R. CHIABRANDO, G.

GARNERO Universit di Torino Istituto di Topografia e Costruzioni Rurali

The photogrammetric plotting of the Holy Shroud Chapel: determination and development of the datum surfaces
1. Summary In the study of complex architectures the question is the definition of a convenient datum surface, on which the fundamental architectural lines are to be projected. For each structure it is necessary to define the elementary solid to be used as a datum, to define its geometrical parameters, which allow to carry out its measurement and, finally, by using methods taken from cartographic sciences, to create the most suitable systems for the projection and the representation of the whole of the collected points. In view of the geometry articulation forming the making up plan of the Holy Shroud Chapel in Turin (designed by Guarino Guarini, architect), in the study of its photogrammetric plotting the problems concerning the straight circular cylinder and the ellipsoid of rotation have been solved by creating a special software. This software determines, basing on the least squares, the best interpolating surface and so it projects and develops the collected points on it. The results achieved allow to assert that the tested method can represent the starting point of further studies, which will have to allow it to be used for most geometries. 2. The concept of datum surface for architectures survey. In almost every case present photogrammetric measurement procedures for monuments now make use of analytic instrumentations. The result of plotting operations is therefore a whole of tridimensional points which, if suitably connected to each other by linear elements by means of topological information, represent the architectural details of the object. That's to say that from the plotting instrument a directly tridimensional pattern arises, which can be imported into a CAD system, by means of which it is possible to enter various options. The most interesting options are: editing of graphic entities to allow correction of possible plotting mistakes rotation of the object, so that it can be observed in axonometry according to appropriate view angles the execution of "wire frame" type perspectives or, through the reconstruction of the faces and the application of the original material characteristics, the definition of realistic visualizations through shading and rendering algorithms of the objects. By making use of appropriate video-graphical terminals the operator observes the pattern in its wholeness; he modifies the position of the view point in an interactive way and he also creates very beautiful visualizations which, however, might sometimes prove scarcely usable for the solution of technical problems. In the applications used for the documentation, the cataloguing and for the other restoration forms of the architectures it is necessary to create a complete documentary support, which allows the operators to proceed in carrying out the most various operations, as, for example, the identification of the fundamental architectural shapes, the determination of the degenerative phenomena in progress, the definition of various interventions in project with the necessary calculations of the concerned surfaces.

That's why it is necessary to go from the tridimensional pattern having potentialities which can easily be reached only by using a computer, to a range of more practical paper drawings, which can immediately be used by most operators. Theoretical bases of descriptive geometry and the necessity of obtaining scarcely deformed visualizations often lead to an intuitive unambiguous definition of the datum surfaces to be used for the execution of the various graphical works in the studies concerning buildings with a prevailing prismatic configuration: the whole of the flat surfaces defining the building makes up the base, on which the projection operations of the architectural elements defining the various prospects (Picture 1) are carried out.
Z

Picture 1: definition of the prospects in a prismatic building

On the contrary this definition seems to be much more difficult if the building subject of the representation is a complex whole of geometrical shapes or if it can somehow be compared to curve surfaces. In this case it is the concept of prospect itself, which cannot be easily defined, as it requires not only the use of a limited datum planes whole, on which the architectural lines projections are to be carried out, but also the creation of other datum surfaces, on which one has to operate with concepts based on cartographic projections and/or representations. All this in order to create a support that can easily be interpreted. In the drawing up of the map of a certain territory portion, the position of the typical elements of the ground is obtained as the projection of the physical surface points on an appropriate datum surface, which geodesy allows to identify in different ways (geoid, ellipsoid, local sphere, topographic plane), depending on the precision wished and on the extension of the territory portion to be realized, and in the development of this surface on a cartographic plane. In the drawing up of a building "cartography" the geometry characterising the structure usually allows an unambiguous typology definition (prism, cylinder, cone, sphere, ellipsoid, etc.) of the datum surface to be used. Instead the determination of the parameters defining it is not so unambiguous: for example, in the case of a cylindrical tower, it would be theoretically possible to think, as a datum surface for the representation, about the surface of the inner parameter and that of the outer parameter or also any surface included in the building thickness or passing through any characteristical point. The possibility of using various datum surfaces obviously involves the execution of different works and so the necessity of defining the procedures suitable to find less subjective solutions. As the tridimensional coordinates of the plotted points are available on mass memory, it is possible to carry out appropriate processings able to chose the most suitable datum surface, to project the collected points onto it and to develop the result onto the representation plane. 2

3. Suggested procedure The problem of objectively determining the parameters defining a datum surface of a given typology can be strictly set off by looking for the closest solution to an important whole of points belonging to the object. With this procedure the building elements themselves determine the surface, which the projection is going to be carried out on.

Choice of the type of the datum surface

Definition of the analytical expressions of the surfaces

Projection of all the points

Developments

Picture 2: general organization of the procedure

In Picture 2 a procedure assumption is schematized. It is based on the following steps: the choice of the surface to be used can be usually made in an intuitive way, directly observing the object. Sometimes it may be necessary to take more than one surface in consideration, as it happens, for example, in the case of buildings which can be compared to a hemispherical dome on a cylindrical base, etc. the definition of the analytic expression of the datum surface is made according to the coordinates of the plotted points. The surface to be chosen it the closest one to the whole of the points or, in other words, the interpolating surface can be represented by a certain whole or by all of the plotted points projection of all the points collected on the datum surface development on the plane of the achieved representation. To determine the datum surface equation it is necessary to use as many points as possible, so that the resulting surface really represents the whole object. Still the surface must be as close as possible to the zone where the highest density of collected points is available. The above conditions can be easily followed by "weighing" the equations forming the system at the least squares, so that the equations corresponding to the closest points to a certain ideal surface make the bigger contribution to the definition of the surface itself, according to the most distant points. 3

In this survey the following calculation approach has been used: a system is set off, in which the unknown values are the coefficients defining the unknown surface equation; this system has to be solved with the help of the least squares method. This is why the equations which can be written are, of course, many (as many as the plotted points) compared to the quantity of unknown values (3 for the cylinder, 4 for the sphere, 5 for the ellipsoid, etc.) the operator gives approximate parameters (centre and radius of the cylinder or of the sphere; centre, biggest semi-axis and flattening of the ellipsoid, etc), by means of which the coefficients of the first approximation surface equation are calculated. a first calculation iteration is executed. Here, starting from the coordinates of each plotted point, an equation is written and normalized; all equations have a unit weight from the solution of the system the unknown coefficients are obtained. They, if suitably interpreted, supply the new surface parameters, which go into the subsequent iteration as new approximate values. The single equations weights are assumed as equal to the inverse of the square of the distance of the point from the existing datum surface, with the necessary adjustments, thanks to which the "infinite weight" for null distances can be avoided. These weights are also assumed by eliminating too distant points, which can be considered as not connected to the surface to be determined (Picture 3) the procedure ends after a convenient iterations number, which is normally kept equal to 5, even if the solution settles within the first 2 or 3 iterations.
Points with low weight equation

Points with high weight equation

Picture 3: weight of equations are assumed as equal to the inverse of the square of the distance

Once the datum surface is known, it is possible to project on it all the collected points and, therefore, to carry out the development on the plane, through the necessary representations. In order to carry out this survey the cases of the straight circular cylinder and of the ellipsoid of rotation have been thoroughly analyzed. The following pages report about the relating formulas.

3.1 Straight circular cylinder: self-calibration In the case the building is comparable to a circular cylinder, the analytic expression is to be found in the whole of the equations complete in second grade and 3 dimensions, for a total of 10 parameters. If the cylinder axis is, as often happens in architectures, vertical or if it can be considered as such, the equation becomes much easier and it is as follows:
X 2 + Y 2 + a1 X + a 2 Y + a 3 = 0 with 3 parameters only. 4

The determination of the surface, which better approaches a whole of points belonging to a cylindrical surface, can be lead to the calculation of the equation of a straight circular cylinder, whose equation is as close as possible to the given whole of points. In mathematics all this corresponds to the setting off of a system where the unknown values are made up by the parameters of the general cylinder equation (a1, a2, a3); the great quantity of equations which can be written (as many as the available points), compared to the number of the unknown values (in this case 3), makes it necessary to solve the problem with the least squares: the surface to be found must be a surface for which the distances between the searched surface and the whole of the given points keep to a minimum condition. The equation is already linear in the unknown values (a1, a2, a3); so the system could be set off without the need of any linearization of the equations. In order to have an homogeneity with that which will be made for the other surfaces, also in the case of the cylinder the equation has been linearized and the following coefficients have been obtained: f f f = Xi ; = Yi ; =1 a1 a 2 a 3

t n = ( X i2 + Yi 2 + a1( 0) X i + a 2 ( 0) Yi + a 3( 0) )
Once the system is solved at the least squares, by means of the procedures usually used for topographic problems, the results are interpreted as follows: a X0 = 1 2 a Y0 = 2 2

R=

2 X 0 + Y02 a 3

Here X0 and Y0 represent the coordinates of the cylinder centre and R its radius. The special software allows the operator to check, iteration after iteration, the calculation, by evaluating the values presently used for cylinder centre and radius, the number of the points possibly cut off because of their being too distant from the approximate surface, the lowest, medium and highest cylindrical height (like the distance between the cylinder assumed as datum surface and the point) and other geometrical parameters.

3.2 Straight circular cylinder: development Developing a whole of lines drawn on a cylindrical surface is quite easy, the cylinder being a surface with simple curving and, as a consequence, it can be developed without causing deformations on the drawn lines. Through an appropriate transfer, it is convenient to make the datum system origin correspond to the cylinder centre coordinates, obtained during the self-calibration phase. In this way it is possible to obtain the developed XS, YS coordinates and the cylindrical height Q from the X, Y, Z cartesian coordinates, through: X S = R * atn( X / Y ) YS = Z
Q= X 2 +Y2 R

3.3 Ellipsoid of rotation: self-calibration On the contrary it is much more complicated to treat the ellipsoid, both because of calibration problems and of its development. Analogies with geodetic and cartographic
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topics are to be taken into consideration. First of all it is to be underlined that the following work refers to the ellipsoid, but it is obviously possible to consider the sphere as a particular case of the ellipsoid, as it can be treated as an ellipsoid with equal axis and, therefore, null flattening. The canonic equation of an ellipsoid of rotation can be written as follows: X 2 + Y2 Z2 + 2 =1 a2 c Here a and c are respectively the equatorial and the polar semi-axes . By introducing the X0, Y0, Z0 unknown values, deriving from the ellipsoid centre position, and the eccentricity defined by: c = a (1 ) the following equation is obtained: 2Z 0 1 1 + ( X 02 + Y02 + X 2 +Y2 + Z 2 2 X 0 X 2Y0 Y Z 02 a 2 ) = 0 2 2 2 (1 ) (1 ) (1 ) By transforming it into an easier one, such as: X 2 + Y 2 + a1 Z 2 + a 2 X + a 3Y + a 4 Z + a 5 = 0 the coefficients for the linearization of the equation for each single point are as follows:

f a1 f a 2 f a 3 f a 4 f a5

= Zi

= Xi = Yi = Zi =1
2 2 2

t n = ( X i + Yi + a1( 0) Z i + a 2 ( 0) X i + a 3( 0) Yi + a 4 ( 0) Z i + a 5( 0) )
From the solution of the system, which has been executed in analogy with the case of the cylinder, the geometrical parameters of the ellipsoid are obtained according to: = 1 a1
a2 2 a3 Y0 = 2 a4 Z0 = 2 X0 = a= Z 02 X +Y + a5 (1 ) 2
2 0 2 0

