A UAV–RTK Lidar System for Wave and Tide Measurements in Coastal Zones

2018 ◽  
Vol 35 (8) ◽  
pp. 1557-1570 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhi-Cheng Huang ◽  
Cheng-Yang Yeh ◽  
Kuo-Hsin Tseng ◽  
Wen-Yang Hsu

AbstractA lightweight and low-cost unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) system for coastal wave and tide measurements is developed. This system is based on an assembly of a multirotor UAV, a robotic lidar, an altitude and heading reference system (AHRS), and a real-time kinematic (RTK) Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS). A great advantage of the system is that it can be operated at low altitude in a few meters; the accuracy and spatial resolution can therefore be increased. When the system was moved up and down in 2–12 m, the root-mean-square error (RMSE) was approximately 5 cm compared to the ground truth value measured by a manual RTK GNSS. The system was operated in a hover mode to measure the tide and waves in the field. The results of using the UAV–RTK lidar system were consistent with those of in situ measurements using a pressure sensor. The root-mean-square errors between the two techniques for measurements of tidal elevation, significant wave height, and wave period were 4.9 cm, 4.8 cm, and 0.028 s, respectively. This finding suggests the system could be applied to measure instantaneous sea surface displacement. The system provides the potential for using a low-cost, extremely portable, and efficient tool for monitoring wave properties, topographic changes, and water-level gradients in coastal zones.

Foods ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 885
Author(s):  
Sergio Ghidini ◽  
Luca Maria Chiesa ◽  
Sara Panseri ◽  
Maria Olga Varrà ◽  
Adriana Ianieri ◽  
...  

The present study was designed to investigate whether near infrared (NIR) spectroscopy with minimal sample processing could be a suitable technique to rapidly measure histamine levels in raw and processed tuna fish. Calibration models based on orthogonal partial least square regression (OPLSR) were built to predict histamine in the range 10–1000 mg kg−1 using the 1000–2500 nm NIR spectra of artificially-contaminated fish. The two models were then validated using a new set of naturally contaminated samples in which histamine content was determined by conventional high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) analysis. As for calibration results, coefficient of determination (r2) > 0.98, root mean square of estimation (RMSEE) ≤ 5 mg kg−1 and root mean square of cross-validation (RMSECV) ≤ 6 mg kg−1 were achieved. Both models were optimal also in the validation stage, showing r2 values > 0.97, root mean square errors of prediction (RMSEP) ≤ 10 mg kg−1 and relative range error (RER) ≥ 25, with better results showed by the model for processed fish. The promising results achieved suggest NIR spectroscopy as an implemental analytical solution in fish industries and markets to effectively determine histamine amounts.


Forests ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (8) ◽  
pp. 1020
Author(s):  
Yanqi Dong ◽  
Guangpeng Fan ◽  
Zhiwu Zhou ◽  
Jincheng Liu ◽  
Yongguo Wang ◽  
...  

The quantitative structure model (QSM) contains the branch geometry and attributes of the tree. AdQSM is a new, accurate, and detailed tree QSM. In this paper, an automatic modeling method based on AdQSM is developed, and a low-cost technical scheme of tree structure modeling is provided, so that AdQSM can be freely used by more people. First, we used two digital cameras to collect two-dimensional (2D) photos of trees and generated three-dimensional (3D) point clouds of plot and segmented individual tree from the plot point clouds. Then a new QSM-AdQSM was used to construct tree model from point clouds of 44 trees. Finally, to verify the effectiveness of our method, the diameter at breast height (DBH), tree height, and trunk volume were derived from the reconstructed tree model. These parameters extracted from AdQSM were compared with the reference values from forest inventory. For the DBH, the relative bias (rBias), root mean square error (RMSE), and coefficient of variation of root mean square error (rRMSE) were 4.26%, 1.93 cm, and 6.60%. For the tree height, the rBias, RMSE, and rRMSE were—10.86%, 1.67 m, and 12.34%. The determination coefficient (R2) of DBH and tree height estimated by AdQSM and the reference value were 0.94 and 0.86. We used the trunk volume calculated by the allometric equation as a reference value to test the accuracy of AdQSM. The trunk volume was estimated based on AdQSM, and its bias was 0.07066 m3, rBias was 18.73%, RMSE was 0.12369 m3, rRMSE was 32.78%. To better evaluate the accuracy of QSM’s reconstruction of the trunk volume, we compared AdQSM and TreeQSM in the same dataset. The bias of the trunk volume estimated based on TreeQSM was −0.05071 m3, and the rBias was −13.44%, RMSE was 0.13267 m3, rRMSE was 35.16%. At 95% confidence interval level, the concordance correlation coefficient (CCC = 0.77) of the agreement between the estimated tree trunk volume of AdQSM and the reference value was greater than that of TreeQSM (CCC = 0.60). The significance of this research is as follows: (1) The automatic modeling method based on AdQSM is developed, which expands the application scope of AdQSM; (2) provide low-cost photogrammetric point cloud as the input data of AdQSM; (3) explore the potential of AdQSM to reconstruct forest terrestrial photogrammetric point clouds.


