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Djedi Project

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The Djedi Project is intended to explore the interior of the Great Pyramid of Giza and pyramid Temple 20 at Palenque. The project team is made up of international and Egyptian experts. The name derived from Djedi, the ancient Egyptian magician consulted by Pharaoh Khufu when planning his famous pyramid. As Dr. Zahi Hawass announced on his blog: "The purpose of this project is to send a robotic tunnel explorer into the two “air shafts” that lead from the Queen's Chamber of the Great Pyramid of Khufu to gather evidence to determine the purpose of the shafts."

Contents

The team is managed by University of Leeds and supported by Dassault Systemes in France.

A detailed report of the project can be found on the web.

Team members

The team includes:

  • Ng Tze Chuen (Hong Kong), independent researcher
  • Shaun Whitehead (UK), independent researcher, Scoutek
  • Robert Richardson (UK), Professor of Robotics, School of Mechanical Engineering, University of Leeds, UK
  • Ron Grieve (Canada), from Tekron Services, Canada
  • Other key team members are Andrew Pickering, Stephen Rhodes, Adrian Hildred, Jason Liu and William Mayfield.

    • The team has made preliminary studies of the airshafts in July and December 2009, and continued its work in 2011.

    Equipment

    Details of the Djedi Team Robot:

  • "Pinhole camera" that can fit through small spaces and see around corners like an endoscope
  • A miniaturised ultrasonic device that can tap on walls and listen to the response to help determine the thickness and condition of the stone
  • A miniature "beetle" robot that can fit through a hole of 20mm diameter for further exploration in confined spaces
  • Precision compass and inclinometer to measure the orientation of the shafts
  • A core drill that can penetrate the second blocking stone (if necessary and feasible) while removing the minimum amount of material necessary

    • Results

    Small red markings were found inside the room. Also, the back of the door was filmed, which showed 2 metal handles.

    Work on the project was published in the Journal of Field Robotics. The publication covers the development of the robotic system and includes photographs taken of markings within the shafts.

    References

    Djedi Project Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA