scholarly journals ESTIMATION OF TREE POSITION AND STEM DIAMETER USING SIMULTANEOUS LOCALIZATION AND MAPPING WITH DATA FROM A BACKPACK-MOUNTED LASER SCANNER

Author(s):  
J. Holmgren ◽  
H. M. Tulldahl ◽  
J. Nordlöf ◽  
M. Nyström ◽  
K. Olofsson ◽  
...  

A system was developed for automatic estimations of tree positions and stem diameters. The sensor trajectory was first estimated using a positioning system that consists of a low precision inertial measurement unit supported by image matching with data from a stereo-camera. The initial estimation of the sensor trajectory was then calibrated by adjustments of the sensor pose using the laser scanner data. Special features suitable for forest environments were used to solve the correspondence and matching problems. Tree stem diameters were estimated for stem sections using laser data from individual scanner rotations and were then used for calibration of the sensor pose. A segmentation algorithm was used to associate stem sections to individual tree stems. The stem diameter estimates of all stem sections associated to the same tree stem were then combined for estimation of stem diameter at breast height (DBH). The system was validated on four 20 m radius circular plots and manual measured trees were automatically linked to trees detected in laser data. The DBH could be estimated with a RMSE of 19 mm (6 %) and a bias of 8 mm (3 %). The calibrated sensor trajectory and the combined use of circle fits from individual scanner rotations made it possible to obtain reliable DBH estimates also with a low precision positioning system.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Moritz Bruggisser ◽  
Johannes Otepka ◽  
Norbert Pfeifer ◽  
Markus Hollaus

<p>Unmanned aerial vehicles-borne laser scanning (ULS) allows time-efficient acquisition of high-resolution point clouds on regional extents at moderate costs. The quality of ULS-point clouds facilitates the 3D modelling of individual tree stems, what opens new possibilities in the context of forest monitoring and management. In our study, we developed and tested an algorithm which allows for i) the autonomous detection of potential stem locations within the point clouds, ii) the estimation of the diameter at breast height (DBH) and iii) the reconstruction of the tree stem. In our experiments on point clouds from both, a RIEGL miniVUX-1DL and a VUX-1UAV, respectively, we could detect 91.0 % and 77.6 % of the stems within our study area automatically. The DBH could be modelled with biases of 3.1 cm and 1.1 cm, respectively, from the two point cloud sets with respective detection rates of 80.6 % and 61.2 % of the trees present in the field inventory. The lowest 12 m of the tree stem could be reconstructed with absolute stem diameter differences below 5 cm and 2 cm, respectively, compared to stem diameters from a point cloud from terrestrial laser scanning. The accuracy of larger tree stems thereby was higher in general than the accuracy for smaller trees. Furthermore, we recognized a small influence only of the completeness with which a stem is covered with points, as long as half of the stem circumference was captured. Likewise, the absolute point count did not impact the accuracy, but, in contrast, was critical to the completeness with which a scene could be reconstructed. The precision of the laser scanner, on the other hand, was a key factor for the accuracy of the stem diameter estimation. <br>The findings of this study are highly relevant for the flight planning and the sensor selection of future ULS acquisition missions in the context of forest inventories.</p>


2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (23) ◽  
pp. 2781 ◽  
Author(s):  
Johan Holmgren ◽  
Michael Tulldahl ◽  
Jonas Nordlöf ◽  
Erik Willén ◽  
Håkan Olsson

Mobile laser scanning (MLS) could make forest inventories more efficient, by using algorithms that automatically derive tree stem center positions and stem diameters. In this work we present a novel method for calibration of the position for laser returns based on tree spines derived from laser data. A first calibration of positions was made for sequential laser scans and further calibrations of laser returns were possible after segmentation, in which laser returns were associated to individual tree stems. The segmentation made it possible to model tree stem spines (i.e., center line of tree stems). Assumptions of coherent tree spine positions were used for correcting laser return positions on the tree stems, thereby improving estimation of stem profiles (i.e., stem diameters at different heights from the ground level). The method was validated on six 20-m radius field plots. Stem diameters were estimated with a Root-Mean-Square-Error (RMSE) of 1 cm for safely linked trees (maximum link distance of 0.5 m) and with a restriction of a minimum amount of data from height intervals for supporting circle estimates. The accuracy was high for plot level estimates of basal area-weighted mean stem diameter (relative RMSE 3.4%) and basal area (relative RMSE 8.5%) because of little influence of small trees (i.e., aggregation of individual trees). The spine calibration made it possible to derive 3D stem profiles also from 3D laser data calculated from sensor positions with large errors because of disturbed below canopy signals from global navigation satellite systems.


