Unveiling the past with reality capture

Authors:Renata Barradas Gutiérrez, Josep M. Puche Fontanilles, Pau de Solà-Morales

The ancient Roman city of Tarraco, the present day city of Tarragona, in the Catalonia region of north-east Spain, is the most ancient Roman settlement on the Iberian Peninsula and was once capital of the peninsular territory. The architectural remains of the glorious past of Tarragona, include among other ruins, a circus, a theatre, and an amphitheatre. This archaeological ensemble was built 2,000 years ago and forms part of UNESCO World Heritage Sites since the year 2000.

The Catalan Institute of Classical Archaeology (ICAC) and the Architecture School of the URV (ETSA) joined efforts with the help of ARREL Project of the RecerCaixa program to study, preserve and transmit the cultural richness of Catalonia’s past using Leica Geosystems’ state-of-the-art laser scanning technologies and a unique mobile mapping solution - thePegasus:Backpack.

The committed team of archaeologists are proficient in transforming point clouds and HDR digital imagery into 3D CAD models. These skills, combined with their in-depth historical and archaeological knowledge, helped to揭露并了解这个罗马城市的秘密that once served as a model for provincial capitals in the rest of the Roman Empire.

Looking at the big picture

详细的数字3D模型是对现实的重建，可以研究确定的空间。

The tri-dimensional digital models of the Roman circus, a large open-air entertainment venue for chariot races and horse races, obtained from the point clouds were the basis tostudy and understand the initial state and transformationthat this heritage site has experimented during two millennia.

“The laser scanning solutions from Leica Geosystems allow us to数字化可视化并理解复杂的现实of this four hectare enclosure occupied by the Roman Circus, located today in Tarragona’s old town, that represented a real challenge of Roman engineering and that is intensely altered from the actions developed since the fifth century,”said Josep M. Macias Solé, senior investigator at ICAC.

The 3D models generated with the point clouds helped the team of specialists to achieve:

• 以数字方式重建罗马马戏团，甚至找到逃脱人眼的部分。
• Interpret the components of the structure to test hypothesis about the circus’ capacity and the logic behind its initial construction and later buildings.
• Decipher the development of the local landscape throughout centuries to determine how this Roman edification conditioned the urban plot of the city in medieval and modern times.

Putting the pieces together with mobile reality capture

最初作为罗马圆形结构cus, suffered profound architectural changes through the years and now it is inserted and hidden under the urban landscape of Tarragona. The Roman circus, located in the city centre, has exhibition areas opened to visitors, however, the old vaults that support the stage serve today as structures to hosts bars, restaurants and even private residences.

使用一代Leica Geosystems的激光扫描仪，与C5和C10一起使用一代左侧的激光扫描仪，已经进行了几项努力，以使用最新的激光扫描技术之一 - Leica P30。iCAC和ETSA已通过现实捕获传感器平台最终使这些努力达到顶峰bob综合app赌博unified all the previous scans - thePegasus:Backpack.

All the visible parts of the Roman circus have been documented with the laser scanners. The Pegasus:Backpack, however, made it possible tocapture every step of all the streets and facades塔里亚纳（Tarragona）的旧城区，该城镇插入了罗马马戏团所占据的地区。这种独特的现实捕获解决方案的使用还促进了城市的bob综合app赌博当代和古老建筑的图形整合到一个单一的工作流程中。

“The Pegasus:Backpack offers us the great advantage of being able to cover areas that otherwise would be very cumbersome and very expensive with more traditional survey systems. With this tool we couldeliminate much of the field workand then process the data and fit it with other projects we have done for the comprehensive documentation of this whole area,”MaciasSolé说。

“All this process ofcapturing data with millimetric precision一直非常agile and effective, and we alwayscounted on the technical support以及Leica Geosystems专家的持续建议。”

连接学科

The archaeological remains of the Roman circus are a testimony of Roman architecture and planning and provide the blueprints on how this ancient construction developed and transformed Tarragona’s history and landscape with every century.

The 3D documentation of the heritage site in Tarragona allowed archaeologists at ICAC and architecture students at ETSA to develop:

• Historical urban studies
• 历史遗产的教育学和博物馆
• Archaeological research
• Cadastral plans and a heritage management system

通过激光扫描捕捉现实，打开了一扇门，来自考古学家和建筑师等几个学科的专家可以converge to study, map, monitor, and conserve any building or asset.As seen in Tarragona, Spain, Leica Geosystems’ solutions help professionals become more efficient and accurate on how they produce, share and evaluate information.