Pompeii, RePAIR The research project for the reassembly of fragmented frescoes using an “intelligent robot” comes to an end

Pompeii, RePAIR
The research project for the reassembly of fragmented frescoes using an “intelligent robot” comes to an end

Research and experimentation in Pompeii between archaeology, artificial intelligence and computer vision

Pompeii (Italy), 27 November 2025 – The research project RePAIR (Reconstructing the Past: Artificial Intelligence and Robotics Meet Cultural Heritage), funded by the European Union, is coming to an end and is presenting its main results: the creation of a robotic infrastructure guided by artificial intelligence and the use of algorithms to reassemble fragmented Pompeian frescoes like a “puzzle”. The entire prototype was validated through initial experimental tests conducted on-site at the Archaeological Park of Pompeii, demonstrating that robotics and artificial intelligence may, in the future, facilitate the work of archaeologists.

The research focused on two iconic examples of large frescoes belonging to the world’s cultural heritage, which are currently in a fragmentary state and preserved in the storerooms of the Archaeological Park of Pompeii. These are the ceiling frescoes from rooms in the House of the Painters at Work in the Insula of the Chaste Lovers, damaged during the eruption of AD 79 and later shattered by bombing during the Second World War, and the frescoes of the Schola Armaturarum, which collapsed in 2010 and are still partially unassembled.

In the first case, a group of experts in wall paintings from the University of Lausanne, led by Professor Michel E. Fuchs, had already been working on the context since 2018 with a study and manual reassembly programme, with whom the RePAIR researchers engaged in dialogue.

Launched in September 2021, the project was coordinated by University of Venice Ca’ Foscari and involved universities and research institutes across Europe and Italy, including the Italian Institute of Technology (IIT) and the Archaeological Park of Pompeii, which hosted and provided the experimental testing ground for the project. International partners included the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (Israel), the Associacao do Instituto Superior Tecnico Para a Investigacao e Desenvolvimento (Portugal), and the Rheinische Friedrich Wilhelms Universität Bonn (Germany). The project received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under Grant Agreement No. 964854. https://www.repairproject.eu/

“After four years of work, the European RePAIR project has come to an end — an international collaboration bringing together seemingly distant worlds: the most advanced techniques in artificial intelligence and robotics with archaeology and the preservation of cultural heritage, a shared legacy of humankind. It represents a first, pioneering step toward an ambitious goal: eliminating one of the most laborious and frustrating activities in archaeological research, thus allowing precious energy and expertise to be channeled into activities that are more strictly scientific and creative,” comments Marcello Pelillo, Professor at University of Venice and project coordinator.

The robotic infrastructure has been installed in the Casina Rustica, a state-owned building within the Archaeological Park of Pompeii that has been restored and repurposed to house the necessary technological equipment.

While the robotics teams were responsible for designing and building the system, experts in artificial intelligence and machine learning developed and defined algorithms for reassembling the frescoes.

To study and further preserve the artefacts, the research group also created artificial replicas of the fragments after their digitalization, so that the robotic system could manipulate non-authentic pieces during testing phases.

“After acquiring and digitalizing images of the individual fragments, the system attempts to solve the ‘puzzle’, and the solution found is sent to the hardware platform which, using two robotic arms equipped with ‘soft hands’, automatically places the fragments in the desired position. This is an extremely complex puzzle, made up of hundreds or thousands of fragments that are often worn or severely damaged, without knowing in advance what the result should look like,” explains Prof. Pelillo. “In other words, the image on the box that would guide the work is missing. Moreover, the recovered pieces often represent only a portion of the original work, making large or numerous gaps in the reconstruction inevitable. To complicate matters further, establishing their actual provenance is difficult, since fragments from different works are frequently mixed together. To tackle this formidable problem, we used sophisticated artificial intelligence techniques and developed an interface that allows archaeologists to interact with the system.”

“The future of archaeology presupposes the ethically sound use of artificial intelligence. It is a great challenge,” says the Director of the Archaeological Park, Gabriel Zuchtriegel. “Reassembling the immense quantity of fragments — such as those damaged during the bombing of Pompeii in 1943 — should be possible thanks to the distinctive shape and decoration of each element. But no human being could accomplish this alone. This is where artificial intelligence comes into play, helping us address the complexity of archaeological materials, and it will have a central role in archaeology in the future, especially considering the vast amounts of data emerging from preventive archaeology excavations at worksites across Italy. However, shared skills and values are needed to ensure AI is used in a scientifically and ethically correct manner, and Pompeii is contributing to this global development.”