The Manila Times
(UPDATE) AN archaeology professor of the Ateneo de Manila University (ADMU) has introduced a robot that can help excavate archaeological sites with "greater consistency, precision, and care compared to manual methods." "ArchaeoBot" was created in collaboration with the Ateneo Laboratory for Intelligent Visual Environments (Alive) and was introduced by Dr. Alfred Pawlik, a professor of ADMU's Department of Sociology and Anthropology, as well as the research coordinator of the Dr. Rosita G. Leong School of Social Sciences and director of the Anthropological and Sociology Institute of the university. Pawlik's work focuses on Southeast Asian archaeology, hunter-gatherer societies, and past human behaviors. ArcheoBot was introduced on March 27 at the Escaler Hall during the Ateneo Breakthroughs lecture featuring Pawlik. By integrating robotics and machine learning into archaeological excavation, the project enhances precision, minimizes human error, and reveals details that deepen understanding of early human life in Southeast Asia. Pawlik said the idea grew out of a long-standing ambition to build a machine that could perform the physically demanding parts of excavation while reducing human error — especially when teams are tired, inexperienced, or working across multiple trenches at once. Moreover, the robot is imagined not only as a digging machine, but as a "smart, multipurpose system that can detect finds, recognize archaeological features and contexts, and carefully retrieve objects without damaging them." Using the robot, Pawlik presented evidence that by around 40,000 years ago, humans were already venturing across island chains such as Palawan and Mindoro. By using the ArchaeoBot, ADMU said these experimental and interdisciplinary efforts aim to reconstruct not only artifacts but entire systems of knowledge, making visible the invisible technologies that rarely survive in the archaeological record.
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