Weighing each single equation becomes a quite complex problem, as it is necessary to calculate, for each equation, the distance of the point from the existing ellipsoidal surface (ellipsoidal height of the point). To evaluate this height it is necessary to take a meridian ellipse into consideration, obtained as a section according to the meridians of the given ellipsoid: the foot of the perpendicular of the ellipsoid, drawn from the outer point of the xP, yP coordinates, is obtained as intersection between the meridian ellipse equation and the so-called Apollonio Hyperbola (Picture 4): x2 y2 + =1 a 2 b2 t 2 xy + b 2 y P x a 2 x P y = 0 which gives up to 4 real solutions. The discussion of the resulting solution, which is obviously execute automatically, supplies the coordinates of the projection of the point given on the meridian ellipse. From here it is easy to obtain the coordinates of the point, which is considered to belong to the ellipsoid and, therefore, to evaluate the height as a distance between the given point and its projection.
Y

Picture 4: Apollonio Hyperbola

3.4 Ellipsoid of rotation: development The development of an ellipsoidal surface on the plane still keeps generations of cartographers busy. During the centuries many solutions have been worked out to solve the problem of obtaining cartographies introducing acceptable deformations, and which could be used for various applications. Without making analysis which are not included in the goals of this paper, it is however worth noticing how each adopted different projection or representation type introduces growing deformations with the size of the territory portion and how, in order to avoid this difficulty, cartographic systems usually limit the drawn area by using representations, which are connected to each other. The lunes of the U.T.M. representation are an example. When architectures are to be surveyed, which can be compared to spherical or ellipsoidal surfaces, the need to create representations of the object introducing acceptable deformations disagrees with the necessity of examining a relevant portion of the building

(the generally small bending radii considered), so that the view of the whole is not lost and to allow a clear perception of the object in the development too. If the involved object is remarkably concentrated in the polar zones, a projection type, which is similar to those usually called polar projections (orthographic, scenographic, stereographic, etc.), could be a simple method to obtain the required representation. If this feature is not there, it is thought that a good system to obtain the development of ellipsoidal surfaces could be quite similar to the one used in U.T.M. world cartography. According to this system the ellipsoid surface is developed in accordance with a series of cylinders, which are rotated the one according to the others and which surround a given portion in longitude (Picture 5 and 6).

Picture 5: a cartographic example: the Gauss representation for Europe, Asian and Africa

Picture 6: schematic representation of the development of an ellipsoidal surface

The calculation of the developed coordinates starts also when the ellipsoid has translated of the datum axes origin, which is made coincide with the ellipsoid centre coordinates, known thanks to the self-calibration procedure.
Z N P

Picture 7: meridian ellipse

Each point is then projected, by means of the procedure described in the previous paragraph, onto the ellipsoid and, from here, with reference to Picture 7, the ellipsoidal coordinates and are obtained:

 = atn
r= tg =

X Y

X 2 +Y2 Z c2 r a2

The passage from the geographical coordinates , to the corresponding cartographical coordinates XS, YS of the development takes place according to the survey concerning the Gauss map. However it is necessary to note that some of the calculation simplifications concerning the terrestrial ellipsoid cannot be used in architectures, as the earth is characterized by a very low flattening value, while it is possible to have even remarkable values in architectures. By introducing: c2 e2 = 1 2 a 2 e 2 = cos 2 2 1 e it is possible to obtain, for a generic point belonging to the ellipsoid, the main bending radii and N: a (1 e 2 ) = (1 e 2 sen 2 ) 3/ 2 a N= 2 (1 e sen 2 ) 1/ 2 Starting from here and suitably considering the subdivision in lunes, the developed coordinates are directly obtained according to:

X S = N cos + YS = d +
0

3
6

N cos 3 (1 tg 2 + 2 ) +

5
120

N cos5 (5 18tg 2 + tg 4 ) +...

2
2

N sen cos +

4
24

N sen cos 3 + (5 tg 2 + 9 2 + 4 4 ) +...

To solve the integral in the expression of YS different solutions are available in the literature. These solutions are however optimized for flattening values which are near to zero. For this reason it has been considered necessary to calculate the integral by means of numerical integration methods.

