Revised: 28 March 2019 Accepted: 9 April 2019
DOI: 10.1002/arp.1739
RESEARCH ARTICLE
Unmanned aerial vehicle and structure‐from‐motion
photogrammetry for three‐dimensional documentation and
digital rubbing of the Zuo River Valley rock paintings
Shaohua Wang | Yue Wang | Qingwu Hu
School of Remote Sensing and Information
Engineering, Wuhan University, Wuhan, China
Correspondence
Yue Wang and Qingwu Hu, School of Remote
Sensing and Information Engineering, Wuhan
University, No. 129, Luoyu Road, Wuhan
430079, China.
Email: rswy@whu.edu.cn; huqw@whu.edu.cn
Funding information
Key Technologies R&D Program of China,
Grant/Award Number: 2015BAK03B04; The
Fundamental Research Funds for the Central
Universities, Grant/Award Number:
2042017kf0235; the Science and Technology
Planning Project of Guangdong Province of
China, Grant/Award Number:
2017B020218001
1 | I N T RO D U CT I O N
Rock paintings have been investigated worldwide since the 19th cen-
tury. They constitute a universal phenomenon that is rooted in religion
and share a widely recognizable iconography across various cultures
Archaeological Prospection. 2019;26:265–279.
| Jiayuan Li | Mingyao Ai
Abstract
Three‐dimensional (3D) documenting and rubbing of rock art is aimed to produce
descriptive and analytic graphic documentation with metric scale and geospatial
information for archaeological analysis. Although the integrated surveying technolo-
gies of aerial photogrammetry, close‐range photogrammetry, and laser scanning have
been widely used to generate the 3D models of archaeological sites, the implementa-
tion of these technologies in complex surroundings with steep terrain, such as river-
side cliffs, remains challenging. In this study, we present an unmanned aerial vehicle
(UAV)‐based structure‐from‐motion (SfM) photogrammetry approach to obtain the
3D geospatial data of rock paintings. A field data collection approach for high‐
resolution multiperspective images using UAV equipped with a high‐resolution
camera is implemented together with high accuracy ground control points (GCPs).
An appropriate flowchart of multi‐view stereo (MVS) photogrammetry processing is
designed including multi‐view dense matching, bundle adjustment (BA) and metric
rectification for the orthoimages production of the rock paintings. A digital rubbing
approach based on the orthoimages is proposed to obtain the geometry contents,
including symbols and characters, of the rock paintings. The Huashan rock paintings,
which are located on the vertical faces of the cliffs that line the course of Zuo River, is
taken as a case study. Our proposed approach can obtain orthoimages of the
Huashan rock paintings with 2 mm resolution. The reality‐based 3D model can reach
the absolute accuracy of 5 mm. Clear, exact, and blur‐free metric rubbing images of
the Huashan rock paintings are produced, which are useful for the research and pres-
ervation of Zhuang culture.
K E Y W OR D S
3D documentation, Huashan rock art, multi‐view stereo, rock paintings, rubbing, SfM
photogrammetry
(Aubert et al., 2007; Gomes, Rosina, Holakooei, Solomon, & Vaccaro,
2013; González‐Sainz, Ruiz‐Redondo, Garate‐Maidagan, & Iriarte‐
Avilés, 2013; Shao et al., 2017; Zhang, 2014; Zubieta, 2014). Rock
paintings in China have been associated with non‐literate, non‐
Chinese ethnic groups (Shao et al., 2017; Zhang, 2014). The history
wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/arp © 2019 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. 265
266
of rock paintings has been characterized through continuous research
that is based on reliable and accurate three‐dimensional (3D) docu-
mentation, rubbing, and dating techniques. Hence, 3D documentation
is necessary for the digital preservation and restoration and physical
replica generation of rock paintings; it is also necessary to promote
virtual tourism, research, and education (González‐Aguilera, Muñoz‐
Nieto, Gómez‐Lahoz, Herrero‐Pascual, & Gutierrez‐Alonso, 2009;
Shawn & Ben, 2017). In the past few years, several methodologies
for obtaining and processing the geospatial data of rock paintings have
been used to generate orthoimages, 3D models, and rubbings that
present reality. These methodologies include terrestrial laser scanning,
close‐range photogrammetry, and aerial photogrammetry (Chandler,
Bryan, & Fryer, 2007; Chandler, Fryer, & Kniest, 2005; Lerma,
Navarro, Cabrelles, Seguí, & Hernández, 2013; Meléndez, Lerma,
López Montalvo, & Villaverde, 2015; Plisson & Zotkina, 2015; Skoog,
Helmholz, & Belton, 2016).
Although digital photogrammetry and 3D laser scanners have been
used to obtain the extremely precise and high‐quality geospatial data of
rock paintings, the implementation of these techniques in complex sur-
roundings, such as riverside cliffs, continue to face serious limitations
and challenges. The implementation of close‐range photogrammetry,
which is often used to record images of cave paintings, requires a
certain distance from the target structure for the balance of efficiency
and resolution (Chandler et al., 2005; Chandler et al., 2007; Meléndez
et al., 2015; Plisson & Zotkina, 2015). A camera has to be integrated
into a 3D laser scanner to obtain high‐resolution images when adopted
in the 3D documentation of rock paintings. However, 3D laser scanner
has distance limitation, and with the increase of distance, the distance
accuracy decreases and point density decreases sharply. Thus, a 3D
laser scanner is suitable for recording rock paintings in caves or within
close distances (Davis, Belton, Helmholz, Bourke, & McDonald, 2017;
Trinks, Díaz‐Andreu, Hobbs, & Sharpe, 2005; Uribe & Wheatley,
2013). Aerial and satellite photogrammetry is only used for terrain sur-
veying around rock paintings and is useless for obtaining the details of
rock paintings. Surveying and documenting rock paintings located on
the vertical faces of riverside cliffs are difficult. Archaeological sites in
regions with steep terrain present some of the major challenges
encountered in digital photogrammetry and 3D laser scanning because
their complex features hinder effective and high‐quality field data col-
lection (Al‐Kheder, Al‐Shawabkeh, & Haala, 2009; Nuttens, De Maeyer,
De Wulf, Goossens, & Stal, 2011).