Symmetry ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 23
Author(s):  
Yuping Li ◽  
Brady K. Quinn ◽  
Johan Gielis ◽  
Yirong Li ◽  
Peijian Shi

Many natural radial symmetrical shapes (e.g., sea stars) follow the Gielis equation (GE) or its twin equation (TGE). A supertriangle (three triangles arranged around a central polygon) represents such a shape, but no study has tested whether natural shapes can be represented as/are supertriangles or whether the GE or TGE can describe their shape. We collected 100 pieces of Koelreuteria paniculata fruit, which have a supertriangular shape, extracted the boundary coordinates for their vertical projections, and then fitted them with the GE and TGE. The adjusted root mean square errors (RMSEadj) of the two equations were always less than 0.08, and >70% were less than 0.05. For 57/100 fruit projections, the GE had a lower RMSEadj than the TGE, although overall differences in the goodness of fit were non-significant. However, the TGE produces more symmetrical shapes than the GE as the two parameters controlling the extent of symmetry in it are approximately equal. This work demonstrates that natural supertriangles exist, validates the use of the GE and TGE to model their shapes, and suggests that different complex radially symmetrical shapes can be generated by the same equation, implying that different types of biological symmetry may result from the same biophysical mechanisms.


Author(s):  
J. S. Okpoko ◽  
H. A. P. Audu

In this study, the prediction of the concentration of gaseous pollutants around Ughelli West gas flow station in Delta State of Nigeria was carried out using Geostatistical technique in GIS environment. Since air pollutants negatively affect quality of air, lives and the environment, there is therefore the need to frequently monitor air quality, have thorough understanding of the pollutants’ concentration and their spatial distribution in an environment. The gaseous pollutants data of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), methane (CH4), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), sulphur dioxide (SO2) and ozone (O3), were obtained using Multi-parameter gas monitor while that of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) was obtained with SPM meter for a period of three months. Thermo Anemometer was used to obtain the values of wind speed, ambient temperature, atmospheric pressure and relative humidity. Artificial Neural Network designer software (Pythia) was used to validate the acquired field data; predict the concentration of the gaseous pollutants at selected distances from the flow station. The geospatial coordinates of the flow station were obtained using Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) receivers; the geospatial modelling and analysis were performed with ArcGIS software and ordinary kriging method of Geostatistical techniques. The results of the maximum concentration for the gaseous pollutants in the study area were 28.17 µg/m3, 19.44 µg/m3, 0.37 µg/m3, 49.81 µg/m3, 0.061 µg/m3 and 0.047µg/m3 for VOCs, CH4, NO2, PM2.5, O3 and SO2 respectively. The root mean square error for the concentration of the gaseous pollutants, ozone and sulphur (IV) oxide in the study area were 0.01618 and 0.008417 indicating a good interpolation model, while their root mean square standard errors, which show the reliability of the predicted values, were 0.70513551 and 0.8459251 respectively. These results conform with the report of other researchers that a better kriging method yields a smaller root mean square and a standard root mean square closer to one. The developed prediction maps for the gaseous pollutants in this study revealed that the study area will experience lower concentration of gaseous pollutants at a distance of 400 m and above.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (17) ◽  
pp. 2671
Author(s):  
Carlo Scotto ◽  
Dario Sabbagh

A total of 4991 ionograms recorded from April 1997 to December 2017 by the Millstone Hill Digisonde (42.6°N, 288.5°E) were considered, with simultaneous Ne(h)[ISR] profiles recorded by the co-located Incoherent Scatter Radar (ISR). The entire ionogram dataset was scaled with both the Autoscala and ARTIST programs. The reliability of the hmF2 values obtained by ARTIST and Autoscala was assessed using the corresponding ISR values as a reference. Average errors Δ and the root mean square errors RMSE were computed for the whole dataset. Data analysis shows that both the Autoscala and ARTIST systems tend to underestimate hmF2 values with |Δ| in all cases less than 10 km. For high magnetic activity ARTIST offers better accuracy than Autoscala, as evidenced by RMSE[ARTIST] < RMSE[Autoscala], under both daytime and nighttime conditions, and considering all hours of the day. Conversely, under low and medium magnetic activity Autoscala tends to estimate hmF2 more accurately than the ARTIST system for both daytime and nighttime conditions, when RMSE[Autoscala] < RMSE[ARTIST]. However, RMSE[Autoscala] slightly exceeds RMSE[ARTIST] for the day as a whole. RMSE values are generally substantial (RMSE > 16 km in all cases), which places a limit on the results obtainable with real-time models that ingest ionosonde data.


