Development of a LiDAR-guided section-based tree canopy density measurement system for precision spray applications

An unmanned ground-based canopy density measurement system to support precision spraying in apple orchards was developed to precisely apply pesticides to orchard canopies. The automated measurement system was comprised of a light detection and ranging (LiDAR) sensor, an interface box for data transmission, and a laptop computer. A data processing and analysis algorithm was developed to measure point cloud indices from the LiDAR sensor to describe the distribution of tree canopy density within four sections according to the position of the trellis wires. Experiments were conducted in two orchard sites, one with GoldRush (larger trees) and the other one with Fuji (smaller trees) apple trees. Tree leaves were counted manually from each section separated by trellis wires. Field evaluation results showed a strong correlation of 0.95 (R2 = 89.30%) between point cloud data and number of leaves for the Fuji block and a correlation of 0.82 (R2 = 67.16%) was obtained for the GoldRush block. A strong correlation of 0.98 (R2 = 95.90%) was achieved in the relationship between canopy volume and number of leaves. Finally, a canopy density map was generated to provide a graphical view of the tree canopy density in different sections. Since accurate canopy density information was computed, it is anticipated that the developed prototype system can guide the sprayer unit for reducing excessive pesticide use in orchards.

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Work Title Development of a LiDAR-guided section-based tree canopy density measurement system for precision spray applications
Access
Open Access
Creators
  1. Md Sultan Mahmud
  2. Azlan Zahid
  3. Long He
  4. Daeun Choi
  5. Grzegorz Krawczyk
  6. Heping Zhu
  7. Paul Heinemann
License CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 (Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives)
Work Type Article
Publisher
  1. Computers and Electronics in Agriculture
Publication Date March 1, 2021
Publisher Identifier (DOI)
  1. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compag.2021.106053
Deposited November 15, 2021

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Version 1
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  • Created
  • Added Tree_Canopy_Density_Measurement_final.pdf
  • Added Creator Md Sultan Mahmud
  • Added Creator Azlan Zahid
  • Added Creator Long He
  • Added Creator Daeun Choi
  • Added Creator Grzegorz Krawczyk
  • Added Creator Heping Zhu
  • Added Creator Paul Heinemann
  • Published
  • Updated
  • Updated
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