Archaeological Robotics for Mapping and Investigating Shipwrecks in the Arctic

In the waters around Svalbard there are more than a thousand undiscovered shipwrecks from the early whaling period on the seabed. With the environmental changes rapidly happening in the Arctic, this presumably well-preserved underwater cultural heritage may be under threat. ARCHEOROBOTICS aims to develop methods for autonomous robots to find and investigate these wrecks and secure the invaluable human and ecological history they represent before it is too late. ARCHEOROBOTICS is divided into five interdependent work packages to address various challenges related to detection, documentation and interpretation of shipwrecks utilizing cutting edge underwater robotic technologies. Key objectives include compiling a detailed knowledge base of shipwrecks, developing a digital wreck simulator, creating algorithms towards embedded archaeological intelligence in robotic systems, and developing a methodological framework for addressing epistemological issues arising from the ambitions of the project. The PI will lead an interdisciplinary team of two PhD students and one research fellow to achieve the ambitious goals in each work package. Field trials on known wreck sites in Trondheimsfjorden will be conducted frequently for data acquisition, testing and validation of methods and algorithms developed in the simulator. A larger field campaign in Svalbard towards the end of the project will utilize the new robotic capabilities for finding and investigating wrecks from the Arctic whaling. The project’s outcomes will enhance our understanding of Arctic history, provide critical data on long-term environmental changes, and push the boundaries of interdisciplinary research between archaeology, robotics, and marine science. By fostering collaboration between archaeologists and engineers, ARCHEOROBOTICS will establish a new paradigm for the investigation of underwater cultural heritage, with far-reaching implications for both archaeological scholarship and technological advancement.