Survey and Insights into Unmanned Aerial-Vehicle-Based Detection and Documentation of Clandestine Graves and Human Remains

Numerous biological and archaeological studies have demonstrated the legitimacy of remote sensing in anthropology. This article focuses on detecting and documenting terrestrial clandestine graves and surface remains (CGSR) of humans using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), sensors, and automatic proce...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Human biology 2018-01, Vol.90 (1), p.45-61
Main Authors: Murray, Bryce, Anderson, Derek T., Wescott, Daniel J., Moorhead, Robert, Anderson, Melissa F.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Algorithms
Anthropology
Body Remains - pathology
Cemeteries - statistics & numerical data
computational systems
Data collection
Decision making
Documentation
Environment
Fingerprinting
Forensic anthropology
Forensic Anthropology - instrumentation
Forensic science
Graves
Human remains
Humans
Hyperspectral imaging
Imaging
Intelligence
Legitimacy
Plants
Polls & surveys
Records
Remote sensing
Remote Sensing Technology - methods
sensor payloads
Sensors
Surveys and Questionnaires
Terrestrial environments
Thermal imaging
Uncertainty
unmanned aerial vehicle
Unmanned aerial vehicles
Vegetation
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Summary:Numerous biological and archaeological studies have demonstrated the legitimacy of remote sensing in anthropology. This article focuses on detecting and documenting terrestrial clandestine graves and surface remains (CGSR) of humans using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), sensors, and automatic processing algorithms. CGSR is a problem of complex decision making under uncertainty that requires the identification and intelligent reasoning about direct evidence of human remains and their environmental fingerprints. As such, it is as much an engineering and geospatial problem as it is an anthropology problem. This article is an effort to survey existing work across disciplines and to provide insights and recommendations to assist future research. To support our claims, preliminary experiments were performed at the Forensic Anthropological Research Facility at Texas State University using UAVs, hyperspectral imaging, thermal imaging, and structure from motion. Prior work, our experience, and preliminary results indicate that both great potential and extreme challenges face remote sensing of CGSR.
ISSN:0018-7143
1534-6617
DOI:10.13110/humanbiology.90.1.03