Single Scanner BLS System for Forest Plot Mapping

The 3-D information collected from sample plots is significant for forest inventories. Terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) has been demonstrated to be an effective device in data acquisition of plots. Although TLS able achieve precise measurements, multiple scans are usually necessary collect more detailed data, which generally requires time scan preparation and field acquisition. In contrast, mobile (MLS) being increasingly utilized mapping due its mobility. However, the geometrical peculiarity forests introduces challenges. this article, a test backpack-based MLS system, i.e., backpack (BLS), designed plot without global navigation satellite system/inertial measurement unit (GNSS-IMU) system. To accurate matching, article proposes combine line point features calculating transformation, feature derived trunk skeletons. Then, scan-to-map matching strategy proposed correcting positional drift. Finally, evaluates effectiveness accuracy method experimental results indicate that achieves using BLS; meanwhile, compared existing methods, utilizes geometric attributes trees reaches lower error, mean errors root square horizontal/vertical direction less than 3 cm.