Comprehensive review and systematic design approach for drones employed in inspection and preservation of built cultural heritage sites

This paper provides a comprehensive review and evaluation of drone technologies to systematically guide the design towards a novel drone tailored for the inspection and preservation of built cultural heritage sites. The proposed drones are expected to inspect entire structures and utilize thermal imaging to detect critical issues such as cracks, erosion, water leaks, and other defects that threaten artistic and architectural artifacts. These efforts align with the United Nations’ sustainable development goals. By enabling early identification of structural issues, the drones facilitate timely intervention, helping to preserve cultural heritage from environmental damage and climate fluctuations. The study introduces a quantitative, multi-criteria scoring methodology to evaluate drone topologies and components, ensuring a systematic approach to identifying the most promising solutions for specific cultural heritage applications. The methodology involves a detailed review of the literature on drone classifications and types, the identification of drone topologies suited to cultural heritage applications, and a filtering process to evaluate drone designs against specific criteria. The results are summarized in tables for clarity and comparison, enabling the preliminary selection of the most suitable solutions and configurations for designing drones specific to cultural heritage needs. To illustrate the approach, a detailed example demonstrates the proposed scoring methodology and evaluation process of design concepts, ensuring the identification of the most appropriate design concept for the intended application. The proposed design criteria, derived from the above-mentioned rigorous analysis, establish a foundation for developing a heritage drone capable of efficiently detecting and addressing damage in archaeological structures using thermal cameras. This work advances the use of drone technology for cultural heritage preservation, systematically bridging the gap between theoretical design principles and practical real-world applications. Future work will focus on the next manufacturing and validation of a specific UAV prototype for cultural heritage applications.