In recent years, unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)‐based photogram-
metry has been used to document archaeological sites (Brutto,
Borruso, & D'argenio, 2012; James & Robson, 2012; Nikolakopoulos,
Soura, Koukouvelas, & Argyropoulos, 2017; Pérez, Gonçalves, &
Charro, 2018; Rinaudo, Chiabrando, Lingua, & Spanò, 2012;
Themistocleous, Agapiou, King, King, & Hadjimitsis, 2014). Novel
multiple‐rotor UAVs with on board cameras can take off vertically
and land stably and can freely capture images from any perspective
given their hovering ability in some environments (Ai et al., 2015;
Escareno, Sanchez, Garcia, & Lozano, 2009). Overcoming many of
the risk of field data collection, labour and time cost of traditional
approaches to topographic surveying are recent advances in images
WANG ET AL.
based 3D modelling [i.e. structure‐from‐motion (SfM)] and UAV
technologies (James & Robson, 2012; Meijer, 2015; Remondino,
Barazzetti, Nex, Scaioni, & Sarazzi, 2011; Wu, 2011). An UAV can effi-
ciently acquire overlapping stereo aerial photographs with consumer‐
grade and high resolution digital cameras from any perspective (Jing,
Gong, Zhao, Pu, & Deng, 2017; Remondino et al., 2011). Furthermore,
SfM photogrammetry have been shown to be a highly accurate and
cost‐effective 3D model generating approach of a scene from triangu-
lating among the locations of highly redundant sets of matching fea-
tures detected in multiple perspectives images taken from different
camera positions and/or orientations (Micheletti, Chandler, & Lane,
2015; O'Connor, Smith, & James, 2017; Smith, Carrivick, & Quincey,
2016; Westoby, Brasington, Glasser, Hambrey, & Reynolds, 2012).
Thus, UAV‐based SfM photogrammetry has considerable potential
applications in the 3D documentation of rock paintings located in
complex and steep terrain surroundings.
For the 3D surveying and documenting of archaeological sites in
complex surroundings with steep terrain in riverside cliffs, we present
an UAV‐based SfM photogrammetry approach. A field data collection
approach for high‐resolution multiperspective images using UAV is
implemented together with high accuracy ground control points
(GCPs). An appropriate flowchart of multi‐view stereo (MVS) photo-
grammetry processing is designed including multi‐view dense
matching, bundle adjustment (BA) and metric rectification to produce
the orthoimages of the rock paintings. A digital rubbing approach
based on the orthoimages is proposed to obtain the geometry con-
tents, including symbols and characters, of the rock paintings. The
Huashan rock paintings, which are located on the vertical faces of
the cliffs that line the course of Zuo River, is taken as a case study.
Our proposed approach can obtain orthoimages of the Huashan rock
paintings with 2 mm resolution. The reality‐based 3D model can reach
the absolute accuracy of 5 mm. Clear, exact, and blur‐free metric rub-
bing images of the Huashan rock paintings are produced, which are
useful for the research and preservation of Zhuang culture.
2 | B A C KG RO U N D
2.1 | Study area
The Zuo River is part of a densely vegetated and mountainous capil-
lary river system that joins the Pearl River upon entering the South
China Sea near Guangzhou (Canton) and is associated with the cul-
tures of south‐eastern and south‐western agriculturalists (Wang
et al., 2017; Zhang, 2014). Numerous rock paintings are located in
these regions. The paintings vary in style and content but are red or
reddish brown in colour. The paintings date back to as early as
3000 BC to as late as the sixth or seventh century AD (Dematte,
2015; Shao et al., 2017). The paintings are all located on the vertical
faces of the limestone cliffs (calcite and dolomite) that line the course
of two rivers. The paintings are mainly concentrated on the vertical
faces of cliffs in river bends. The mountains in the region stand
150–400 m above the river and are densely vegetated. The cliffs
WANG ET AL.
appear white with black stains and are steep, forbidding, and inter-
spersed with karst fissures and caves, which are often used for burials.
Pictographs are conspicuously painted in light areas halfway up the
cliffs and frequently appear at the sides of or above cave openings
(Dematte, 2015; Gao, 2017; Qian, 2013; Zhang, 2014; Zhang, 2016).
The largest rock site in the Zuo River Valley is located in Huashan
(Hua Mountain), Ningming County (Gao, 2017; Qian, 2013). In this
area, a triangular‐shaped peak rises from the right bank of the Ming
River to a height of 230 m (345 m above sea level) (Cerrillo‐Cuenca
& Sepúlveda, 2015; Han, 2016), as Figure 1 shows. Over 1800 picto-
graphs from 111 painted panels are distributed over nine locations. In
July 15, 2016, the Huashan rock paintings were included in the World
Heritage List by the UNESCO World Heritage Committee during the
40th
World Heritage Conference in Istanbul, Turkey (Bednarik, 2016;
Tong, 2016).
Most of the Huashan rock paintings were painted through the
shaping or projection technique. In this technique, monochromatic flat
paints are smeared with a soft pen on the rock to create a rough out-
line or silhouette (Cerrillo‐Cuenca & Sepúlveda, 2015; Han, 2016;
Tong, 2016). The Huashan rock paintings exhibit fissures, corrosion,
weathering, and flaking in response to the influences of natural fac-
tors, geological environment, and human activities. Nearly half of the
rock paintings are beginning to fall off or crack. Some of the surface
layers of the rock paintings have faded and peeled off, and other
paintings have been covered by water and sediments (Li & Yu, 2017;
Yun, Liang, Shaojun, Pengcheng, & Qiuping, 2015; Zhao, Fang, &
Cheng, 2016). Figure 2 shows an example of the damage sustained
by the Huashan rock paintings through sun exposure, flooding, and
human activities. In this image, the damage covers an area of more
than 500 m2.
As shown in Figure 2, peeling damage covers half of the painting.
Damages to the paintings affect archaeological research. Thus, 3D dig-
ital documentation through modern methods is crucial for the large‐
scale protection and restoration of the slowly deteriorating Huashan
rock paintings. The 3D documentation and rubbing preparation of the
rock paintings can be used to construct a digital database that can