4. The Holy Shroud Chapel in Turin To the Holy Shroud the Savoia gave a particular devotion since 1452, when they came into possession of it after Countess Margherita Charny gave it to them as a feudal present. At the beginning the Sheet was put in a chapel in Chambery, where in 1532 it was damaged by the fire which caused the very clear burns on it. After Turin became the capital city of the dukedom, Emanuele Filiberto, who wished to have it in Turin, too, had it moved with the declared intention of shortening the hard pilgrimage of St. Carlo Borromeo, Archbishop of Milan, who had vowed to go and venerate the relic on foot. It arrived in Turin on September 15th in 1578 and it was first put in the ducal palace. Then it was moved to the near old Church of St. Lorenzo.
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Emanuele Filiberto already wanted to build a church which, besides being a prestigious place for the relic, could be its sepulchre, but the studies for the building only started with Carlo Emanuele I, who entrusted Carlo di Castellamonte, and with Carlo Emanuele II, who contacted Amedeo di Castellamonte first and Bernardino Quadri then. The building works started in 1655 according to the plan of Bernardino Quadri. When in 1666 the Theatine Abbot Guarino Guarini, a good court astronomer and engineer, replaces Bernardino Quadri as planner of the Chapel, he is already bound by some elements: the circular plan, the position, which had to be elevated to the noble level of the Palace (perhaps already in the expectation of the building works of the western wing, which took place about thirty years after) and a certain quantity of Frabosa black marble, part of which had already been used there. Its position, to the ends of the Cathedral and adjoining the King's flat, made that place a supreme connection between the two supreme powers of that world and made the Savoia the high, devoted guardians of the most important christian relic. The portals giving access to the stairs connecting it with the Cathedral, decorated with unusual anthropomorphic sculptures, are surmounted by windows which lead the inner luminosity of the Cathedral onto the extradosses of the rampant vaults. These vaults are empty in given areas and, therefore, they send an indirect, indefinite light onto the round big stairs. The convexity of the steps reflects the curving of the little circular temples that give access to the Chapel. These vestibules, transition elements between stairs and main room, divide the central space perimeter into three similar stretches. They penetrate into this central space for one third of their circumference and create an architectural symbology, where number three is the repeated element. The two completely vestibules, those towards the big stairs connecting with the Cathedral, are articulated by groups made up of three columns, that are connected to each other by segmental arches that draw an equilateral triangle. In the main room the walls are built with black marble, as the stairs are. They are scanned by a major order of nine pilaster strips with corinthian bronze capitals, with a crown of thorns and by a minor order of little columns identical to those of the little temples, which have three wood loggias with balustrade on the emerging side. From six pilaster strips the three big arches, inclined inwards, start. Also these arches, projected onto plane, make up an equilateral triangle. Between each arch three big pendentives that are inclined forward, draw the ring which ends up the so-called "earthly part". Guarini's introvert personality found expression in a number of structural, constituent paradoxes characterising the lower part of the monument, the one which mostly looks funerary: the pilaster strips, all of which are exactly the same, do not have all the same statical function, as only some support the big arches standing above, while the others are unloaded the pendentives, usually used to go from a square space to a circular one, are now used as transition elements between two circular spaces big circular windows that are introduced both in the pendentives and in the arches give the idea that both elements have the same function the connecting cornices seem broken, so that the openings above the small loggias are obtained the plastic decorations on the big arches are made in the arab style; the elastic ones of the pendentives show the Borrominian style (intrados of St. Carlino dome in Rome). The upper part is much more well-ordered: it is an extraordinary crescendo of order and luminosity and exactly for this reason it is called "celestial part". The drum is made up of 11

six high, strong, big arch-shaped windows, among which the piers are situated. These piers follow the niches of the borrominian tabernacles. The windows crowning acts as springer for one of the most famous Guarini's inventions: a ring of small arches is repeated in high for six times, with a staggered shape and a quicker and quicker rhythm, in such a way that a series of hexagons is produced in plan. Statically these small arches only connect the really supporting elements, i.e. the twelve vertical ribs crossing the covering and characterising the external view. Matt grey marble has been skilfully used and accurate optical-geometrical details lead to sensations of endless distance, of lightness, suspension and of luminous progression of the dome, at the end of which the golden wood sunburst, that is violently lit against the light by the oval skylight turret windows, frames the Spirit Dove, which makes up the vertical axis at the base of the work, together with the relic underneath.