2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (14) ◽  
pp. 1649 ◽  
Author(s):  
María Ángeles Obregón ◽  
Gonçalo Rodrigues ◽  
Maria Joao Costa ◽  
Miguel Potes ◽  
Ana Maria Silva

This study presents a validation of aerosol optical thickness (AOT) and integrated water vapour (IWV) products provided by the European Space Agency (ESA) from multi-spectral imager (MSI) measurements on board the Sentinel-2 satellite (ESA-L2A). For that purpose, data from 94 Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET) stations over Europe and adjacent regions, covering a wide geographical region with a variety of climate and environmental conditions and during the period between March 2017 and December 2018 have been used. The comparison between ESA-L2A and AERONET shows a better agreement for IWV than the AOT, with normalized root mean square errors (NRMSE) of 5.33% and 9.04%, respectively. This conclusion is also reflected in the values of R2, which are 0.99 and 0.65 for IWV and AOT, respectively. The study period was divided into two sub-periods, before and after 15 January 2018, when the Sentinel-2A spectral response functions of bands 1 and 2 (centered at 443 and 492 nm) were updated by ESA, in order to investigate if the lack of agreement in the AOT values was connected to the use of incorrect spectral response functions. The comparison of ESA-L2A AOT with AERONET measurements showed a better agreement for the second sub-period, with root mean square error (RMSE) values of 0.08 in comparison with 0.14 in the first sub-period. This same conclusion was attained considering mean bias error (MBE) values that decreased from 0.09 to 0.01. The ESA-L2A AOT values estimated with the new spectral response functions were closer to the correspondent reference AERONET values than the ones obtained using the previous spectral response functions. IWV was not affected by this change since the retrieval algorithm does not use bands 1 and 2 of Sentinel-2. Additionally, an analysis of potential uncertainty sources to several factors affecting the AOT comparison is presented and recommendations regarding the use of ESA-L2A AOT dataset are given.


Nanomaterials ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 107 ◽  
Author(s):  
Weisheng Yang ◽  
Liang Jiao ◽  
Wei Liu ◽  
Hongqi Dai

Traditionally, inorganic nanoparticles (SiO2, TiO2) have been utilized to tune the optical haze of optoelectronic devices. However, restricted to complex and costly processes for incorporating these nanoparticles, a simple and low-cost approach becomes particularly important. In this work, a simple, effective, and low-cost method was proposed to improve optical haze of transparent cellulose nanofibril films by directly depositing micro-sized 2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidine-1-oxyl (TEMPO)-oxidized wood fibers (“coating” method). The obtained films had a high total transmittance of 85% and a high haze of 62%. The film samples also showed a high tensile strength of 80 MPa and excellent thermal stability. Dual sides of the obtained films had different microstructures: one side was extremely smooth (root-mean-square roughness of 6.25 nm), and the other was extremely rough (root-mean-square roughness of 918 nm). As a reference, micro-sized TEMPO-oxidized wood fibers and cellulose nanofibrils were mixed to form a transparent and hazy film (“blending” method). These results show that hazy transparent films prepared using the “coating” method exhibit superior application performances than films prepared using the “blending” method.


2009 ◽  
Vol 21 (02) ◽  
pp. 81-88 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wensheng Hou ◽  
Xiaolin Zheng ◽  
Yingtao Jiang ◽  
Jun Zheng ◽  
Chenglin Peng ◽  
...  

