Development of a Laser Scanner for Measuring Tree Canopy Characteristics: Phase 1. Prototype Development

Automatically measuring canopy characteristics is an essential step for tree-specific management of a grove. Alaser scanning system and corresponding algorithms were developed for potential use in measurement of tree canopy height,width, and volume. Tests with fixed-length PVC pipes demonstrated that the system had accuracies of 97% for length measurementsin three perpendicular directions with coefficients of variation (CV) less than 4%. Volume measurement of a rectangularbox gave a CV of 5.4% and a relative error of 4.4%. Spatial resolution of the system was estimated to be smaller than6.0 cm (horizontal) 1.9 cm (vertical) for potential field applications.