enable scientific research and preserve data for future generations.
FIGURE 1 Scenes of rock cliffs [Colour figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com]
267
FIGURE 2 Damage to Huashan rock paintings [Colour figure can be
viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com]
2.2 | Problems encountered in the 3D
documentation and rubbing preparation of Huashan
rock paintings
The Huashan rock paintings are distributed over a continuous stretch
of 58 km in Zuojiang. Most of the rock paintings are located 15–130 m
above the water surface. The Ningming Huashan rock painting is one
of the largest rock paintings in the area and is located on a cliff with a
height of 250 m. The painting itself is 15–110 m above the river and
covers an area of approximately 1000 m2. The unique distribution of
rock paintings has considerably complicated field data collection.
Another difficulty encountered in the 3D documentation and rub-
bing preparation of Huashan rock paintings is the complex terrain of
the region. The cliffs directly face the river and are mostly located in
river bends. The upper outer processes of the cliffs are perpendicular
to the ground, and the lower inner caves of the cliffs are lined with
smooth rocks (as shown in Figure 3). Approaching the cliffs to take
pictures or measure the rock paintings is difficult and dangerous.
Although UAV remote sensing can be applied as a new data collec-
tion approach, the lack of UAV landing sites, the safe operation of
UAVs, and the protection of the rock paintings from possible damage
remain as major challenges. The load limit of UAVs and the lack of
268
FIGURE 3 Scenes of rock cliffs [Colour figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com]
accurate positioning and altitude data for the rock paintings also
present problems. Moreover, aerial photography must be conducted
vertical to the cliff, and image processing, such as registration,
mosaicking, and rubbing, is difficult.
3 | METHODOLOGY
The proposed approach defines an appropriate process for the 3D
digital documentation and rubbing of Huashan rock paintings. The
process is based on UAV‐based photogrammetry. A schematic of
the proposed approach is in Figure 4. MVS and SfM
First, a UAV equipped a high‐resolution camera is utilized to
acquire images from multiple perspectives and to perform the GCPs
surveying of rock paintings. The process of GCPs surveying is
described in Section 3.1. The UAV takes off and lands on a ship. Then,
MVS photogrammetry processing is applied to generate dense points
of the rock paintings. The dense points are then adopted to build a
digital surface model (DSM) and digital orthophoto map (DOM) of rock
paintings. Finally, a rubbing approach based on the orthoimage of rock
paintings is introduced to obtain the final documentation result.
FIGURE 4 Flowchart of the proposed approach [Colour figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com]
WANG ET AL.
3.1 | Field data collection
Field data collection includes image acquisition and GCPs surveying.
We use a UAV‐based imaging system to collect multiperspective
images of the rock paintings. The GCPs are surveyed for further aerial
triangulation in BA processing in MVS photogrammetry.
3.1.1 | UAV‐based image collection
UAV‐based image collection should be well planned to guarantee the
quality and accuracy of MVS photogrammetry. The following aspects
of the process should be considered: UAV platform, flight plan, flight
safety, and camera parameters. Figure 5 shows the workflow of the
UAV‐based image collection.
The UAV DJI® M600 Pro, a multirotor‐type UAV with six rotors, is
used to acquire data. It is equipped with a three‐axis stabilization gim-
bal, a D‐RTK GNSS unit and has a flight duration of 30 minutes.
Images are acquired with a Canon® EOS 5D Mark II equipped with
a standard frame camera lens, i.e. not a fisheye lens. The UAV employs
a global shutter instead of a rolling shutter.
WANG ET AL.
FIGURE 5 Workflow of UAV‐based image collection [Colour figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com]
The distance between the river and rock cliffs should be measured
and considered in UAV flight design to guarantee operation safety and
data quality. The Zuojiang River is 10–200 m in width. The vertical cliff
faces lack flat areas from which the UAV can take off or land. In addi-
tion, the flight time of the UAV is limited to 30 minutes. Thus, a boat is
used to enable the UAV to take off and land in the river as close as
possible to the rock cliffs (Figure 6).
Image resolution will be limited if the distance between the UAV
and mountain body is excessively large. The safe operation of the
UAVs may be affected if the distance between the UAV and mountain
body is excessively close. Thus, the piloted, manually controlled UAV
should hover before the cliff face with a distance of approximately
15–20 m to ensure that the ground sampling distance (GSD) of each
image is less than 2 mm. The UAV then collects images over the
planned route. The images are collected with 80% course overlap
and 60% side overlap. After image acquisition, the image quality
should be checked in accordance with photograph overlapping
FIGURE 6 UAV takeoff and landing on a boat [Colour figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com]
269
requirements of photogrammetry to ensure that no photography gap
exists. In addition, all images should be initially mosaicked as one
image for GCPs marking.
3.1.2 | GCPs surveying
Well‐distributed GCPs on the rock paintings are required for MVS
photogrammetry processing. A Leica® TS30 non‐prism total station
with an angular accuracy of 0.5″ and distance accuracy of
0.6 mm + 1 ppm is used for control‐point surveying. The estimate
metric accuracy based on TS30 within 400 m will be less than 2 mm.
Figure 7 shows the workflow of GCPs surveying.
Control points in the appropriate position should be selected and
surveyed in accordance with the site environment of each rock painting
and intervisibility. The GCPs on the rock paintings should be selected as
feature points with high delineation and uniform distribution. Then,
GCPs on the rock painting are intersected with the non‐prism total
270 WANG ET AL.