Force production involves the coordination of multiple muscles, and the produced force levels can be attributed to the electrophysiology activities of those related muscles. This study is designed to explore the activity modes of extensor carpi radialis longus (ECRL) using surface electromyography (sEMG) at the presence of different handgrip force levels. We attempt to compare the performance of both the linear and nonlinear models for estimating handgrip forces. To achieve this goal, a pseudo-random sequence of handgrip tasks with well controlled force ranges is defined for calibration. Eight subjects (all university students, five males, and three females) have been recruited to conduct both calibration and voluntary trials. In each trial, sEMG signals have been acquired and preprocessed with Root–Mean–Square (RMS) method. The preprocessed signals are then normalized with amplitude value of Maximum Voluntary Contraction (MVC)-related sEMG. With the sEMG data from calibration trials, three models, Linear, Power, and Logarithmic, are developed to correlate the handgrip force output with the sEMG activities of ECRL. These three models are subsequently employed to estimate the handgrip force production of voluntary trials. For different models, the Root–Mean–Square–Errors (RMSEs) of the estimated force output for all the voluntary trials are statistically compared in different force ranges. The results show that the three models have different performance in different force ranges. Linear model is suitable for moderate force level (30%–50% MVC), whereas a nonlinear model is more accurate in the weak force level (Power model, 10%–30% MVC) or the strong force level (Logarithmic model, 50%–80% MVC).


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (8) ◽  
pp. 1349 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaobin Xu ◽  
Cong Teng ◽  
Yu Zhao ◽  
Ying Du ◽  
Chunqi Zhao ◽  
...  

Industrialization production with high quality and effect on winter is an important measure for accelerating the shift from increasing agricultural production to improving quality in terms of grain protein content (GPC). Remote sensing technology achieved the GPC prediction. However, large deviations in interannual expansion and regional transfer still exist. The present experiment was carried out in wheat producing areas of Beijing (BJ), Renqiu (RQ), Quzhou, and Jinzhou in Hebei Province. First, the spectral consistency of Landsat 8 Operational Land Imager (LS8) and RapidEye (RE) was compared with Sentinel-2 (S2) satellites at the same ground point in the same period. The GPC prediction model was constructed by coupling the vegetation index with the meteorological data obtained by the European Center for Medium-range Weather Forecasts using hierarchical linear model (HLM) method. The prediction and spatial expansion of regional GPC were validated. Results were as follows: (1) Spectral information calculated from S2 imagery were highly consistent with LS8 (R2 = 1.00) and RE (R2 = 0.99) imagery, which could be jointly used for GPC modeling. (2) The predicted GPC by using the HLM method (R2 = 0.524) demonstrated higher accuracy than the empirical linear model (R2 = 0.286) and showed higher improvements across inter-annual and regional scales. (3) The GPC prediction results of the verification samples in RQ, BJ, Xiaotangshan (XTS) in 2018, and XTS in 2019 were ideal with root mean square errors of 0.61%, 1.13%, 0.91%, and 0.38%, and relative root mean square error of 4.11%, 6.83%, 6.41%, and 2.58%, respectively. This study has great application potential for regional and inter-annual quality prediction.


2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (6) ◽  
pp. 2481-2499 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sébastien Le clec'h ◽  
Aurélien Quiquet ◽  
Sylvie Charbit ◽  
Christophe Dumas ◽  
Masa Kageyama ◽  
...  

Abstract. Providing reliable projections of the ice sheet contribution to future sea-level rise has become one of the main challenges of the ice sheet modelling community. To increase confidence in future projections, a good knowledge of the present-day state of ice flow dynamics, which is critically dependent on basal conditions, is strongly needed. The main difficulty is tied to the scarcity of observations at the ice–bed interface at the scale of the whole ice sheet, resulting in poorly constrained parameterisations in ice sheet models. To circumvent this drawback, inverse modelling approaches can be developed to infer initial conditions for ice sheet models that best reproduce available data. Most often such approaches allow for a good representation of the mean present-day state of the ice sheet but are accompanied with unphysical trends. Here, we present an initialisation method for the Greenland ice sheet using the thermo-mechanical hybrid GRISLI (GRenoble Ice Shelf and Land Ice) ice sheet model. Our approach is based on the adjustment of the basal drag coefficient that relates the sliding velocities at the ice–bed interface to basal shear stress in unfrozen bed areas. This method relies on an iterative process in which the basal drag is periodically adjusted in such a way that the simulated ice thickness matches the observed one. The quality of the method is assessed by computing the root mean square errors in ice thickness changes. Because the method is based on an adjustment of the sliding velocities only, the results are discussed in terms of varying ice flow enhancement factors that control the deformation rates. We show that this factor has a strong impact on the minimisation of ice thickness errors and has to be chosen as a function of the internal thermal state of the ice sheet (e.g. a low enhancement factor for a warm ice sheet). While the method performance slightly increases with the duration of the minimisation procedure, an ice thickness root mean square error (RMSE) of 50.3 m is obtained in only 1320 model years. This highlights a rapid convergence and demonstrates that the method can be used for computationally expensive ice sheet models.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document