Mobile terrestrial laser scanner applications in precision fruticulture/ horticulture and tools to extract information from canopy point clouds

LiDAR sensors are widely used in many areas and, in recent years, that includes agricultural tasks. In this work, a self-developed mobile terrestrial laser scanner based on a 2D light detection and ranging (LiDAR) sensor was used to scan an intensive olive orchard, and different algorithms were deve...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Escolà i Agustí, Alexandre, Martínez Casasnovas, José Antonio, Rufat i Lamarca, Josep, Arnó Satorra, Jaume, Arbonés, Amadeu, Sebé Feixas, Francesc, Pascual Roca, Miquel, Gregorio López, Eduard, Rosell Polo, Joan Ramon
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión aceptada para publicación
Fecha de publicación:2017
País:España
Institución:Varias* (Consorci de Biblioteques Universitáries de Catalunya, Centre de Serveis Científics i Acadèmics de Catalunya)
Repositorio:Recercat. Dipósit de la Recerca de Catalunya
OAI Identifier:oai:recercat.cat:10459.1/62753
Acceso en línea:https://doi.org/10.1007/s11119-016-9474-5
http://hdl.handle.net/10459.1/62753
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:LiDAR
Canopy modelling
Precision Fructiculture
Olive orchard
Mobile terrestrial laser scanner
Descripción
Sumario:LiDAR sensors are widely used in many areas and, in recent years, that includes agricultural tasks. In this work, a self-developed mobile terrestrial laser scanner based on a 2D light detection and ranging (LiDAR) sensor was used to scan an intensive olive orchard, and different algorithms were developed to estimate canopy volume. Canopy volume estimations derived from LiDAR sensor readings were compared to conventional estimations used in fruticulture/horticulture research and the results prove that they are equivalent with coefficients of correlation ranging from r = 0.56 to r = 0.82 depending on the algorithms used. Additionally, tools related to analysis of point cloud data from the LiDAR-based system are proposed to extract further geometrical and structural information from tree row crop canopies to be offered to farmers and technical advisors as digital raster maps. Having high spatial resolution information on canopy geometry (i.e., height, width and volume) and on canopy structure (i.e., light penetrability, leafiness and porosity) may result in better orchard management decisions. Easily obtainable, reliable information on canopy geometry and structure may favour the development of decision support systems either for irrigation, fertilization or canopy management, as well as for variable rate application of agricultural inputs in the framework of precision fruticulture/horticulture.