FIGURE 7 Workflow of GCPs surveying [Colour figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com]

station within the accuracy of 2 mm. Finally, all GCPs are marked on the Ow − XwYwZw to the camera coordinate system Oc − XcYcZc, thus
mosaicked image for further photogrammetry processing. yielding Pc.

3.2 | Multi‐view stereo (MVS) photogrammetry The collinearity condition equation is defined as Equation (1):
processing 8
>
> a1 ðX − X S Þ þ b1 ðY − Y S Þ þ c1 ðZ − ZS Þ
>
< x − x0 ¼ − f a ðX − X Þ þ b ðY − Y Þ þ c ðZ − Z Þ
3 S 3 S 3 S
The process of multiperspective image photogrammetry, which is (1)
>
> a ðX − X Þ þ b ðY − Y Þ þ c ðZ − Z SÞ
applied to generate point‐dense images of the rock paintings, includes >
: y − y0 ¼ − f
2 S 2 S 2
a3 ðX − XS Þ þ b3 ðY − Y S Þ þ c3 ðZ − Z S Þ
camera calibration, aerial triangulation, image‐dense matching, and
forward intersection. Figure 8 shows the flowchart of the MVS photo- where (a1, … , c3) and (XS, YS, ZS) are the exterior orientation parame-
grammetry process. ters of the image, f is focal length, (x,y)is the point coordinates in
image plane, (X,Y,Z) is the point coordinates in world coordinate sys-
3.2.1 | Camera calibration and image distortion tem Ow − XwYwZw. The point coordinates Pcin camera coordinate
correction systemOc − XcYcZc is defined by (x,y, − f ).