5. Photogrammetric survey of the Holy Shroud Chapel Thanks to the cooperation with the company CIRT in Turin, entrusted by the "Soprintendenza per i Beni Ambientali e Architettonici del Piemonte" (Service for environmental and architectural goods) to measure the Chapel after the urgent restoration works made necessary by the collapse of some stone elements, the above described method and software have been tested. The control operation (angular measures made with the help of a Wild T2 theodolite and direct measures made by means of a metallic tape) have allowed to have a quite big quantity of points available, where to control each photogramm made with a metric U.M.K. camera by Zeiss Jena having a main distance of 99.14 mm. The plotting has been carried out with an Digicart 20 analytic plotter by Officine Galileo and the tridimensional coordinates of the collected points, suitably coded, have been registered for the following processings. The software has been created in Quick Basic 4.5 language in MS-DOS and it allowed to process the great quantity of plotted points (about 34000 points) and to identify the following surfaces: first cylinder: from the floor up to the lower cornice of the pendentives first ellipsoid: up to the terminal ring of the earthly part second cylinder: up to the cornice above the small temples of the drum, including the big windows belonging to the cylindrical surface second ellipsoid: from the crownings of the big windows to the terminal ring of the dome. The geometrical features of the datum surfaces are shortly shown in Table 1 and graphically in Picture 8. The data allow to make some remarks. The first and most obvious is that examining the section one can see how the intersection between the two ellipsoids, the one belonging to the earthly part with crosses and stars decorations on it and the one belonging to the celestial part made up of the small arches dome, is almost perfectly on the level of the ring, which ends the earthly part. Is this simply a coincidence or a new, amazing symbology of the mathematician-astronomer, sign of the experience of death and birth in the new Life? Once the datum surfaces had been defined it was possible to project the whole of the plotted points onto them. As for the cylinders it is not necessary to make any other remark, while for the ellipsoids it was necessary to solve the problem regarding the number of the lunes, which had to make up the whole of the surfaces needed for the development. After having analized the various solutions by means of analytic evaluation of the induced deformation modules, it became clear how the six lunes could be adequate and

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substantially follow the geometrical approach of the building, which can be easily and adequately divided according to this number. The procedure final output is made up with a file in DXF format, which allows to immediately bring the coordinates of the developed points and the concerning topological connectings directly into AutoCAD environment. Starting from this environment it was possible to finish the plotting editing and to carry out the drawing. The results obtained and the quite simple procedure used considered, it seems interesting going on with the experimentation on other monumental goods, in order both to get their metrically correct documentation and to analytically verify the plan hypothesis, according to which great architects have worked in our country.

- Dimensional features 1st order CYLINDER Bending radius Springer height Terminal height Equatorial semi-axis Centre height Flattening Springer height Terminal height Bending radius Springer height Terminal height Equatorial semi-axis Centre height Flattening Springer height Terminal height R Zl Zh a Zc Zl Zh R Zl Zh a Zc Zl Zh 9.42 0.00 13.26 9.45 12.65 -0.523 13.28 20.43 7.62 20.43 29.55 8.05 24.62 -0.986 29.55 40.61

ELLIPSOID

2nd order

CYLINDER

ELLIPSOID

- Surfaces projected onto the datum surface 1st order Stone surface Windows and door frames surface Stone surface Windows and door frames surface m m m m 1107.49 166.04 692.59 117.18

2nd order

Table 1: measured sizes in the Holy Shroud Chapel

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40.61

32.70 29.55

24.62

20.43

12.65

13.28

0.00

Picture 8: schematic representation of the section

6. Bibliography
INGHILLERI, G.: Topografia generale, UTET, Torino, 1974. DEQUAL, S.: Due nuovi aspetti del rilievo fotogrammetrico dei monumenti: prese con camere non metriche e restituzione su superfici non piane, Bollettino della SIFET, 2/88. FONDELLI, M.: Trattato di fotogrammetria urbana e architettonica, Editori Laterza, Bari, 1992. BORGI, A.: La progettualit nella ricerca architettonica di Guarino Guarini, Tesi di Laurea Facolt di Architettura del Politecnico di Torino, A. A. 1992-93.

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