Weighted Spherical Sampling of Point Clouds for Forested Scenes

Abstract

Terrestrial laser scanning systems are characterized by a sampling pattern which varies in point density across the hemisphere. Additionally, close objects are over-sampled relative to objects that are farther away. These two effects compound to potentially bias the three-dimensional statistics of measured scenes. Previous methods of sampling have resulted in a loss of structural coherence. In this article, a method of sampling is proposed to optimally sample points while preserving the structure of a scene. Points are sampled along a spherical coordinate system, with probabilities modulated by elevation angle and squared distance from the origin. The proposed approach is validated through visual comparison and stem-volume assessment in a challenging mangrove forest in Micronesia. Compared to several well-known sampling techniques, the proposed approach reduces sampling bias and shows strong performance in stem-reconstruction measurement. The proposed sampling method matched or exceeded the stem-volume measurement accuracy across a variety of tested decimation levels. On average it achieved 3.0% higher accuracy at estimating stem volume than the closest competitor. This approach shows promise for improving the evaluation of terrestrial laser-scanning data in complex scenes.