, especially in poor visibility conditions combined with dives at great depths:

This targeted guidance to the target and active assistance during the dive also means that expensive mission time is used much more efficiently. We have successfully tested this concept several times with research divers from all over Germany during our missions in Lake Arendsee.

• Pressemitteilung Fraunhofer IOSB-AST: Einzigartige 3D-Unterwasserperspektiven eines
  mittelalterlichen Lastenschiffs
• Pressemitteilung Fraunhofer IOSB-AST: Fraunhofer-Unterwasserroboter lüftet Geheimnisse im „Süßen See“
• Beitrag MDR: Arendsee: Archäologen gelingen spektakuläre Funde mit hochmodernen Robotern
• Linkedin Beitrag: Underwater Photogrammetry of the Prahm in Lake Arendsee

“Using marine technology to track down wrecks and other treasures thousands of years old on the seabed” is the focus of the new podcast episode in which Bärbel Fening talks to Sven Thomas (State Office for Monument Preservation and Archaeology, Saxony-Anhalt) and Thomas Rauschenbach (Fraunhofer IOSB-AST) about the use of marine technology in underwater archaeology.

Listen in now:

• Spotify
• Apple Podcasts