To meet the load limit of the UAV, the UAV is equipped with a normal
Step 2: Pcis projected on the image plane to obtain the corresponding
single‐lens reflex (SLR) camera for image collection. SLR camera
image point Pi.
images, however, exhibit large distortion. In photogrammetry and
Step 3: Lens distortion is modelled by radial and tangential distortion,
computer visualization, camera calibration is a fundamental stage
and point Pi is transformed to the real position of Pd.
required to recover the metric scale and geospatial information of an
image. It models the relationship between 3D objects in the real world
We develop a calibration toolbox on the basis of the camera distor-
and their corresponding projections on the image plane. Camera cali-
tion model (Hakkarainen, 1978). Several camera parameters can be pre-
bration has been applied in various applications, such as BA, dense
cisely calibrated. These parameters include focal length f , principal
reconstruction, orthoimage production, and camera localization. It
point (x0, y0), radial distortion (k1, k2), and tangential distortion (p1, p2).
can be divided into three steps, as illustrated in Figure 9.
The distortion of the original images is corrected with image calibration
As Figure 9 shows, the detailed camera calibration procedure is
parameters and the appropriate polynomial, as shown in Equation (2):
described as follows:
  h i
Δx ¼ ðx − x0 Þ k1 r2 þ k2 r 4 þ p1 r 2 þ 2ðx−x0 Þ2 þ 2p2 ðx − x0 Þðy − y0 Þ
Step 1: The relationship of the camera and world coordinate systems  
is built. Specifically, the collinearity condition equation is adapted þαðx − x0 Þ þ βðy − y0 ÞΔy ¼ ðy − y0 Þ k1 r 2 þ k2 r4 (2)
h i
2
to transform point Pw from the world coordinate system þp2 r þ 2ðy−y0 Þ þ 2p1 ðx − x0 Þðy − y0 Þ
2
WANG ET AL. 271

FIGURE 8 Flowchart of MVS photogrammetry processing [Colour figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com]

