National Museum of China Aquires AquaMap Diver
Returning sunburned, scarred,
and jet lagged Thomas Gray happily reports that a successful training was
completed for the National Museum of China’s Underwater Archaeology dive team.
For the past 14+ years, underwater archaeology in China has been a challenging
task.
When the museum gets
notification of a ship wreck (typically from fishermen) they send in their
Underwater Archaeology dive team. The previous methods of navigation and
positioning were to make a grid of the survey site using ropes. Divers would
then be given specific tasks such as drawing the outline of the ship, notating
where artifacts were found, or measuring the heights are certain objects.
Because visibility in the
Chinese Sea is poor, the divers were interested in adapting new technologies to
assist in their efforts. They have a side scanning sonar and a sub-bottom
profiler, but due to the build-up of mud they are ineffective. Learning of this
requirement from their Chinese representative (Beijing Ocean Seeker Technical
Co Ltd), Desert Star decided to improve on their existing technology to meet
the requirements of the Museum (view
the press release here).
Desert Star’s goal was to
make the new diver station, DS-3, a powerful observation tool allowing the
diver to annotate a survey site with ease and precision. The design and layout
of the diver station makes it easy for any diver and set-up is quite simple.
Its main function is to allow the divers to replace ropes with a virtual grid.
Beyond that, it is a powerful observation recording tool with built-in diver to
surface and surface to diver communication (communication is in development).
The training for the
archaeological divers was conducted off the Yushan Archipelago in China. Over
the course of five days, the divers learned how to set-up and deploy the system
for single and multiple-diver operations. They were shown how a virtual grid
can be more precise and easier to use then ropes and underwater pencils.
In situations where they will
return to the same site for several months, monuments will be put into place
for the locations of the reference stations (RBS-1). This allows them to put
their reference stations in the same exact location every time, which
ultimately means that the virtual grid will not shift in any way. Benefits like
these are examples of how adapting new technologies will greatly improve the
methods of underwater archaeology. To learn more about AquaMap
Diver, click here.
