Archaeology oriented optical acquisitions through MARTA AUV during ARROWS European project demonstration

Abstract

The three-years European FP7 ARROWS project (ARchaeological RObot systems for the World's Seas) concluded at the end of August 2015. A heterogeneous team of cooperating AUVs has been created in the framework of ARROWS: these are both new prototypes and well known commercial vehicles. In the paper MARTA modular AUV is described: MARTA is a new prototype specifically designed during the project. Its navigation and payload capabilities are discussed and some of the results, mainly optical acquisitions for the archaeologists, reached during the first official demo of the ARROWS European project (Sicily, Italy, May and June 2015) are reported and commented.