where Δx,Δy are the correction values of an image point; x,y are the 3.2.2 | Aerial triangulation
coordinates in the image coordinate system; x0,y0 is the principal point;
qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi A photogrammetry triangulation method is adopted to simultaneously
r¼ ðx−x0 Þ2 þ ðy−y0 Þ2 ; k1 and k2 are radial distortion coefficients; p1 estimate unknown image orientations and positions and 3D scene
and p2 are the tangential distortion coefficients; α, β are two scalars in structure from a set of image matches. The method consists of two
the two image axes. major stages: feature matching and BA.
Scale‐invariant feature transform (SIFT) (Bastanlar, Temizel, &
Yardmc, 2010; Juan & Gwun, 2009; Lowe, 1999, 2004) is performed
to detect and describe key points in each image because of its robust-
ness to image scale, rotation, illumination, and viewpoint change.
Then, key point descriptors between image pairs are matched through
the approximate nearest neighbour K‐D tree structure and distance
ratio test. A geometric consistency constraint is introduced to reject
outliers (Figure 10). RANSAC is used for the robust estimation of the
homograph and fundamental matrix for pairwise correspondences.
Image consistency is also considered for efficiency. An image connec-
tivity graph, in which a node represents an image and an edge repre-
sents overlapping regions between connected image pairs, is
considered.
Red and blue dots represent matched points in the first and second
images, respectively. One node of each green line is a feature point of
the image, and another node is the position of the corresponding
match point in another image.
Next, a set of parameters (i.e. rotation and position) for each UAV
image and a 3D position for each matched tie point are recovered on
the basis of BA by taking the clean correspondences extracted by SIFT
as inputs. Moreover, GCPs are introduced into the BA process. The BA
FIGURE 9 Procedure of camera calibration algorithm ensures that the recovered parameters are consistent to
272
(a) Matching result in the first image
(b) Matching result in the second image
FIGURE 10 Cleaned SIFT matches [Colour figure can be viewed at
wileyonlinelibrary.com]
minimize residual error. The minimization problem is generally solved
through iterative methods, such as the Gauss–Newton method.
VisualSFM (Wu, 2011) is a graphical user interface (GUI) application
for 3D reconstruction, which has integrated in incremental structure
from motion strategy. It runs fast by exploiting multicore parallelism
for feature detection, feature matching, and BA. In this work,
VisualSFM is selected to perform BA processing with GCPs. A simple
BA result is shown in Figure 11.
3.2.3 | Multiperspective image‐dense matching
The proposed digital rubbing approach is based on the orthoimage
technique. In photogrammetry, the orthoimage can be generated with
image parameters (i.e. rotation and position) and DSM. These inputs
are satisfied by the results of the former stage. However, the point
cloud produced by BA is too sparse for the generation of accurate
DSM. Therefore, an image‐dense matching algorithm, called improved
patch‐based multi‐view stereo (IPMVS), is introduced (Li, Zheng,
Zhang, Zhang, & Zhang, 2016). The IPMVS consists of the matching,
expansion, and filtering stages. In the first stage, SIFT and Harris fea-
tures are matched across multiperspective images to generate sparse
WANG ET AL.
FIGURE 11 Simple BA result. Orientation and position of each
image and 3D position of each matched tie point [Colour figure can
be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com]
seed points. Then, the expansion and filtering stages are repeated
three times to acquire dense image correspondences. In the expansion
step, the initial matches are spread to nearby pixels on the basis of
normalized cross‐correlation between similar metrics under epipolar
constraints. The third stage eliminates false matches using visibility
constraints. When given the clean dense image correspondences, the
corresponding point cloud or DSM (Figure 12) can be easily obtained
through forward intersection based on collinearity equation.
The workflow of IPMVS is shown in Figure 13. To save memory
and time, the input images are divided into groups on the basis of vis-
ibility consistency, and the groups are processed in parallel.
3.3 | Metric rectification for orthoimage
Orthoimages provide the visual information and geospatial informa-
tion of rock paintings for metric measurement. Unlike traditional aerial
photogrammetric orthophoto for the terrain surrounding, in the pres-
ent case, rock paintings require facade orthophoto. Thus, a virtual pro-
jection plane parallel to the vertical cliff is first defined as the plane
O − XY. Then, a rectification algorithm that accelerates the K‐D tree
structure is introduced. The details are described as follows:
1. Given the inputs, including the original image, image parameters
(interior and exterior orientation parameters), and the correspond-
ing dense point cloud (DSM), some points are randomly sampled
from the DSM to fit the virtual projection plane. Then, the plane
O − XY in the coordinate system of DSM and the exterior orienta-
tion parameters of the images are rotated parallel to the virtual
projection plane. A K‐D tree is a space‐partitioning data structure
for organizing points in a k‐dimensional space. In the K‐D tree
structure, every leaf node is a k‐dimensional point. Each leaf node
is approximately the same distance from the root. The nearest
WANG ET AL. 273

FIGURE 12 Dense matching result [Colour figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com]

neighbour (NN) search algorithm can be done efficiently by using where Z1,Z2,Z3 are the elevations of the n(n = 3) nearest points and d1,d2,
the tree properties to quickly eliminate large portions of the search d3 are the corresponding distances; p(u,v)can be projected to the original
space (Bentley, 1975; Brown, 2015; Finkel, Friedman, & Bentley, image pixelo(x,y) to obtain the corresponding pixel intensityg(x,y) based
1977; Rosenberg, 1985). In order to optimize the efficiency of on the collinearity condition equation in Equation (1).
querying nearest neighbours from dense point clouds, the DSM
is organized as a K‐D tree structure. The envelop of DSM and 4. Assign the pixel intensity g(x,y) to pixel p(u,v). The final orthoimage
the horizontal coordinates (X0, Y0) of the bottom left corner of could be produced by applying points (2)–(4) to each pixel.
the orthoimage are calculated, and resolution r is defined.
2. The corresponding horizontal coordinates (X,Y) for each pixel p(u,v) 3.4 | Digital orthoimage rubbings
in the orthoimage are presented as follows:
The traditional rubbing preparation process is complex and is sensitive