Sensors ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (7) ◽  
pp. 1742 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chuang Qian ◽  
Hongjuan Zhang ◽  
Jian Tang ◽  
Bijun Li ◽  
Hui Liu

An indoor map is a piece of infrastructure associated with location-based services. Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM)-based mobile mapping is an efficient method to construct an indoor map. This paper proposes an SLAM algorithm based on a laser scanner and an Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) for 2D indoor mapping. A grid-based occupancy likelihood map is chosen as the map representation method and is built from all previous scans. Scan-to-map matching is utilized to find the optimal rigid-body transformation in order to avoid the accumulation of matching errors. Map generation and update are probabilistically motivated. According to the assumption that the orthogonal is the main feature of indoor environments, we propose a lightweight segment extraction method, based on the orthogonal blurred segments (OBS) method. Instead of calculating the parameters of segments, we give the scan points contained in blurred segments a greater weight during the construction of the grid-based occupancy likelihood map, which we call the orthogonal feature weighted occupancy likelihood map (OWOLM). The OWOLM enhances the occupancy likelihood map by fusing the orthogonal features. It can filter out noise scan points, produced by objects, such as glass cabinets and bookcases. Experiments were carried out in a library, which is a representative indoor environment, consisting of orthogonal features. The experimental result proves that, compared with the general occupancy likelihood map, the OWOLM can effectively reduce accumulated errors and construct a clearer indoor map.


Sensors ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (18) ◽  
pp. 4025 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaosu Xu ◽  
Xinghua Liu ◽  
Beichen Zhao ◽  
Bo Yang

In this paper, an extensible positioning system for mobile robots is proposed. The system includes a stereo camera module, inertial measurement unit (IMU) and an ultra-wideband (UWB) network which includes five anchors, one of which is with the unknown position. The anchors in the positioning system are without requirements of communication between UWB anchors and without requirements of clock synchronization of the anchors. By locating the mobile robot using the original system, and then estimating the position of a new anchor using the ranging between the mobile robot and the new anchor, the system can be extended after adding the new anchor into the original system. In an unfamiliar environment (such as fire and other rescue sites), it is able to locate the mobile robot after extending itself. To add the new anchor into the positioning system, a recursive least squares (RLS) approach is used to estimate the position of the new anchor. A maximum correntropy Kalman filter (MCKF) which is based on the maximum correntropy criterion (MCC) is used to fuse data from the UWB network and IMU. The initial attitude of the mobile robot relative to the navigation frame is calculated though comparing position vectors given by a visual simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) system and the UWB system respectively. As shown in the experiment section, the root mean square error (RMSE) of the positioning result given by the proposed positioning system with all anchors is 0.130 m. In the unfamiliar environment, the RMSE is 0.131 m which is close to the RMSE (0.137 m) given by the original system with a difference of 0.006 m. Besides, the RMSE based on Euler distance of the new anchor is 0.061 m.


Buildings ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (9) ◽  
pp. 386
Author(s):  
Aino Keitaanniemi ◽  
Juho-Pekka Virtanen ◽  
Petri Rönnholm ◽  
Antero Kukko ◽  
Toni Rantanen ◽  
...  

An efficient 3D survey of a complex indoor environment remains a challenging task, especially if the accuracy requirements for the geometric data are high for instance in building information modeling (BIM) or construction. The registration of non-overlapping terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) point clouds is laborious. We propose a novel indoor mapping strategy that uses a simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) laser scanner (LS) to support the building-scale registration of non-overlapping TLS point clouds in order to reconstruct comprehensive building floor/3D maps. This strategy improves efficiency since it allows georeferenced TLS data to only be collected from those parts of the building that require such accuracy. The rest of the building is measured with SLAM LS accuracy. Based on the results of the case study, the introduced method can locate non-overlapping TLS point clouds with an accuracy of 18–51 mm using target sphere comparison.


Sensors ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (9) ◽  
pp. 2896
Author(s):  
Pratham Singh ◽  
Michael Esposito ◽  
Zach Barrons ◽  
Christian A. Clermont ◽  
John Wannop ◽  
...  

