ArchaeoBot: Application of Robotics and Machine Learning to Archaeology in Island Southeast Asia

Archaeology has been practiced manually since the 19th century, making it labor-intensive and prone to human error. Automating the excavation process will ensure that fossils are handled properly and preserved accordingly, while providing an improved and more accurate cataloging of artifacts. The ArchaeoBot team is exploring the use of robotics to automate archaeological surveys and excavations, reducing human error and improving accuracy.

Archaeology has been practiced in a manual way since its early beginnings in the 19th century. Even at present, it is labor-intensive and prone to human error during the excavation, retrieval, recording, and post-fieldwork processing of materials.

The team behind ArchaeoBot has been conducting archaeological excavations mostly in cave and rock shelter sites and has accumulated practical experience in various field research projects in Southeast Asia. Automating the excavation process will ensure that fossils are handled properly and preserved accordingly, while it will at the same time provide an improved and more accurate cataloguing of artefacts.

Automation could limit human error especially in documentation and recording. Proper recording could in term extract more data from the Archaeological record, given that Archaeology is in principle a destructive method. The project will aid in Archaeological surveys especially in difficult to access areas, and in actual Archaeological excavations. Its goal is to create a portable yet effective tool to aid manual excavations. This is not to replace the humans in archaeological research, rather more of a useful complement to current practice of archaeology in the region.