Intel’s Falcon 8+ Drone Plays Key Role In Preservation Of 15th Century German Cathedral

The Halberstadt Cathedral located in Saxony-Anhair, Germany is a 15th Century monument and was in desperate need of preservation. Recently, it received help from Intel’s Falcon 8+ drone for the same. Intel will be monitoring the monument to assess the level of damage it is facing for now. For this purpose, it is working in collaboration with Kulturstiftung Sachsen-Anhait and Bauhaus University from Weimar. The Falcon 8+ took multiple indoor and outdoor missions to collect data that will be analysed to see what next needs to be done for restoration of this historic monument and how to keep its artwork intact for centuries to come. 

 

Historic structures like this cathedral can deteriorate with the passage of time courtesy the rapidly changing environment and increased use of chemicals in every process. Initially, they made use of Standard stock condition surveys and structural health monitoring processes to get solid evidence of how the building stood and what kind of maintenance work was done on it. But these are costly processes and technically very difficult to be carried out. The Intel’s Falcon 8+ will be offering the conversation team with a completely new cost-effective way to inspect the hard-to-reach and fragile structures without causing any disturbance to the surroundings. It is very important considering the delicate state of Gothic-style architectures and their precious artwork. There are numerous damaged statues that need a completely new approach with respect to stock conditioning surveys and eliminating the risk of damage to building due to conventional methods. Most of the stone statues standing here are approx. 20 feet above the floor and in very fragile state with faded color pigment, most of the paint is now in form of detached sheel over stone surface. One would need special techniques to restore something as precarious as this one. Under such scenario, Falcon 8+ plays a very important role by enhancing the potential for structural monitoring. It clicked some 1, 000 detailed images in less than 60 minutes of its flight time.