With GeoPACHA-AI, archaeologists and machine learning experts have teamed together to design and build a new Vision Transformer (ViT) foundation model (DeepAndes) from WorldView 2 and WorldView 3 high resolution multispectral satellite imagery, with potential applications in many areas of research, from the earth sciences to urban planning and disaster preparedness. We then fine-tuned DeepAndes with a range of human-labeled data, resulting in our archaeology-specific AI model, DeepAndesArch.
Deployment of DeepAndesArch then enables autonomous detection of a range of archaeological features over large areas of Andean South America. The GeoPACHA-AI platform enables international teams of archaeologists to systematically and efficiently audit these autonomous detections. We will then use these audited data to improve DeepAndesArch performance to human- or better-than-human sensitivity and specificity, for deployment over virtually all of the Andes—an area of about 2 million square kilometers in an area approximately coincident with the historic footprint of the Inka Empire.
Our goal is to detect the visible relict architectural features, active and abandoned agricultural infrastructure (terrace and field systems) across this vast area for the archaeological research community and heritage management entities.