Apple orchard inventory with a LiDAR equipped unmanned aerial system

Abstract

Knowledge about the number of trees in an orchard and their geometric parameters is beneficial in precise farming and together with other information may be used to predict the yield. These parameters can be obtained based on time-consuming field measurements or more effectively, from very high resolution 3D data collected with Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV). Numerous UAV experiments have been conducted in agricultural areas; however, most of studies are limited to the use of a passive optical sensor (camera). This study demonstrates an experiment on the novel remote sensing approach of determining selected geometric parameters of trees in an apple orchard, based on a high-density point cloud obtained from a Velodyne HDL-32E laser scanner mounted on a small UAV platform Leica Aibot X6 V2. Reference data of selected geometric parameters of trees was obtained from orthophotomap and with geodetic surveying methods. Original and robust methodology is proposed for the point cloud processing, which is the inventive combination of an alpha-shape algorithm, principal component analysis and detection of local minima on crown profiles. The developed approach allowed for the correct identification of 99% of the trees in the test orchard. The root mean square error of determined crown areas was equal to 0.98 m2. The accuracy of tree top identification, tree height and crown base height determination was equal to 0.38, 0.09 and 0.09 m, respectively.