Intel and the China Foundation for Cultural Heritage Conservation have created a partnership to protect and restore the Great Wall of China.

Over the next few months, Intel’s Falcon 8+ drones will capture aerial photography of the walls to obtain high-definition 3-D images, helping teams gauge the Great Wall’s current condition. Intel Artificial Intelligence (AI) data capture will create a visual representation of the Great Wall to help efficiently and safely identify sections in need of repair.

The project will focus initially on a section of the Wall known as Jiankou, around 70km north of Beijing. The Jiankou section is one of the steepest parts of the wall, which has been difficult for repair teams to reach. Located in thick vegetation, the structure, which dates to the third century B.C., has naturally weathered and requires repair.

The Falcon 8+ is an advanced commercial multi-rotor unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) with an empty weight of 1.2kg. It is designed to capture detailed aerial data for 3D reconstruction down to millimetre accuracy. It features a triple redundant autopilot and can be programmed to fly an automated path, capturing photos at predetermined waypoint locations.