Mobile laser scanning (MLS) is widely used in the mapping of forest environments. It has become important for extracting the parameters of forest trees using the generated environmental map. In this study, a three-dimensional point cloud map of a forest area was generated by using the Velodyne VLP-16 LiDAR system, so as to extract the diameter at breast height (DBH) of individual trees. The Velodyne VLP-16 LiDAR system and inertial measurement units (IMU) were used to construct a mobile measurement platform for generating 3D point cloud maps for forest areas. The 3D point cloud map in the forest area was processed offline, and the ground point cloud was removed by the random sample consensus (RANSAC) algorithm. The trees in the experimental area were segmented by the European clustering algorithm, and the DBH component of the tree point cloud was extracted and projected onto a 2D plane, fitting the DBH of the trees using the RANSAC algorithm in the plane. A three-dimensional point cloud map of 71 trees was generated in the experimental area, and estimated the DBH. The mean and variance of the absolute error were 0.43 cm and 0.50, respectively. The relative error of the whole was 2.27%, the corresponding variance was 15.09, and the root mean square error (RMSE) was 0.70 cm. The experimental results were good and met the requirements of forestry mapping, and the application value and significance were presented.
In order to investigate the cutting mechanical characteristics of Caragana Korshinskii (C.K.) branches and explore the optimal combination of cutting parameters to support the subsequent equipment development, this paper explores the relationship between branch diameter D, average cutting speed v, wedge angle β, slip cutting angle α, cutting height h, cutting gap t, moisture content M and peak cutting force by using a homemade swing-cut branch cutting test bench with peak cutting force of branches as the target value under unsupported and supported cutting methods, respectively, through single-factor tests. Based on the single-factor test, v, β, α and t were selected as the test factors, and a multi-factor test was conducted with the peak cutting force as the target. Test result: The best combination of unsupported cutting in the range of multi-factor test is v for 3.315 m·s−1, β for 20°, α for 20°, when the peak cutting force is 95.690 N. Supported cutting multi-factor test range to get the best combination of v for 3.36 m·s−1, β for 20°, α for 20°, t for 1.38 mm, when the peak cutting force is 53.082 N. The errors of the predicted peak cutting force and the measured peak cutting force of the obtained model were 1.3% and 3.9%, respectively, which prove that the cutting parameters were optimized reliably. This research can provide a theoretical basis for subsequent development the C.K. harvesting equipment.
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