Abstract
The possibility to estimate the vegetation cover rate of rice plants using the laser scanner measurement over the rice plants was examined. The vegetation cover rate and 3D point cloud data of rice plants were acquired during the growing stage in the test field. In order to examine a new method without the detection process of the ground, the rice plant's crown was determined by the 3D point cloud data. The observation point density corresponding to the laser pulse incidence depth below the rice plant's crown was calculated from the 3D point cloud data. The vegetation cover rate was compared with the laser pulse penetration depth. As a result, the laser pulse incidence depth was a good parameter to estimate the vegetation cover rate.In this study, the estimation error was 3% using the laser pulse incidence depth at 90% of the accumulated observation point density below the rice plant's crown.
