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

• Published in: Precision agriculture Vol. 18; no. 1; pp. 111 - 132
• Main Authors: Escolà, Alexandre, Martínez-Casasnovas, José A., Rufat, Josep, Arnó, Jaume, Arbonés, Amadeu, Sebé, Francesc, Pascual, Miquel, Gregorio, Eduard, Rosell-Polo, Joan R.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer US 01.02.2017; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Advisors; Agriculture; Algorithms; Artificial intelligence; Atmospheric Sciences; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Canopies; Chemistry and Earth Sciences; Computer Science; Crops; Data processing; Estimates; Forest management; Geometry; Horticulture; Irrigation; Irrigation systems; Lasers; Lidar; Life Sciences; Light; Management decisions; Olea; Orchards; Physics; Porosity; Remote Sensing/Photogrammetry; Scanners; Sensors; Soil Science & Conservation; Soil sciences; Statistics for Engineering; Trees; Unmanned aerial vehicles; Canopy modelling; Olive orchard; Precision fruticulture; Crop mapping; LiDAR; Mobile terrestrial laser scanner
• ISSN: 1385-2256; 1573-1618
• DOI: 10.1007/s11119-016-9474-5

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.