An unmanned aerial vehicle magnetic detection system for archaeological exploration

Magnetic detection is characterized by its non-invasive, rapid, and efficient traits and can be used in archaeological exploration. This paper presents an aeromagnetic system based on a drone for archaeological exploration, featuring both hardware module integration and data processing methods. The hardware module incorporates a multi-rotor drone, a cesium optically pumped magnetometer (OPM), and a synchronized data acquisition system for processing magnetic and GPS position data. It can rapidly measure the magnetic field of the archaeological sites to capture the magnetic anomaly signals. The data processing methods consist of diurnal variation correction, survey line correction, aeromagnetic noise suppression, and a leveling algorithm based on curvelet transform can identify the magnetic anomaly signal from the measurement magnetic field. Field tests were conducted at the Song Dynasty iron smelting site in Xiacaopu, Anxi County, Fujian Province, China, where the system successfully discovered new smelting furnace relic that has been confirmed through subsequent excavation.