One possible modality to profile gait speed and stride length includes using wearable technologies. Wearable technology using global positioning system (GPS) receivers may not be a feasible means to measure gait speed. An alternative may include a local positioning system (LPS). Considering that LPS wearables are not good at determining gait events such as heel strikes, applying sensor fusion with an inertial measurement unit (IMU) may be beneficial. Speed and stride length determined from an ultrawide bandwidth LPS equipped with an IMU were compared to video motion capture (i.e., the “gold standard”) as the criterion standard. Ninety participants performed trials at three self-selected walk, run and sprint speeds. After processing location, speed and acceleration data from the measurement systems, speed between the last five meters and stride length in the last stride of the trial were analyzed. Small biases and strong positive intraclass correlations (0.9–1.0) between the LPS and “the gold standard” were found. The significance of the study is that the LPS can be a valid method to determine speed and stride length. Variability of speed and stride length can be reduced when exploring data processing methods that can better extract speed and stride length measurements.


Author(s):  
Hospice A. Akpo ◽  
Gilbert Atindogbé ◽  
Maxwell C. Obiakara ◽  
Arios B. Adjinanoukon ◽  
Madaï Gbedolo ◽  
...  

AbstractRecent applications of digital photogrammetry in forestry have highlighted its utility as a viable mensuration technique. However, in tropical regions little research has been done on the accuracy of this approach for stem volume calculation. In this study, the performance of Structure from Motion photogrammetry for estimating individual tree stem volume in relation to traditional approaches was evaluated. We selected 30 trees from five savanna species growing at the periphery of the W National Park in northern Benin and measured their circumferences at different heights using traditional tape and clinometer. Stem volumes of sample trees were estimated from the measured circumferences using nine volumetric formulae for solids of revolution, including cylinder, cone, paraboloid, neiloid and their respective fustrums. Each tree was photographed and stem volume determined using a taper function derived from tri-dimensional stem models. This reference volume was compared with the results of formulaic estimations. Tree stem profiles were further decomposed into different portions, approximately corresponding to the stump, butt logs and logs, and the suitability of each solid of revolution was assessed for simulating the resulting shapes. Stem volumes calculated using the fustrums of paraboloid and neiloid formulae were the closest to reference volumes with a bias and root mean square error of 8.0% and 24.4%, respectively. Stems closely resembled fustrums of a paraboloid and a neiloid. Individual stem portions assumed different solids as follows: fustrums of paraboloid and neiloid were more prevalent from the stump to breast height, while a paraboloid closely matched stem shapes beyond this point. Therefore, a more accurate stem volumetric estimate was attained when stems were considered as a composite of at least three geometric solids.


Sensors ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (9) ◽  
pp. 2004 ◽  
Author(s):  
Linlin Xia ◽  
Qingyu Meng ◽  
Deru Chi ◽  
Bo Meng ◽  
Hanrui Yang

The development and maturation of simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) in robotics opens the door to the application of a visual inertial odometry (VIO) to the robot navigation system. For a patrol robot with no available Global Positioning System (GPS) support, the embedded VIO components, which are generally composed of an Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) and a camera, fuse the inertial recursion with SLAM calculation tasks, and enable the robot to estimate its location within a map. The highlights of the optimized VIO design lie in the simplified VIO initialization strategy as well as the fused point and line feature-matching based method for efficient pose estimates in the front-end. With a tightly-coupled VIO anatomy, the system state is explicitly expressed in a vector and further estimated by the state estimator. The consequent problems associated with the data association, state optimization, sliding window and timestamp alignment in the back-end are discussed in detail. The dataset tests and real substation scene tests are conducted, and the experimental results indicate that the proposed VIO can realize the accurate pose estimation with a favorable initializing efficiency and eminent map representations as expected in concerned environments. The proposed VIO design can therefore be recognized as a preferred tool reference for a class of visual and inertial SLAM application domains preceded by no external location reference support hypothesis.


Robotica ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 29 (6) ◽  
pp. 805-814 ◽  
Author(s):  
Farhad Aghili

SUMMARYThis paper investigates 3-dimensional (3D) Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) and the corresponding observability analysis by fusing data from landmark sensors and a strap-down Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) in an adaptive Kalman filter (KF). In addition to the vehicle's states and landmark positions, the self-tuning filter estimates the IMU calibration parameters as well as the covariance of the measurement noise. The discrete-time covariance matrix of the process noise, the state transition matrix and the observation sensitivity matrix are derived in closed form, making it suitable for real-time implementation. Examination of the observability of the 3D SLAM system leads to the the conclusion that the system remains observable, provided that at least three known landmarks, which are not placed in a straight line, are observed.


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