Application of 3D Laser Scanner to Forest Measurement

Abstract

Laser sensor has been developed to become portable to obtain 3D data efficiently. In forest application, 3D data derived by laser is getting more common as forest measuring technique. For global coverage, satellite laser sensor has been utilized and will be installed to monitor global forest change from international space station near the future. The problems caused by the current satellite laser sensor can be solved by new technologies like photon-counting laser with low energy and small beam divergence (higher ground resolution). For detail structure of trees, terrestrial laser sensor has been utilized. Recent terrestrial laser technology includes multi-spectral or hyper-spectral lasers to classify 3D points between leaves and branches simultaneously when the data is taken. This paper explains the current status of laser sensor development and shows the future direction of sensor usage in application of forest measurement.