X ¼ X0 þ r⋅u to weather, illumination, environment, and other factors that easily
(3)
Y ¼ Y 0 þ r⋅v damage cultural relics. Moreover, applying the traditional manual
rubbing method in paintings located in inaccessible areas, such as riv-
3. Find the n(n = 3) nearest points of (X,Y) in the K‐D tree and
erside cliffs, is impossible. However, with the development of informa-
interpolate the corresponding elevation Z of p(u,v):
tion technology, digital rubbings can be produced from digital images
through image processing. The original digital images collected by
    UAVs are centrally projected with distortion and without scalability.
Z1 Z2 Z3 1 1 1
Z¼ þ þ = þ þ (4)
d1 2 d2 2 d3 2 d1 2 d2 2 d3 2 Thus, digital images are produced from the orthoimages generated
through multi‐view photogrammetry, as shown in Figure 14.
As shown in Figure 14, the digital rubbing method includes the fol-
lowing steps:
Firstly, the mean filtering algorithm is applied to smooth mutated
pixels and remove image noise. A block Wallis transformation is imple-
mented for image dodging to eliminate uneven illumination. Moreover,
image histogram equalization is introduced to improve image quality.
Secondly, local adaptive threshold binarization determines thresh-
olds on the basis of the pixel value distribution of the neighbourhood
block. Image blocks with different brightness, texture, and contrast
have different thresholds. ThresholdT(x,y) in block w × w can be deter-
mined by using Equation (5):

T ðx; yÞ ¼ ILocal ðx; yÞ þ k*σðx; yÞ

xþw=2 yþw=2
ILocal ðx; yÞ ¼ ð∑i¼x−w=2 ∑j¼y−w=2 ðIði; jÞÞ=w2 (5)
qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
xþw=2 yþw=2
FIGURE 13 Workflow of dense matching based on IPMVS σðx; yÞ ¼ ∑i¼x−w=2 ∑j¼y−w=2 ðIði; jÞ−ILocal ðx; yÞÞ2 =w
274
where ILocal(x,y) is the mathematical expectation; σ(x,y) is the standard
deviation in blockw × w; and k is an empirical constant, which is taken
as −0.2 in this study. With the local adaptive threshold T(x,y), the
image pixel value can be classified as black and white, which clearly
present the traditional artistic effect of rubbings.
Thirdly, chromaticity reversal swaps the black and white value of
pixels when coordinating the thresholding result. A mask image is
produced from the original image to obtain the rubbing object
background. Then, thresholding is applied to obtain two‐valued mask
images. Finally, the two‐valued mask images and binarization image
yielded by local adaptive thresholding are fused to obtain the final
rubbing result.
4 | RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
We acquired images of 24 rock paintings along the Zuojiang River by
using an UAV DJI® M600 Pro equipped with a Canon® EOS 5D Mark
II camera. The largest painting collection comprised images of the
Ningming Huashan rock painting. All data were processed through
the proposed approach together with onsite accuracy verification.
We present our results in two parts. In Section 4.1, we present our
case study, wherein the Ningming Huashan rock painting is taken as
an example to demonstrate the documentation and rubbing results
of the proposed approach. In Section 4.2, we provide the accuracy
assessment result of our proposed approach.
4.1 | Three‐dimensional (3D) documentation and
digital rubbings of Ningming Huashan rock paintings
We collect 156 images of the Ningming Huashan rock painting. After
image distortion correction, feature extraction, BA, dense matching for
DSM generation, and metric rectification, high‐resolution orthoimages
of the rock painting are produced. Then, the orthoimages are
mosaicked together to generate the overall view orthoimage of the
Ningming Huashan rock painting, as shown in Figure 15.
Figure 16 shows the rubbing results of the Ningming Huashan rock
painting. The rubbing results are generated through DOM based on
the proposed approach.
FIGURE 14 Flowchart of the digital rubbing process [Colour figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com]
WANG ET AL.
4.2 | Accuracy analysis of 3D documentation and
rubbing
We evaluate the 3D documentation and rubbing accuracy of the rock
paintings by using the GCPs residual errors of BA, errors of check
points, and relative geometry errors of the rock painting orthoimages.
The GCPs residual errors represent the accuracy of BA results and
determine the metric rectification accuracy of the orthoimages of
the rock paintings. Sixteen GCPs are taken for the BA processing.
The GCPs residual errors are less than 3 mm, and the root‐mean‐
square error (RMSE) is 0.0012 m in x,y direction and 0.0013 m in z
direction. This result indicates that the geometry accuracy of the 3D
digital documentation is less than 2 mm. We also use the Leica®
TS30 non‐prism total station to survey the 3D coordinates of 11 fea-
ture points of the rock paintings as check points. The RSME of check
points are 0.0046 m, 0.0052 m, and 0.0039 m in three directions. The
errors of check points are absolute errors in 3D space and represent
the 3D reconstruction accuracy of rock paintings. Figure 17 shows
the errors distribution map of GCPs and check points.
Archeologists have previously used traditional methods to obtain
rubbings of the Zuojiang rock paintings. They attempted to approach
the rock paintings through rock climbing with the help of local residents.
Traditional rubbings of the rock paintings are shown in Figure 18.
The rubbings provided by previous archaeologists have enabled
the annotation of some important geometry information. We measure
the corresponding geometry information from the orthoimages, as
shown in Figure 19.
Table 1 provides the geometry measurement result of the tradi-
tional rubbings and orthoimages.
As shown in Table 1, the accuracy of the traditional rubbings is lim-
ited to the centimetre level, whereas that of the orthoimage‐based
rubbings obtained through our proposed approach can reach the
millimetre level. The two methods provide inconsistent geometry
measurement data. Consistent with the spatial relationship, the differ-
ence between measurements increases with measurement distance.
Therefore, we utilize the results from the orthoimages given their high
accuracy and reliability. Our results indicate that the proposed method
will provide an accurate basis for the research, protection, display, and
restoration of rock paintings.
WANG ET AL. 275

