A Virtual Restoration Approach for Ancient Plank Road Using Mechanical Analysis with Precision 3D Data of Heritage Site

1 Architecture Department, Chang’an University, No. 161, Chang’an Road, Xi’an 710061, China 2 Architecture Department, Xi’an University of Architecture & Technology, No. 13, Yanta Road, Xi’an 710055, China 3 School of Remote Sensing and Information Engineering, Wuhan University, No. 129, Luoyu Road, Wuhan 430079, China 4 School of Internation Software, Wuhan University, No. 129, Luoyu Road, Wuhan 430079, China; [email protected] 5 Shaanxi Bureau of Cultural Heritage, No. 193, Yanta West Road, Xi’an 710061, China; [email protected] * Correspondence: [email protected] (S.C.); [email protected] (Q.H.); Tel.: +86-29-8553-6075 (S.C.) Academic Editors: Rosa Lasaponara, Gonzalo Pajares Martinsanz and Prasad S. Thenkabail Received: 6 August 2016; Accepted: 27 September 2016; Published: 9 October 2016 Abstract: The ancient plank road is a creative building in the history of Chinese ancient traffic through cliffs. In this paper, a virtual restoration approach for ancient plank road using mechanical analysis with precision 3D data of current heritage site is proposed. Firstly, an aero photogrammetry with multiple view images from Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) imaging system is presented to obtain the 3D point cloud of ancient plank roads, which adopts a density image matching and aerial triangulation processing. In addition, a terrestrial laser scanner is integrated to obtain detail 3D data of the plank road. Secondly, a mechanical analysis method based on the precision 3D data of the current plank roads is proposed to determine their forms and restore each of their components with detail sizes. Finally, all components and background scene were added to the existing model to obtain a virtual restoration model, which indicates that it is effective and feasible to achieve a three-dimensional digital and virtual restoration of ancient sites. The Chiya Plank Road is taken as a virtual restoration example with the proposed approach. The restored 3D model of the ancient plank can be widely used for digital management, research, and visualization of ancient plank roads.