(a) Overall view orthoimage

(b) Zoom in orthoimages of local area

FIGURE 15 DOM of Ningming Huashan rock painting [Colour figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com]

FIGURE 16 Rubbing result of the Ningming Huashan rock painting [Colour figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com]

4.3 | Discussions
Our proposed multi‐view photogrammetry process is a feasible
approach for the 3D digital documentation and rubbing preparation
of rock paintings. Nevertheless, the accuracy of our method is highly
dependent on the quality of data collection. Specifically, it is depen-
dent on the ground space resolution of the original images. The
balance between imaging distance and safe UAV operation directly
affects the GSD of the final rock painting images. Although UAV
control is an engineering problem, the use of lightweight and safe
UAV would help obtain high‐quality GSD images from complex and
inaccessible terrain.
GCPs accuracy is another crucial factor that affects the geometry
measurement and positioning accuracy of our proposed method. The
276 WANG ET AL.

(a) GCPs residual errors (b) errors of check points

FIGURE 17 Errors distribution map [Colour figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com]

FIGURE 18 Traditional rubbings [Colour figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com]

FIGURE 19 Measurement of geometry information from orthoimages [Colour figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com]

rock paintings are located on the central face of a riverside cliff with a
steep terrain. Given this location, GCPs cannot be set up and marked
as in convention multi‐view photogrammetry processing. Therefore,
only GCPs with high identification degrees can be selected as feature
points from the smooth surface of rock paintings. Such an approach
will greatly increase the measurement, identification, and transmission
errors of GCPs and will finally affect the precision of BA. Moreover,
GCPs distribution is dependent on the surface characteristics of rock
paintings. In addition, BA approach presents inconsistent accuracy
for different rock paintings.
WANG ET AL. 277

TABLE 1 Geometry accuracy of 3D digital rubbings of rock paintings CONFLIC T OF INT E RE ST

Result from traditional Result from Difference The authors declare no conflict of interest.
rubbings (cm) orthoimages (cm) (cm)

Group I ORCID

1 35 34.78 0.78 Qingwu Hu https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0866-6678

2 180 178.50 1.5

RE FE RE NC ES
3 32 32.22 0.22
Ai, M. Y., Hu, Q. W., Li, J. Y., Wang, M., Yuan, H., & Wang, S. H. (2015). A
Group II
robust photogrammetric processing method of low‐altitude UAV
1 47 47.17 0.17 images. Remote Sensing, 7(3), 2302–2333. https://doi.org/10.3390/
2 46 45.81 0.19 rs70302302

3 105 104.80 0.20
4 20 19.91 0.09
5 39 39.11 0.11
5 | C O N CL U S I O N S
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further photogrammetry processing. Thus it is difficult for these
approaches to provide the precise and accurate geometry information
of rock paintings. The proposed UAV‐based MVS photogrammetry
process can address the shortcomings of traditional methods for rock
painting documentation and rubbing preparation and can efficiently
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How to cite this article: Wang S, Wang Y, Hu Q, Li J, Mingyao
A. Unmanned aerial vehicle and structure‐from‐motion photo-
grammetry for three‐dimensional documentation and digital
rubbing of the Zuo River Valley rock paintings. Archaeological
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